Chance also played a big role in the article’s success. The cover of the magazine piece published on April 18th, 1993 showed Jen and Jamila in a sweaty embrace in a dingy locker room in a photo taken by Monica Almeida, and the image itself redefined how women athletes were pictured.
The Hurricanes rode a cultural wave: before Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon, an eager audience of women and men had been waiting to applaud the accomplishments of female athletes. No longer would the physical prowess of women only be compared to what men could do. Instead, they were seen on their own terms, as specimens of grace and strength. When under pressure, they were capable of physics-defying superhuman feats, regardless of gender. They were athletes, pure and simple. The question for me was never “Why this team?” but rather “Why not this team?”
Someone once said writers either write about the world as it is or about the world as they wish it to be. During a cold stretch in a dreary winter that might otherwise have been forgotten, anyone who had the chance to watch these young women play witnessed the world in reality and in fantasy. They were one and the same. The truth really was the dream.
Amherst, Massachusetts
Spring 2017
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle Page 27