It Took Eighty Years, But the TIME IS NOW!

If you are reading this because I am writing it, I don’t believe you.  If you know of my journey in developing software, businesses, and mentoring talent in the sports industry, you might be asking:

“Rick, why do you care about Let’s Fantasy Game?”

Welp…it’s about my MOM.  It is about her lifelong battle for gender equality.

My mother grew up in New York in the 1940s as a devout Dodgers fan.  Nightly, she listened to Red Barber on the radio and scored the games.  In high school, they called her “Brooklyn.”  She told me of her ANGER that sports for girls in high school were not against other schools and not competitive at all.  She played sports with the boys, practiced on their teams, but wasn’t allowed to play in games.

In 1948, she graduated second in her class and was accepted as one of the first women into the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School.  After one semester, her parents took the money saved and gave it to her brother to attend Villanova Law School.

Her parents told her, “Men have a better chance of succeeding.  Find a husband.”

She left her family. Moved to New York City.  Got a job writing for the New York Daily News.  She wrote under the pen name Claud Van (her name was Claudine Van Cott).  After more than six months delivering high-quality editorial for the newspaper, she was fired for lying about her gender.  Well, they couldn’t say it was for being a woman.

She gave up her dreams, found an army man, reconciled with her family, and settled into being a housewife.

It angered my father that she continued to be a devout feminist.  She touted the passing of Title IX in 1972 throughout the town with joy.  Our family was exhausted hearing about Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in 1973 and what that meant.  She went door to door for the League of Women Voters to get housewives to have a voice different from their husbands.  She discussed women’s rights after her divorce, as she raised five children as a single mother, working as an Executive Secretary.

In my high school, our football team won the state championship, so it was hard to notice a lot of the women’s sports.  The first visible sign of significant change I saw in women’s empowerment around sports was in college.  It was 1982, and I was on the Cross-Country team at Binghamton.  The female athletes on the team were ultra-competitive, the most intense I had ever seen.  These women were more intense than the football players who had won State the year before.

The world was changing.

In 1996, I was running production for SportsLine USA.  We ran CBS Sports digital coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  We built new systems, the first I had seen for tournament coverage on the internet.  “We should cover the Women’s Tournament.  All the systems would work.” The answer was no.

We launched CBS Sports’ first fantasy products only a month before that, so we knew that when fantasy sports, games, or any competition became available, it would create a lasting and lucrative community.  Fantasy sports, contests, games of skill, and sports betting (offshore at the time) made the games more popular and added the FUEL needed to make pro sports more popular.  The leagues noticed and embraced fantasy sports. People simply want a place where they belong, and they can embrace the stars of the game.

So, why is this the right time to add that fuel to the momentum of women’s sports?

Since 1996, women’s sports have had some significant moments, but they have not yet sustained momentum toward equality. The Gold medal for US Women’s Soccer game in 1996; WNBA inaugural broadcast in 1997; 18 million people watching Brandi Chastain’s celebration in 1999 FIFA World Cup; our great Olympic Gymnasts though the years; The Williams sisters dominating the world tennis stage including Serena winning the Australian Open in 2017 while pregnant are just a few.

The current momentum started in the 2023 Women’s NCAA Finals showdown between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.  This showdown caused an electricity around the two stars, but mostly Clark, that then ran through the entire 2024 season. That rivalry and focus on other female stars in other sports, and the sheer quality of play and athleticism, has continued the momentum needed for this moment to arrive.

My mom is telling everyone in heaven.  So, that is my “Why.”

When LFG approached me and shared their plans, connections, and focus on coverage, community, and contests (the three Cs) for women’s sports, they had me at LFG, which is what I said!

After talking with my partners, Full Moon Sports became an LFG Founding Investor.  We are on board here, and you can find us in the Discord channel, writing on the site, posting on X and LinkedIn, and who knows, if the Wolfman comes back to the airwaves soon, covering fantasy sports for the WNBA or NWSL.

So sit back, enjoy the games, and get ready to hang with a community where EVERYONE BELONGS!  We will be discussing women’s sports and competing in exciting, skill-based games.  Oh…and I will be trash-talking…even when I lose.

LET’S F*^%ing GO!!