But men's baseball was reinstated after a 25-year hiatus. They'll need to find about another $350
million but it's a start. Slippery Rock University cut women's field hockey, water polo and
lacrosse. The city wants baseball! No need to wait for MLB (because it'll be a
loooooong wait). To thing big. Last weekend, I was a guest of my business partner's
to a Society for American Baseball Research meeting. It was a great day and it
was nice to see some of the guys that I hadn't seen since Jackie and
I made a presentation about our baseball book project, more than two years ago. Emotions
run high when men's programs are cancelled under the auspices of fulfilling the mandate of
Title IX. But what I did benefit from was a liberal college experience. Did you
ever wonder how things changed? Did you think it was because of all the bra
burning? Close. (Competitive cheer and its 3.5 scholarships isn't an NCAA-certified sport). All of the
attendees are welcoming, kind and interesting. The list goes on.Title IX doesn't discriminate. So I
considered law school. But, first, it's important to take a look at the decades before
1972.My mother and Jackie's mother were teachers. And it was simply one poke out of
millions at the perceived negative impact of Title IX on men's college athletics.It is no
secret to those keeping score that wrestling has taken a pounding since President Nixon signed
Title IX into law in June 1972 - interestingly, this was the same month that
the Supreme Court shot down Curt Flood's battle for free agency AND thugs from Nixon's
reelection campaign combed through documents at Watergate.All told, 452 collegiate wrestling programs have been cut
since that fateful month, though a handful have been reinstated. While bras brought attention to
a mounting societal problem, you can thank Title IX for forcing the issue.In 1977, 25
percent of all doctoral degrees went to women; now, about half do. The Legislature in
2003 passed a $150 million measure nike tn for a stadium. The statue granted both genders equal
access to all "programs and activities" at schools accepting federal funds. Or political pressure."It became
very, very clear that we needed to make some changes," Oregon's athletic director Pat Kilkenny
said in a July press conference. You know, get smart. And a powerful sentiment. No
doubt the Oregon athletic department looked down the highway to see their Beaver buddies in
Corvallis counting the cash from a highly successful baseball program - one that is paying
for upgrades to the baseball grandstand and who knows what else? Right now, the Oregon
baseball team doesn't even have a stadium to call its own. And one sports-minded male
friend told me the other day that he thought that women who participated in team
sports worked better as part of a team when they got to the workforce. Like
them, college-bound women in the 1940s and 1950s were steered into education and nursing. Sorry,
wrestling.There is nothing new about the controversy surrounding the statute and how federally funded K-12
schools and colleges mangle things in an apparent effort to comply with the 1972 statute.
It was years later that I married a progressive guy and was supported when I
went into business with my friend and wrote a baseball book. The bloodshed at James
Madison University was worse. Nor did I ever become an intellectual. Studies show that there
is are lower incidents of teenage pregnancies among high school girls that participate in sports
than those who do not play sports. Guys, when your wives have the option of
choosing a female gynecologist or when you can hire a female divorce attorney to show
the female judge you're really a cool, enlightened guy, you can thank Title IX.And these
figures don't touch on the fact that participation in athletics contributes to women's health, overall.
It's just that such a move rarely warrants pickets or, more pointedly, headlines. Incidentally, women's
programs are hacked, too. Sure, some women pushed the established boundaries and tn pas cher became doctors, scientists
and electricians, but millions more lacked the desire, energy or courage to fight the status
quo. Missouri State discontinued women's tennis. It picks on girls, too! Feel better?But all this
focus on sports gets us away from the topic at hand: Title IX. Why not
just get one on the local university campus at less expense and less red tape.
And likely ask you to hit me over the head with it.Deidre Silva is a
Seattle-area baseball author who just finished her first book, "It Takes More Than Balls," due
in April 2008 by Skyhorse Publishing. Specifically, medical schools and law schools have embraced Title
IX. Or an unwillingness. I was encouraged by professors to be an intellectual. But I
was free. It was simply one slide out of a few dozen about the trip
to Omaha to see Oregon State ultimately win its second back-to-back College World Series. Cutting
programs is sometimes sound budgeting but it often the laziest solution and one regularly applied.
One way or the other, if you're not completely satisfied after reading our book, my
partner, Jackie, will buy you a picket sign. Sure, wrestling was cut at Oregon. Others
use the hyped-up buzz phrase "affirmative action," which is silly, silly, silly. And you thought
athletic directors weren't creative? All of this hoopla because of Title IX? Come on.I want
to take a look at other things that happened in the last 35 years "because
of" Title IX. That's a bummer. You can thank Title IX for all that, too.Or
maybe that gives you more reason to hate Title IX. The slide said something along
the lines of "How the University of Oregon Lost the Wrestling Program and Gained a
Competitive Cheering Program." That may not be verbatim, but pretty close to the spirit. Beth
Bollinger (the "other woman" present, aside from the two of us) came over from Spokane
and read from her book, Until the End of the Ninth.It was the first slide
of the first presentation that compelled me to go home and read back through articles
filed away during the past couple years. Athletics was only one of ten educational areas
that the law was intended to cover. Fortunately, I had a mentor thinking really big
and gently directed me to reconsider. And that is for the small percentage encouraged to
attend college. They clearly spend a good deal of time preparing for their presentations, one
of which was the road trip two of them took to the College World Series
in Omaha, NE. It's title? It Takes More than Balls. See, it's another non-secret that
Portland reached out to the Florida Marlins about moving the franchise to Portland so the
city can realize the city's dream of having its own MLB franchise. Oregon's was the
tenth program lost in the state (California leads the pack w/ a total of 81
wrestling programs canned).However, as tempting as it is to tie everything into how compliance with
the statute led to a program's demise, the real question is why schools opt to
discontinue programs instead of redirect funds and reassess budgets. Not entirely scientific, but a weighty
perception.I recall telling him that I was too old to have reaped the benefits of
overhauled athletic departments - I played on a boy's soccer team in 3rd grade and
a hastily assembled women's college team, years later. Now, some decry the 1972 law as
a "quota" system. Also half of the medical degrees and law degrees are awarded to
women, compared with the 1977 figures of 9% and 7%, respectively. Instead of pointing fingers
at Title IX and feminists, in general, maybe fans of a doomed sport should be
asking what other options the school considered.And maybe the boosters will find out that it
was all about money. So, when it comes to cutting sports, it's less likely that
you can blame those who drew up the 1972 law and more likely that you
can thank the repressed financial creativity of athletic directors. deidre@SavvyGirlsofSummer.com.
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