Chicago Hustle

The Chicago Hustle were by far the most successful team in the short-live Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL). The Hustle played in all three seasons that the league survived for from 1978-81.  Their only title would come in the first year where they won the division but they would attract thousands of fans to Alumni Hall in Chicago each season, including almost 8,000 to their inaugural home opener on December 9, 1978. That year, guard Rita Easterling would win MVP honors. The team didn’t have the same success in their final two seasons, but would still be a box office success. Eventually, it became clear that despite the Hustle’s success they could not escape the woes of the WBL. In 1981, before a game in Chicago, the Minnesota Fillies refused to take the court because of missed payroll. The league would fold after the 1980-81 season and take the Hustle with it.