By George P. Edmonston Jr.

Passed in 1972 to provide equality in college sports programs for men and women, Title IX has been hailed by many as one of the most significant pieces of legislation of the 20th century. Women’s basketball is a testament to this belief. In the final rounds of the 2003 women's Division I national tournament, games were played before record crowds and impressive TV ratings. The players were outstandingly athletic, the games drew nationwide attention across a broad spectrum of fans and supporters, and sports television stations devoted nearly as much time to the women's tournament as the men's. But did Title IX "introduce" varsity-level competition for women to the college campus? The answer is no and certainly not at OSU. A better word might be "reintroduce."

Returning OSU to varsity competition in women’s athletics took place over many years and was accomplished only through the tireless efforts of a small group of women faculty members and administrators, most of whom are now retired, and all of whom never gave up the dream of returning the campus sporting opportunities for gifted women athletes.

The names are well-known by many Oregon Staters and include Pat Ingram, Sandy Neeley, Sylvia Moore, Nancy Gerou, Margaret Lumpkin and Velda Brust. In the early 1970s, Oregon Senator Edith Green helped in the passing of Title IX legislation and also assisted her home state in its implementation.

Before 1972, when OSU became a charter member of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (or AIAW), an organization whose purpose in the beginning was to implement the mandates of Title IX, all women at the university participated in sports under the auspices of OSU’s Women’s Recreation Association in what was known at the time as the department of health and physical education. Margaret Lumpkin, whose 20 years at OSU in the department began in 1948, remembers how things were when she arrived in Corvallis.

"We didn’t have anything (opportunities) like the men. Competition was limited to ‘Play Days,’ a day here, a day there, in which we would play intramural games where one sorority house would compete against another. Afterwards, there would be a 'tea-type' thing for the athletes. There were semi-professional teams for women in Portland but nothing like that here at Oregon State."

Lumpkin adds that what she found particularly surprising during her early years was the extent to which other women on campus were opposed to athletics for women at the competitive level. "They were (simply) not eager for women to get into sports. There was great resistance among some who didn’t think girls could compete and in doing so they sold them short. I remember we had to sell programs at basketball games just to have money to pay the expenses for our ‘Play Days.’"

Realizing that money was at least a part of the solution to right the many wrongs, Lumpkin gave a personal gift of $100 dollars to the athletic department to start a scholarship fund for women. "It was returned," she recalls, " because I was told there was ‘no mechanism to handle the funds.’"

After the passage of Title IX, OSU established the position of Women’s Athletic Director and gave the job to long-time faculty member Pat Ingram, who served for two years, or until 1975. Her office was in the Women’s Building. Gill Coliseum was the home of athletic administration for the school, but space there was strictly for the use of men’s sports.

"It was a fight," she shares today with no bitterness. "We were made to feel like we were stepping on toes. In 1977, things began to change for the better. We finally had money for scholarships.In 1980, the director was finally allowed to move her office over to the Coliseum."

In fact, it was in 1977 that OSU awarded its first athletic scholarship to a women, given to a Linn-Benton Community College (Albany, Ore.) transfer student named Donna Southwick for gymnastics. In 1975, she was crowned junior college national all-around champion. Southwick quickly proved she was a good investment for the Beavers by becoming OSU’s first-ever All-American in women’s athletics at the 1977 AIAW National Championships.

By this time, Ingram had retired from the AD's positionand had passed the job along to her successor Sandy Neeley, who at last report was a faculty member serving at Everett Community College in Olympia, Wash. Together, the two of them brought to Corvallis the AIAW national championship track meet for women in 1975 which proved to be a real turning point for women athletes at OSU.

"We filled the stadium," Ingram says. "We came in second to UCLA that day, but it wasn’t important. What was important was that we filled the stands. And President (Robert) MacVicar was there. We proved there was interest in women competing at OSU at an elite level."

Iowa native Velda Brust, who worked in the aircraft industry in southern California during World War II and who came to OSU in 1953, remembers how shocked she was after her arrival to learn that women at the university could not play sports in competition.

"I was never given a real good reason," she recalls. "What I remember is that the women in power at that time didn’t believe women students should compete at a higher level." Like Ingram, Brust remembers 1977 as a pivotal year and says that softball and gymnastics were the first two sports to achieve varsity status, complete with scholarships.

After a year as director, Neeley gave way to Sylvia Moore, OSU’s first gymnastics coach of the modern era, who headed the program from 1967 to 1975. Moore turned the job over to Nancy Gerou for two years, beginning in 1977, then returned to the post from 1980 to 1982 before becoming deputy athletic director for merged programs from 1983 to 1985. When Dee Andros retired as OSU athletic director in 1985, President John Byrne appointed Moore to serve as interim AD until a search could be conducted for Andros’ replacement. Her appointment lasted nine months, and she remains the only woman in OSU history to serve as athletic director for all sports. She is especially proud of the contribution she made during her tenure to a refurbishing of Parker Stadium.

Looking back on that brief moment in her career, Moore says "the experience was fun. I used to chuckle when I would think about all the mothers and dads out there and what they were thinking when they saw a woman had signed our letters of intent."

