"Lady Hoopsters is as slick as a swish. Author Linda Ford weaves the tandem history of two evolutions: women's basketball from the artificial restraints of corseted long dresses and high-heeled shoes to the unstructured freedom of today's emancipated athletes mixing it up on the court. . . . Lady Hoopsters is a scholarly work that read as easily as Sports Illustrated. Generously footnoted, more than 100 years of women's basketball is chronicled. A runaway popular game from its beginning, only relatively recently has the media caught on to what enthusiastic fans have known all along: female athletes generate good box office. . . Whalebones and play limitations are history. Girl ball to girl jock has come a long way (baby)." - The Women's Times, Springfield, MA
"Girl Ball or Basketball: which should women play? The answer has evolved since 1892 and Linda Ford traces those changes in the context of U.S. women's rights. . . . While covering the decline of AAU influence, the rise of NCAA domination of collegiate basketball, and the several attempts at women's professional basketball, Ford discusses the attitudes of the media, as in a television reporter stating that women athletes began "as normal little girls" who "got sidetracked," or in NBC's decision to concentrate on the feminine sports (gymnastics) to the exclusion of sweaty team sports (soccer and softball) in their Olympic coverage in 1996. . . . Ford relied on revealing interviews with Orwell Moore (coach of the Red Heads), Nancy Lieberman-Cline, and Carol Blazejowski and on previously published materials. Included are tables detailing the rules changes from Naismith's original rules through 1977 revisions and the evolution of governing bodies from 1888 to 1982. Students of the game will find these tables valuable." - Mark Lewis, about.com
"Linda Ford has been a sports fan for as long as she can remember. Later, she added 'history professor.' Considering her passions, she always wondered why she couldn't find a history of women's basketball in America. . . . Ford focuses on the struggle of 'the lady vs. the athlete' in Lady Hoopsters, when the 'feminine' social standards of the time clashed with the physical exertions involved with the sport. . . . 'What I ended up finding out was that women who wanted to be athletes really had barriers to cross,' Ford said." - Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA