AHEAD OF ITS TIME

BY DAVID KIEFER

Title IX didn’t create the wave toward equality in women’s sports. It already was gathering before the landmark Education Amendment of 1972, which prohibited gender-based discrimination among schools receiving federal funding.

The wave, at Stanford, already was rolling.

Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972. In doing so, Nixon did not even speak of educational access for women, and sports hardly was considered. But even before the legislation was signed, rumblings for change had begun, and it was a long time coming.

Long before Air Jordans and Chuck Taylors, there were bloomers and bow ties, such were the uniforms Stanford wore in 1896 for the first intercollegiate athletic contest in women's history, a 2-1 basketball victory over California at the San Francisco Armory.

There were nine players per side, no dribbling and no backboards. Five hundred women attended -- men were not allowed – and the victors were met at the Palo Alto train station by hundreds more cheering students and escorted back to campus on a bus decorated with flags and cardinal bunting. During a reception afterward, each team member was awarded a Stanford Block 'S.'

The celebration didn't last. Women's team sports were banned at Stanford in 1899 after much debate over whether it was healthy, or appropriate, for women to extend themselves physically.

In 1903, it seems all was forgiven. Stanford played its first intercollegiate women’s tennis match, also against Cal. The three Stanford players who took part – Mary Hendrick, Mary Hodge, and Mable Ray -- were voted to become the first women recipients of the Block ‘S’ since the 1896 basketball team. A week later, the Athletic Committee changed its mind and rescinded the recognition, claiming it could not recognize the match as an official intercollegiate contest, and women’s sports were downgraded for years to come.

Competitive sports gave way to social events, such as ‘play days,’ held as intramural events or with other schools, such as Cal and Mills. Fencing, field hockey, and tennis were among the earliest Stanford sports, but competition was limited.

The social fabric of the country began to change in the 1950s and 1960s, with civil rights and women’s rights moving equality forward. The first collegiate women’s tennis championship tournament was held in 1954, and Stanford women began fencing in national championships in the early 1960s

By the time of Title IX, women were ready for competitive collegiate sports even if the universities were not.

In 1972, Vicky King, a 1968 Olympian and national freestyle champion, was among three women training with the Stanford men’s swimming team, but they were not allowed to compete with the men, nor compete with the women, because they weren’t enrolled in a women’s competitive swimming P.E. class.

Women’s sports were under the guidance of the Women's Physical Education department, which sought to emphasize a program based on participation rather than competition and directed funds and facilities toward recreation at the expense of grooming women with great athletic ability and interests.

“In a community which prides itself on attracting and developing excellence, women’s athletics appears to reside uncomfortably at the bottom of university priorities,” wrote Terrie McDonald of the Stanford Daily.

Coaches for women’s intercollegiate sports were P.E. teachers, often with expertise in a completely different sport, while the men had professional coaches. Serious women athletes had to find alternate ways to train, such as private clubs or with private coaches.

This was a dilemma for a women’s department that was struggling to find a balance. Should it choose to spend its $1,600 annual travel budget for five varsity teams on the few top athletes good enough for national competitions, or for the greater number who could compete at the regional and lesser levels? It chose the latter.

Eventually, that model no longer worked. The wave was coming, and Title IX made that even more clear. If colleges and universities did not give equal opportunity to women in athletics, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare would drop all federal funding for those schools.

Predictably, this caused chaos. According to a United Press International story, the NCAA believed that the USDHEW was “out to destroy collegiate sports.”

Title IX was described charitably as “controversial,” and the NCAA was doing all it could to exempt sports like football from counting toward the equality aspect.

But to Stanford’s credit, talks about combining the men’s and women’s athletic departments began even before Title IX. Women’s P.E. director Pamela Strathairn and men’s athletics director Joe Ruetz headed a committee reviewing all aspects of the separate departments as early as 1971, with informal talks even before that.

When Title IX came to fruition, Stanford was ready. In the spring of 1975, Stanford was among the first in the country to combine departments. Part of the reason was financial -- costs would be cut by supporting one athletic department instead of two. But the other part was about respect.

Women moved from the subpar Roble facilities to the superior men’s facilities, and training caught up to the competitive level. Women’s teams finally felt respected and valued.

The foresight to change was not lost on women’s recruits, who began to see Stanford as a destination because of its support for women’s athletes, and the success of its women’s programs over time have proved that Stanford’s course was correct.