NCAA News Archive - 2001

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Hail to the ambassadors of women's sports


Oct 8, 2001 10:21:27 AM

BY DIANE HUSIC
EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

I read with interest the recent special section of The NCAA News (September 10 edition) that presented a celebration and history of women's championships.

In 1977, I entered college and was a member of the inaugural swim team for women at Northern Michigan University. While I did know that we were associated with the AIAW (while the guys were NCAA), I was, at the time, pretty oblivious to governance of intercollegiate athletics. Not being a particularly stellar athlete, I had been pretty excited when the new coach had come over to high school the year before and said that she needed swimmers and divers to create a new team. I was even more tickled when, upon joining, we received swimsuits, warm-ups, opportunities to use the training facilities at a brand new sports facility.

This was a totally novel experience. Unfortunately, the nine-hour van rides to competitions (we only had two home meets the first year, and Marquette, Michigan, is not close to anything) and the other time demands involved with practice and conditioning eventually led to my prioritizing my biochemistry studies. But the experiences I had with the team and the excitement of working with my teammates to help host the Division II Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at Northern Michigan will never be forgotten.

A few years ago, the university sent varsity letters to all the women who had participated in sports at the university but had not been recognized as the men always had. Funny that I had not really noticed the differential treatment when I was younger -- I just thought that I didn't contribute enough points to the team to win any specific recognition. Apparently, at the time, only individuals participating in NCAA-sponsored championship sports received award letters.

This year as my six-year-old son joined his first soccer team, I was reminded of a very different experience I had in sports. In the eighth grade (1972), a new middle school opened that was to "experiment" with all sorts of new pedagogical approaches. One thing I clearly remember is that for the first time, we could choose from a variety of gym courses, instead of having the type where in a single-gender class, you did various "units" of often unexciting physical activities.

My girlfriend and I chose soccer -- largely because we did not know much about it (Marquette was then and is now a town where ice hockey rules). The first day, the instructor told us that girls don't play soccer. Although we (the only two girls in the class) were determined not to be easily intimidated, after a few weeks of being severely rough-housed by our male classmates, we dropped out of the class. I would love to have a chat with that individual now, given the status of women's soccer in this country today.

Now, I watch with joy the six-year-old boys and girls on my son's team playing together as equals. I am not naïve; I know that soon, the boys will be old enough not to want girls on their team. However, it is great that all are given the chance to learn skills and to enjoy a wonderful sport early on.

In my more recent 13 years of working with the NCAA in my role as faculty athletics representative, I have come to meet many of the women who were pioneers in fighting for opportunities for women in sport, for Title IX, for gender equity. I did not realize it at the time, but they had a lot to do with my having the chance to participate in intercollegiate athletics. To them -- a much belated thank you.

But as I reflect, I would really like to say thanks to the girls who stuck it out in those early gym classes that were supposedly "for boys only"; to my old friends back in Marquette who had the guts to initiate a girls' ice hockey club team, and eventually a league, back in the late 1970s (despite horrendous stereotyping and negative comments); and to the women today who excel in tennis, soccer, basketball and all of the other wonderful forms of sport and serve as an inspiration to young girls and boys everywhere.

Diane Husic is the faculty athletics representative at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.


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