A gallery of memories

By Carol Gralia
Posted: October 21, 2008

In a few days I will be heading back to my alma mater to help it take care of some unfinished business.

Butler University has decided to honor the female athletes who represented the school before its women’s sports teams there affiliated with the NCAA. Think pre-Title IX. The ceremony will take place during homecoming weekend, and I am looking forward to it.

I went to Butler to major in zoology, but quickly switched to physical education. Naturally, the PE majors were heavily involved in intramurals and intercollegiate athletics, including playdays. Participating in women’s sports then, even at the collegiate level, wasn’t like it is now. We practiced a few times a week and had just a handful of games. Our uniforms were hand-me-downs from previous years. No warm-up suits with our names on the back; no Under Armor or other high-tech synthetic fabric. On our feet, Puma and adidas had yet to edge canvas shoes like Sperry Topsiders or Keds as the footwear of choice.

There were inequities, and we knew it. Only once or twice were we women allowed to play on the “big” floor in our historic field house. That highly glossed surface was reserved for the men’s basketball team. Our gym was the West gym, an annex with dimmer lights, smaller scoreboards and no bleachers for fans to sit in — should any come to one of our games.

We knew we were separate, and not equal, but we accepted it because that’s simply the way it was. We hadn’t realized how liberating it would be to eventually burn our bras.

Still, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to represent our school. I remember playing  basketball, volleyball, field hockey and badminton. We played for the joy and camaraderie of it.

Our field hockey team made a deal with our coach. If we went undefeated she had to buy us tunics to replace the shorts that we wore as uniforms. Real field hockey teams then wore tunics. Since we were a start-up program, she thought she was safe. To her surprise, and ours too, we managed to eke out an unbeaten season as we learned to never underestimate the power of collective desire.

I’m sure when I’m back, standing among my former teammates, we will talk about these things and about how we wish that we had the opportunities now available to female athletes.

We’ll talk about how times have changed, and how lucky we were to be able to represent our school even if it has taken decades for Butler to officially recognize us.

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