She also remembers how she would often sit in her office and think about how far women’s athletics at Oregon State had progressed since the 1950s, when women’s intramural teams would have to buy classified ads in the student newspaper, The Daily Barometer, to get their scores posted; how teams shared warm-ups; how by the 1980s, women were allowed the use of two locker rooms and a half shower for all sports.

"A rod and shower curtain was all that separated the two halves," she remembers with a laugh. "We got a wall built very quickly."

So that the games could go on in the days before Title IX, Moore had to qualify as a referee in multiple sports, becoming certified in field hockey, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, track and field, and softball.

"We brought our own officials to our games," she says. "I refereed in all these sports and never received one dollar for the time. It was all volunteer labor."

It was be historically inaccurate to say that the best women’s athletes in the school’s history are the ones who have competed since the appearance of Title IX and all that this implies. Don’t tell this to Oregon Stater Gracie Zwahlen. Or OSU alumna Dr. Mary Budke.

Zwahlen, who is from the class of 1952, won the Oregon State Golf Championship five times, won the Canadian National Golf Championship, was twice a semi-finalist in the USGA Amateur Championship and was twice named to the U. S. Curtis Cup Team to play against the British. At a 1952 international two-ball tournament, "Babe" Didrikson became ill and couldn’t play. Gracie took her place. In 1986, she was named to the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

Former Oregon State All-American golfer Mary Budke is still making news, having recently been named the captain of the 2002 Curtis Cup team, chosen by the United States Golf Association Women's Committee.

Budke, a physician, lettered at OSU from 1972 to 1975. She attended school without an athletic scholarship. As a Beaver, she won the 1974 AIAW individual championship and placed third at the team finals, along with current OSU women's head coach Rise Lakowske. Budke has been inducted into the Oregon State (1992), Oregon Sports, and National Golf Coaches Association (1996) Halls of Fame. Budke is an eight-time Oregon Women's Amateur champion.

The Eugene, Ore., native, who played for the victorious 1974 U.S. Curtis Cup team and compiled a 2-1 record, won the 1972 Women's Amateur at age 18. She then went on to tie for 42nd at the 1974 Women's Open as an amateur.

Budke also won the Hayward Award in 1973, which is given annually to the top amateur athlete in the state of Oregon.

Finally, don’t mention this to OSU’s women’s volleyball team from the 1970-71 season. It competed in the national tournament that year, the collegiate volleyball "Big Dance," and player Patti Perkins from that team recently shared some memories of her own to OSU assistant sports information director Jennifer Lowery via e-mail.

She wrote on Oct. 1, 2002:

"I played volleyball at Corvallis High, but it was more of a "Play Day" atmosphere. I am not sure why I went out for the team at OSU. There must have been a sign-up sheet somewhere.

"As a freshman in 1969, I was not a starter, but there were quite a few tournaments we went to so there was still (for me) a lot of playing time. When we earned our way to the first national tournament, we had to practice at 6 a.m. to have any gym space. We sold See’s suckers for 10 cents. We carried them all over and people just recognized us and bought them. Our regular customers seemed to be our instructors in the Women’s Building.

"Another offer we had was a chance to play volleyball at a Blazer game at half time, for money, but they wanted us to play in bikinis. Our coach, Sally Hunter, turned them down. The football coach offered us $500 if we would dust the trophy case (in Gill), but Sally turned that down also. He gave us the money anyway.

"The whole Title IX stuff was never a big deal, except when we had to do all the fund-raising. I was not aware of how easy the boys had it. I guess I was just having fun doing my own thing. I talk to the kids today about some of the things that went on in the old days, but I don’t really think it sets in with them."

Another player from that amazing team, Mary Paczesniak, shared memories of the 1969-71 seasons in a letter to the OSU Alumni Association:

"Women athletes were required to usher and sell concessions in the stands at OSU football and basketball games to help raise money for operating expenses. We worked from one hour prior to the game until midway through the second half, at which time we received 80 cents worth of free refreshments, which could buy a hot dog, bag of popcorn and a drink. If we didn’t want the food, we could not receive the 80 cents. Male athletes competing on ‘minor’ sports teams who were not receiving a full scholarship did the same type of work and earned $5 an hour.

"The volleyball team’s ‘uniforms’ were the physical education majors’ uniforms which were worn in PE. classes and on which we had stitched felt numbers. Before nationals in Kansas City in 1971, we purchased, at personal expense, long-sleeved white tee shirts to wear with our PE shorts. We borrowed the gymnastics team’s warm-up suits to wear, and we were slightly larger than the gymnasts!

We participated in the last two National Intercollegiate Championships for Women in 1970 and 1971. We placed 12th for the 1969-1970 season after having gone 21-0 and winning the Pacific Northwest Championship. OSU paid our way to fly to Long Beach and for us to stay in a motel. In 1970-1971, we finished 17-5 and placed 2nd in the PNW (to Oregon). However, the OSU athletic department did not deem us ‘outstanding,’ thus would not help pay for our expenses to participate in the national tournament in Lawrence. We raised our own money for the trip, with a car wash and by cleaning Parker Stadium after the spring football game, for which the athletic department paid us $200.

"Women athletes prior to Title IX played for the pure love of the sport and the love of competition. Times were so simple and honest then, but Title IX was a definite necessity."

-- By George Edmonston Jr.