California State University, Chico, won the first of the school’s three NCAA swimming and diving championships in 1973. Like the other championships summaries included in the April 15, 1973, edition of The NCAA News, the story recapping Cal State Chico’s title run was short and to the point. Though the majority of the summary highlighted the Wildcats’ convincing 50-point victory over the University of California, Irvine, the fourth and final paragraph of the News’ coverage detailed a triumph of a different sort.

Acknowledgement of Wayne State University (Michigan) diver Dacia Schileru’s appearance in the championship was included just before the listing of team and individual scores. As the first female to participate in NCAA championships competition, her quiet performance seven years before the NCAA even officially began staging women’s championships made a big splash not just for women’s sports, but also for the Association — so much so that it has been selected as one of the Top 25 Defining Moments in NCAA history.

At the time, the landmark Title IX legislation responsible for paving the way for female athletes to compete was barely a year old. The same was true for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), an early governing body for women’s athletics and championships. The first NCAA-sponsored championships for women wouldn’t begin until the fall of 1980. In the shadow of such giant and familiar landmarks in women’s athletics and sports history, perhaps it’s easy to see how Schileru-Clark’s accomplishment seems under-publicized. Ironically, before she arrived in the United States, Schileru-Clark was difficult to miss.

She began diving in her native Romania at the age of 13. Three years later, she captured the Romanian national championship and with it earned the opportunity to compete in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. However, her father was concerned about the political climate in Romania, and before Schileru-Clark could take her place among the world’s elite, he managed to gain passage for the family out of their homeland and into Turkey. From there, the Schileru family moved to Canada, where they lived briefly before settling in Detroit, where Schileru-Clark’s physician father completed his residency to become licensed in the United States.

Even throughout the global hopscotch, Schileru-Clark continued to compete, though once she arrived in the United States, she put her diving career on hold due to lingering fears that she would be injured, inadvertently putting her improbable run at history in danger. Eventually, though, a desire to challenge her own personal fears motivated her to return to the boards.

"When I was finally on my own and didn’t have a coach, I told myself I was going to go with it because I didn’t want to go through my life always feeling I had been afraid," she said. "The only time I didn’t have a coach was when I was in the States."

Coach or no, Schileru-Clark’s talent was clear to former Wayne State head swimming coach Peter Roberts, who spotted her during an open swim period at the university’s pool. Impressed by the poise and grace she displayed on the board, Roberts approached Schileru-Clark about joining the university’s swimming program, though Wayne State had no diving team or a diving coach. Nevertheless, Schileru-Clark agreed, and in doing so became the first woman in Wayne State history to compete on a men’s varsity team.

Schileru-Clark’s participation in the 1973 championships wasn’t her first taste of NCAA competition. Rather, her journey to becoming the first female to qualify and compete in an NCAA championship began much earlier. Roberts said he had been entering Schileru-Clark in dual meets throughout the regular season. Although she was consistently the lone female in each competition, both her teammates and competitors accepted her presence.

"My team, the swimmers, all rooted for me. I have to say, if there was ever any rumors or gossip, I never heard it," she said.

Wayne State was slated to host the NCAA championships in 1973. Roberts felt she not only was talented enough, but also had earned the opportunity to compete in the national meet. To secure permission for her to participate in the championships, Roberts lobbied the school’s former director of athletics, the late Vernon Gale, and the championships planning committee composed of NCAA officials and coaches.

"I’m not sure how it came about as far as paper trail," said Roberts, "but we said we’re going to dive Dacia in this meet and they said OK."

As momentous as the occasion was, the significance of it was lost on Schileru-Clark, who said that at the time she didn’t fully understand the meet was for collegiate swimmers and divers only and certainly didn’t realize she was diving for an NCAA national championship or that her appearance alone was history making.

"They said there was a championship and asked if I wanted to go. I said OK. I have to say I wasn’t really aware of the significance," she said.

Schileru-Clark entered the competition without any specific goals other than simply performing well. She qualified for both the one- and three-meter events during the March 15-17 championships. Though she did not make it through the preliminary rounds of the one-meter event, she just missed earning a spot in the three-meter final round of 12 by placing 13th of 50 divers. As proficient as she was at dives with a lower degree of difficulty, without the guidance of a diving coach, Schileru-Clark had trouble with more complex combinations, in part, she said because she hadn’t been trained to spot herself. That was one reason why she believes she didn’t place higher at the championships.

"I always did those dives with my eyes closed and it was all by feel," she recalled.

The magnitude of Schileru-Clark’s accomplishment was lost on Roberts, too, at least initially. But the veteran coach, who is still affiliated with the university, believes what she did was no small thing. "I can only speak for Wayne State," he said. "But if a woman wanted to compete after that in any sport, I don’t even think it was an issue at that point. Dacia set that stage. She didn’t know that, but she just made that happen."

In the more than 30 years since Schileru-Clark broke the championships barrier for women, the landscape of collegiate sport has been completely reshaped by the female athlete. Notably, nearly a decade after Schileru-Clark’s historic performance, Elaine Profitt-Keagle earned the distinction of becoming the first female to earn an NCAA title as a member of Tennessee Technological University’s 1980 national championship rifle team.

As the recent celebration of the 25th anniversary of NCAA women’s championships proved, others have followed, including some who may have entered the world by Schileru-Clark’s own hand. Schileru-Clark, who earned a second varsity letter in 1974, went on to be a medical doctor in obstetrics and gynecology. She retired three years ago.

A lingering back injury kept Schileru-Clark from continuing to compete after college, and she admits she hasn’t been following college sports closely since her time at Wayne State. But the progress of women, not just female athletes, hasn’t escaped her.

"For the longest time I didn’t even realize there was a difference between the collegiate national and the divers who make it to the top and go to the Olympic team," she said. "At the same time, I believe there is progress being made not only in sports, but throughout all arenas of life where there is more and more emphasis on ability rather than ‘I am a woman’ and ‘you are a man.’ I think that is a wonderful thing. That progress is inexorable. I believe it will only get more amazing as time goes on."