Women In Sport: A Progress Report

For the most part, the growth is in all-female competition. However, where no women's programs exist or where those that do exist offer little challenge to the above-average athlete, women are competing with men. Mixing of the sexes in non-contact sports is now permitted in most recreation, high school and collegiate programs, and at some schools women have been recruited for men's teams. For example, San Diego State Volleyball Coach Jack Henn asked Laurel Brassey, a member of two U.S. women's teams, to try out for his national championship team. She earned a starting spot. Women are winning letters, captaincies and MVP trophies on previously all-male teams—not for good looks or spunk but because they have scored points and made significant contributions. At Seattle University half-miler Liane Swegle was voted athlete of the year, beating out All-Coast basketball star Frank Oleynick. At Tulane the presence of Constance Walker on the swimming team is viewed, at least by some, in a different light. Says Swim Coach Dick Bower, "When a woman walk-on can make the team, it is sort of an indictment of your program."

A disproportionate amount of attention has been stirred up by the relatively few women participating alongside men. A woman on a men's squad is still (though decreasingly so) a news item in the man-bites-dog convention. Out of all relation to their impact on sports, these athletes—and the 8-to-12-year-old girls invading the Little League—have engaged the attention and passion of chauvinists of both sexes. The notion is that such carryings-on will debase men's sports and destroy women's. If women can compete on men's teams, then men can compete on women's. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Since the average man is more athletic than the average woman, the result will be that women will be shouldered out of their own programs by a flood of men who are not talented enough to make male varsity, junior varsity, reserve, lightweight or freshman teams but are afire to compete against women. This concern has led at least one state, Minnesota, to rule that boys cannot try out for girls' high school teams but girls can compete on any boys' team. Yet the past year has shown that few males seek berths on women's teams, though two boys did play on a Michigan girls' high school volleyball team.

Similarly, the countryside does not seem to be teeming with aggressive females whose goal is to force their athletic intentions on Bear Bryant or Woody Hayes. What the overwhelming majority of women wants are sound programs of their own. Because it is more or less a necessity, the woman athlete with national, world-class or professional potential must have the right to step up in competition. At the moment this usually means joining the men. When even semi-adequate women's programs are provided, women's interest in joining men's teams all but disappears.

Of considerable long-range significance is the sudden use of athletic scholarships to upgrade female sports programs. Until the spring of 1973 the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (a governing body comparable to the men's NCAA) did not permit its member institutions to grant free rides. That restriction was lifted, but the AIAW still forbids active recruiting, and many women educators remain opposed to scholarships, believing they will lead to the abuses so evident in men's programs. According to AIAW rules a girl must inquire at a school about the scholarships available; once contact is established a genteel courtship can begin. But already there is evidence that schools, eager to be competitive, are making oblique, though technically legal, approaches. Olympic swimmer Shirley Babashoff, who graduated from Fountain Valley ( Calif.) High School with a 3.5 average, was contacted by more than seven major colleges—some in the East—though she did not make inquiries at any of them. She has turned down all overtures and will attend Golden West College which is near her home and her coach.

The University of Pittsburgh is making no bones about its vigorous recruiting in women's basketball—in fact, Football Coach Johnny Majors is among those giving advice to a female assistant athletic director on the best approaches to make to prospects. Pitt has its eye on a 6'4" high school junior and forthrightly declares it is seeking a national championship. For the upcoming season the Panthers have signed three players who are 6 feet and over.

Arizona State has its share of champions (its teams hold three national titles) and seems assured of still more since the state board of regents recently granted the school 60 scholarships in women's athletics.

The University of Miami reports that 700 girls applied during the past year for its 20 scholarships. "You get all kinds of letters," says Norman Parsons, director of campus sports and recreation. "One read, 'I'm a basketball player. Send me some money.' " Inmost instances women's grants cover only tuition, but this may change as competition intensifies. (One university—New Mexico—last week called on the AIAW to immediately revise and relax its scholarship rules.) Schools that do not offer athletic grants for women are feeling the pressure. Berkeley Athletic Director Dave Maggard reports, "I have received hundreds of inquiries from women who tell of their virtues as persons and their skills in sports. They are looking for athletic grants. We don't offer any yet, but I believe we soon will."

On the professional level, women are continuing to advance. Purses on the Ladies Professional Golf tour and on the U.S. tennis circuit are up about 30%. In 1971 much was made of Billie Jean King cracking the $100,000-a-year barrier in tournament earnings. In 1973 five women won more than $100,000, led by Margaret Court with just over $200,000. With this season hardly half over, Chris Evert has won $136,000.

In 1973-74 professional women skiers could race in only one event for a prize of $7,000. Next winter four races are scheduled and $40,000 will be offered in prize money.

Women golfers, tennis players, swimmers and gymnasts are making more commercials than ever. Cathy Rigby's contract with the Florida Citrus Commission is for $50,000 a year. Colgate-Palmolive, the firm most active in using women's sports for advertising and promotion, increased its budget in this area from $4.5 million in 1973 to about $7 million this year. And Virginia (You've Come a Long Way, Baby) Slims has invested $5.5 million in women's tennis.