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When I was in elementary school, I loved going to the high school basketball games. There was a warped place on our basketball court where if you weren't careful, (often times visiting teams weren't) dribbling over that spot would cause the ball to bounce out of bounds. That was so funny when it happened. Every home game was a double-header. The girls' game was the opening act. The boys' game was the second act. Somewhere along the way, girls' sports in high school almost disappeared. By the time I started high school, there was only one girls' sports team left, tennis. In basketball, the boys' JV game had taken the place of the girl's game. By the time I graduated high school, girls' sports teams were making a very slow comeback, but the girls' basketball game had not yet reclaimed its place as the lead-in to the varsity boys' game. Girls' sporting events didn't fade in popularity; they were shoved to the back of the bus because high school administrators were more interested in high school sports being farm leagues for colleges than they were in producing well-rounded students regardless of gender.
Side note: Some folks will think the de-emphasis of girls' athletics I observed was due to a lack of interest by the public in viewing girls' sports in high school. I think that is wrong. In high school, the vast majority of the people in the stands aren't there to enjoy a sporting event. The audience for high school sporting events is largely composed of the participants' families and friends. Girls have just as many families and friends as boys do.