THE 'DROP SHOT' THAT MADE HISTORY    

Stanford’s first women’s team championship of the Title IX era launched a dynasty

BY DAVID KIEFER

In 1978, a tennis victory signaled the rise of women’s sports at Stanford.

Match point was described in print as a “drop shot,” a crafty play that delivered Stanford its first women’s national team championship in the era of Title IX, the landmark 1972 legislation that sought to bring gender equality to education.

However, Caryn Hertel Woodburn ’81, who partnered with Donna Rubin Calvini ’81 on the No. 3 doubles team that gave the Cardinal the 1978 AIAW title, had a different memory of the deciding play in a dramatic title-match dual against USC.

“The ‘drop shot’ on match point wasn’t a drop shot,” Woodburn recalled in an e-mail. “It was Donna’s serve. She was so nervous it barely made it over the net! I shouldn’t talk -- I was at the net praying they wouldn’t hit it to me!”

It amounted to a 5-4 team victory and launched a run of national championships in a variety of Stanford women’s sports that continues to this day.

When Anne Hill Gould ’71 played at Stanford, she recalls traveling to the Ojai tournament with three teammates at their own expense, sharing a Volkswagen Beetle, and two double beds in a motel room, because Stanford would not pay for the trip.

Stanford Athletics had no budget and no scholarships for women’s tennis in the early 1970s. Expenses came out of the university’s general fund. But only three schools in the country, Arizona State, Rollins, and Trinity, were offering women’s tennis scholarships at the time. Players, like the student body as whole, came to Stanford for academics, and played a little tennis too.

"Stanford tennis has had a really strong history in a lot of eras, and I don’t know if I understood that fully when I decided where I went to college ... There was no recruiting, it was just a place where people wanted to go. But through the 1970s, it became clear that tennis was something we were really good at."

Though thin on resources, Stanford had been building something of a reputation. This was the program of Jane Albert and Julie Heldman, and others who played for national collegiate singles and doubles titles.

Lele Forood, who just finished her 22nd season as the Peter and Helen Bing Director of Women's Tennis, was among those, along with Susie Hagey, Barbara Jordan, Diane Morrison, and Marcy O’Keefe, who built the program even higher, into a three-time national runner-up (1975-77).

“Stanford tennis has had a really strong history in a lot of eras, and I don’t know if I understood that fully when I decided where I went to college,” Forood said. “There was no recruiting, it was just a place where people wanted to go. But through the 1970s, it became clear that tennis was something we were really good at.”

By the time Gould coached Stanford to the 1978 title, the complexion of collegiate women’s tennis had evolved from a recreational outlet to a competitive, pro-career launching vehicle. Title IX pushed forward that process.

In 1975, athletics director Joe Ruetz spearheaded the merging of Stanford’s men’s and women’s athletic departments. Longtime men’s coach Dick Gould oversaw both tennis programs and hired Anne, his future wife, as the day-to-day coach of the women’s team, now freed from the subpar Roble facilities to sharing the varsity courts with the men and being treated as equals.

The 1978 Stanford women's tennis team.

The merger was significant in the eyes of the players.

“I wanted to go to a school where the women would be celebrated as much as the men,” Calvini said. “It made me feel more legitimized and respected.”

A veteran roster grew even stronger in 1977-78 with the addition of freshman Kathy Jordan, awarded Stanford’s first full women’s athletic scholarship. She carved out a spot at No. 1 singles while older sister Barbara played No. 2. The Jordans comprised Stanford’s No. 2 doubles team, behind two-time AIAW champs Hagey and Morrison, Stanford’s second Black female varsity athlete.

Stanford had cruised through the regular season with a 17-2 record, and anticipated a national-title rematch with USC, which downed the Cardinal, 5-4, in their only 1978 meeting before the AIAW final.

Sure enough, Stanford rolled through the national tournament at Salisbury (Md.) State, beating TCU, Miami (Fla.), and UCLA, to set up a final with USC, with a 9-0 semifinal victory over Florida for its 36th consecutive victory.

"I wanted to go to a school where the women would be celebrated as much as the men,” Calvini said. “It made me feel more legitimized and respected.”

The singles split, 3-3, with Kathy Jordan (No. 1), Donna Rubin (No. 5), and Nancy Rudd (No. 6) winning for Stanford while the match, delayed by a driving rainstorm, took 10 hours to complete. Play began outside, was forced inside, and finally concluded outside. Hagey’s 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, loss at No. 4 singles took more than five hours, delaying the start of doubles.

USC won the No. 2 doubles to lurch to a 4-3 lead, forcing Stanford to win at both No. 1 singles and No. 3 doubles. While Hagey and Morrison were on their way to a straight-set victory at No. 1, Hertel and Rubin dropped the first set at No. 3, rebounded in the second set, but fell behind 4-2 in the decisive third. But, somehow, they rallied when the stakes were highest and finished off a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, victory, thanks to the ‘drop shot’ on match point.

“It was crazy … dramatic … amazing,” Gould said.

It also launched a dynasty.