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These days, when traveling for WNBA<\/a> coverage or big women\u2019s college basketball games, a conversation with the Uber or Lyft driver may touch on the event.<\/p>\n To my surprise the dialogue often extends to my 40-plus years at The Inquirer, which culminated in the spring of 2010. The driver, especially if they\u2019re knowledgeable of sports, may ask, what is your name? <\/p>\n When given, the immediate response might be Oh, I\u2019ve read your stuff, or Yeah, I know you. You\u2019re a legend!<\/p>\n Similar discourse may occur if I\u2019m writing the overnight roundup for my blog on my iPad in a restaurant or sports bar.<\/p>\n And perhaps I shouldn\u2019t be shocked when recognition comes up in Connecticut when covering the dynasty built by Norristown<\/a>\u2019s Geno Auriemma.<\/p>\n These are moments that would not have occurred long ago.<\/p>\n In fact, I might have mentioned employment at The Inquirer, but with little or no reference to women\u2019s hoops, since those once involved with the sport were a limited sect of participants and other media, covering their own teams.<\/p>\n So now it\u2019s the 50th anniversary<\/a> of the Associated Press women\u2019s basketball poll, begun by yours truly at The Inquirer.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Born in The Inquirer\u2019s newsroom, the AP women\u2019s basketball poll \u2018has stood the test of time\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Since there are now lots of years of involvement that include lots of tales along the way, many have urged me to author a book.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no book yet, but what follows are moments along the way to becoming the trip lever to a sport now heavily attended and watched by millions on TV.<\/p>\n My interest in journalism in my formative years and time as a manager for the Temple<\/a> men\u2019s basketball team \u2014 in the heyday of the Big 5 when the Owls won the 1969 NIT \u2014 were backgrounds when applying for a copy boy slot at the paper down Broad Street, which a few days later turned into a promotion to an editorial clerk on the business page.<\/p>\n The thought of being in sports was nonexistent then since in those days beats were held by longtime veterans.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s the fall of 1975, and the late Jay Searcy becomes sports editor. He\u2019d been writing a women\u2019s column at the New York Times and was very aware of Immaculata, which was winning national titles, and he asks me to basically create the women\u2019s beat.<\/p>\n A formal role on the writing staff came much later. My \u201cday job\u201d was in other duties, which is its own tale.<\/p>\n I used to joke with women\u2019s basketball coaching legend C. Vivian Stringer<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m like you. I teach gym and coach, and all they\u2019re interested in is make sure l\u2019m on time in the morning for gym class.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: How Inquirer staffer Mel Greenberg\u2019s poll changed women\u2019s college basketball forever | Claire Smith<\/a><\/p>\n But of course, pioneering a beat had its luxury.<\/p>\n When time came to start the poll, I used the way presidential elections were covered on TV, making knowledgeable sources in the nine regions of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which governed women\u2019s sports before the NCAA took over.<\/p>\n Ed Jaworski, then the media contact for Queens College in New York, was my go-to.<\/p>\n He was so thrilled in the first month of the poll that he wrote a piece for Editor & Publisher, the weekly bible for newsroom executives, that became a two-page center spread under the headline \u201cYou May Ask, What is The Greenberg Poll,\u201d which was a stunner to The Inquirer\u2019s bosses when the edition arrived on their desks.<\/p>\n What the poll did initially, as I said at the time, was give teams an identity. That created an early impact: The day after Texas hosted Stephen F. Austin, now a top-five contest, a call came from the Lone Star State telling of the massive crowd at the annual game.<\/p>\n When I\u2019d make calls in the early days, they\u2019d start like, \u201cHi, my name is Mel Greenberg,\u201d \u201cWho?\u201d \u201cAt The Philadelphia Inquirer.\u201d That quickly evolved to a Hey, how are you doing? before I could finish my introduction.<\/p>\n In the spring of 1976, Penn State<\/a> was hosting the AIAW\u2019s 16-team national finals.<\/p>\n In spending hours writing a preview, I thought, If I\u2019m going to get into this, I\u2019m doing it for every writer coming after me who won\u2019t go through the same agony.<\/p>\n This is still in the last stages in the world of typewriters.<\/p>\n I added my own top 20 and noted four key potential upsets in the first round.<\/p>\n That night, a call came from State College. All four had happened.<\/p>\n I thought, this is fun but if I\u2019m going to do a poll, I need someone to blame it on \u2014 hence coaches because there wasn\u2019t enough media to be weekly voters.<\/p>\n Five weeks into that first season, I wasn\u2019t keeping records, which caused the late N.C. State coach Kay Yow to call and lecture me, saying I\u2019m going to be the keeper of history moving forward.<\/p>\n Fortunately, a double floppy disc software program called Reflex came along. Those original files from me have migrated into thousands of lines on spreadsheets of Microsoft Excel that enable to note that this week, No. 901 in Year 50, UConn\u2019s Auriemma passed retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer with 655 appearances. His Huskies have been ranked a record 622 consecutive weeks dating to preseason 1993-94, a year before their first national title season. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: What\u2019s it like to face one of Geno Auriemma\u2019s UConn teams? Ask Villanova\u2019s Denise Dillon.<\/a><\/p>\n Two years into the rankings, the Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association urged the AP to start running the poll, which began the relationship, with my name attached, and appearing with stories in papers across the nation.<\/p>\n I once told coaches in the early days to be patient. Newsroom executives are getting younger and have daughters in athletics.<\/p>\n Things took a dramatic turn internally when Gene Foreman, our No. 2 in the newsroom, said his daughter, a swimmer at Virginia, also was going to be a trainer on the women\u2019s basketball team, where she and North Philly native Dawn Staley<\/a> became friends. <\/p>\n Soon, the nicknames started, mainly Mr. Women\u2019s Basketball, but soon enough to Women\u2019s Hoops Guru, the name of my blog, and just when in person, simply Guru.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Unrivaled\u2019s Philadelphia spectacle delivers not just a big crowd, but a profitable one<\/a><\/p>\n I recently noted when accepting a special achievement award from the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association at the annual dinner, like Woody Allen in the movie Zelig being at many moments in world history, l\u2019m the equivalent in women\u2019s hoops.<\/p>\n I helped in the AIAW evolve the tournament into a Final Four format for better media and public understanding; together with retired St. Joseph\u2019s<\/a> coach Jim Foster and retired Villanova<\/a> coach Harry Perretta, helped formalize women\u2019s Big 5 play; saw the launch of ESPN and the WNBA; and remained deeply involved in the coming of NCAA women\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n