The women's teams competing for the University of Arkansas (sometimes referred to colloquially as the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks, or Lady'Backs), refers to any of the women's sports teams that competes officially for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. The term Lady'Backs evolved over time as newspaper editors would shorten the mascot name. It was adopted by the Women's Athletics Department for secondary usage in 1991. (It is a deliberate contraction — always with the apostrophe between the two parts and a capital "B".) While many university sports teams have dropped the "Lady" portion of their nickname, it remains at the University of Arkansas as a marketing tool to emphasize the separate identity of the women's program. The Women's Athletics Department was formed at the University of Arkansas in 1971–1972, but merged with the Men's Athletics Department on January 1, 2008 to create one athletic department, much like the structure which most universities in the United States employ. Bev Lewis, who was the women's athletics director at the time of the merger, still heads women's programs in the unified structure.
For the 2007–2008 academic year, the University sponsors 11 varsity women's teams that compete in NCAA Division I. The Lady'Back "A" logo is the official logo for the Women's Athletics Department, but teams also employ the traditional University Razorback on uniforms.
Read more about Arkansas Lady Razorbacks: Famous Athletes
Famous quotes containing the words arkansas and/or lady:
“...I am who I am because I’m a black female.... When I was health director in Arkansas ... I could talk about teen-age pregnancy, about poverty, ignorance and enslavement and how the white power structure had imposed it—only because I was a black female. I mean, black people would have eaten up a white male who said what I did.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“I declare, on my soul and conscience, that the attainment of power, or of a great name in literature, seemed to me an easier victory than a success with some young, witty, and gracious lady of high degree.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)