Collegiate athletics lost not only a visionary but also a tireless worker for gender equity and an invaluable historian with the passing of Doris R. Soladay May 9.

The Syracuse University athletics department also lost a friend and family member.

The first and only director of women's athletics and later Syracuse's associate athletics director, Soladay was a pioneer in women's athletics and physical education.

After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from the University of Denver and the University of Colorado, Boulder, respectively, she quickly ascended the ladder of success. And then, she proceeded to break the glass ceiling that had long hovered over women in physical education and athletics.

In a 1999 interview, Soladay said that when she arrived at the Syracuse campus in 1960, she discovered that Syracuse needed vast improvements in the treatment of its female population.

"In the 1960s, it was a rule at Syracuse that women could not go across campus in pants or shorts without a trench coat to cover them," she said. "Women had a 10 p.m. curfew for weeknights and a midnight curfew for weekends."

And just like the residence halls, the men's and women's athletics departments were separately housed and run, but not for long.

Whatever it took

Soon after joining the Syracuse faculty as an associate professor of physical education, Soladay's unique vision and perseverance surfaced. She became the advisor to the Women's Athletic Association at the school and began to develop five women's club sports into intercollegiate programs.

In 1971 with only a $1,000 budget to work with for women's athletics, Soladay's tenacity was a necessity.

Kathy Bilborough, a former sports relations coordinator at Syracuse, recalled the early days when she was Soladay's first and only employee. "Doris would say this is what has to be done, because that's the way it has to be. Syracuse was very lucky to have her because she opened the doors for women's athletics."

Barb Adams, associate athletics director at Syracuse, said Soladay would "beg, borrow and steal to get what she needed because there just wasn't any money in the budget for women's athletics."

Soladay's cost-saving efforts included "borrowing" office furniture from remote locations in Syracuse facilities to places they could be used, such as the women's athletics office. Soladay and other physical education teachers used their own cars to drive women's athletics teams to competitions and then take the dirty uniforms home on weekends to clean.

When the women's basketball team wanted new orange shirts, Soladay said, "I brought some players home and we dyed orange shirts." Though the dye job survived only a few washings, she said, "they had a nice bright orange for the game they had worn them."

She was even known to fill holes on the field hockey field with kitty litter so the girls could play a game.

"There was nothing that she would not do to improve a situation," Bilborough said.

An AIAW force

When the women's athletics program shifted to student programs/
affairs funding in 1975, its budget jumped to $50,050. And when the men's and women's athletics departments merged in 1982, the budget soared to $600,000. The expansions were a direct result of Soladay's diligence to bring about change for women's athletics on a local, regional and national level.

From 1969 to 1971, she served on a four-member Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The commission, which evolved from the National Joint Committee on Extramural Sports for College Women, sought to bring the governance of women's intercollegiate athletics under one organization -- the Division for Girls and Women in Sports. Its work led to the formation of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

Soladay served as president of the New York State AIAW and held offices in the Eastern and national AIAW organizations. Soladay was directly involved in the enlargement of the Big East Conference to include women's sports, and she served on the East Coast Athletic Conference women's steering committee from 1983 to1987.

From 1989 to 1995, Soladay represented the Big East as an at-large member on what was then the NCAA Council.

Of all the organizations she helped form and belonged to, Soladay said the AIAW was closest to her heart. "It gave women a lot of opportunities to have active leadership roles," she said. Despite the anxiety caused when the AIAW was absorbed by the NCAA, she said, "it was a very good move."

Epitome of a role model

Back on campus, after the men's and women's athletics programs merged, Soladay said the coaches and male athletes needed a change in attitude and behavior since women would be sharing the weight room and training facilities with them.

"Male athletes were used to walking around in their nothing-at-alls," she said.

Jake Crouthamel, director of athletics at Syracuse, said, "Doris was a breath of fresh air for men's athletics because Doris was the conscience of the athletics department. She could retain, despite the significant differences, the perspective of what's right. And I relied heavily on her for that conscience."

In 1995, with nine women's teams formed and three more slated for the future, Soladay made what some say was her first unpopular decision -- to retire.

Crouthamel, who Soladay had helped hire, said he refused to accept her resignation and hoped that by coaxing her to stay an extra three months she would lose track of time and stay on longer. Soladay could not be deterred. She said, "I don't know why, but it was just time to go."

Bilborough said "Jake is the heart of this department and Doris was its soul."

The "soul" spent her days in retirement by volunteering at Meals-on-Wheels and with the New York Senior Games. And always, she could be found sitting in the stands at any one of Syracuse's athletics events.

Crouthamel said, "Doris epitomized the term 'role model,' not only for female student-athletes, but for young, aspiring professionals in athletics administration, both male and female.