It wasn’t long after the 1891 invention of basketball that women were playing in Columbus. Early photos show the Central High School girls team posing for a photo in 1897. Newspaper reports at the time tell of them facing off against other local schools through the early 1900s. In 1903, after beating East High School by a single point, Central turned down a rematch. East used space in The Columbus Evening Dispatch to make their request public!

Nearly 100 years after that, a Columbus woman would make hoops history. On December 21, 1984, Georgeann Wells became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA game. The Northland High School grad did it playing for the for West Virginia Mountaineers in a game vs. the University of Charleston. Here’s a news story with a video of the historic slam.

It took another 10 years for the next woman to dunk in a college game when Charlotte Smith studded one for UNC. As of 2024, only ten women can say they’ve dunked in an NCAA game.

Wells went onto earn All-American honors twice and is a member of the WVU Sports Hall of Fame. On this edition of World Basketball Day – celebrated on December 21 – we salute Georgeann Wells for leveling up the game.

Learn more about the history of women’s sports in Columbus here.