UCLA Sports Information Ann Meyers was
the first UCLA female athlete to receive a full athletic
scholarship at UCLA. Meyers played basketball from 1974-78.
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff To many, UCLA is synonymous with
athletics. The same was true in the early ’70s, at the height
of the John Wooden era, but with one exception ““
women’s teams were not a part of the athletic department.
That was until 1975, when the women’s athletic department was
formed, three years after Title IX ““ a federal law
prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and
activities at any institution receiving federal funding ““ was
signed into law. Title IX, signed on June 23, 1972, applies to
every aspect of education from financial assistance to course
offerings and counseling, but it is best known for its impact on
athletics. All educational institutions, both public and private,
must comply with Title IX because students receive financial aid
from federal funding. According to Betsy Stephenson, UCLA associate
athletic director and senior women’s administrator, Title IX
is a three-part task and institutions have to meet one of the three
stipulations: “¢bull;Proportionality: To offer females athletes
opportunities at the same rate as female enrollment.
“¢bull;History: To demonstrate a history of expanding the programs.
“¢bull;Accommodation: To fully accommodate the interests of the
underrepresented sex. After the Javits Amendment was passed by
Congress in 1974, non-gender related discrepancies could be allowed
based on the nature of a sport. For instance, a football player
requires more equipment than a soccer player, male or female. Title
IX requires that all athletes receive the same quality of
equipment, are offered opportunities proportional to the enrollment
of male and female undergraduate students at the institution, and
that female and male athletes receive scholarship dollars.
“Early on, the players had to pretty much supply their
own equipment. I would drive to Tijuana to get Adidas shoes because
they were so cheap there. Everyone would order the shoes they
wanted, and I would go down there and buy them.” -Andy
Banachowski (women’s volleyball coach, 1968-present)
Early effects at UCLA
Change is never easy, and it wasn’t then. With the
implementation of Title IX, athletic departments were asked to
reassess the way they allocated funds for athletic teams. Prior to
1975, there were 11 UCLA teams available to female athletes:
basketball, volleyball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and
field, cross country, softball, golf, gymnastics, co-ed badminton
and crew, which competed in the Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women. At that time, women’s teams were a part
of the Department of Cultural and Recreation Affairs under the
division of extra-mural sports, headed by Shirbey Johnson. With the
hiring of Judith Holland, the first director of the newly
established Department of Women’s Athletics in 1975, UCLA
took a step in an unprecedented direction. Before 1975,
women’s teams at UCLA had only won two national
championships. Since then they have won 29 more. “She was the
major reason UCLA developed into a leader in the advancement of
women’s sports, through advent of Title IX,” said Sue
Enquist, current UCLA softball head coach and UCLA softball player
from 1975-78. “Judy was the athletic director who came in and
turned our program into a first-class operation.” Holland
started from scratch. When she was hired, she faced the task of
creating and staffing an entire department. “Our offices were
in an expandable trailer next to the women’s gym by
Fowler,” Holland said. “We literally had
nothing.” Well, not nothing ““ Holland’s first
operating budget was $268,000, which came from registration fees as
well as fundraising. “We made the most of that money,”
Holland said. “I squeezed everything I could out of every
nickel.” Twenty-four years later, in 1999-2000, women’s
athletics expenses for 12 teams at UCLA totaled $7,060,779. In the
years since 1975, three sports have been added: soccer (’93),
water polo (’94) and crew (’01) ““ which was
cancelled as a varsity sport in the mid-’80s and reinstated
in 2001 to compensate for the increase of female students at UCLA.
Five years after the creation of the women’s athletic
department, it merged with the men’s athletic department in
1980, bridging the gap between the genders. “When they were
separate, it was easy to treat one different than the other based
on gender,” Holland said. And just one year later, in 1981,
Holland elected to include UCLA women’s athletics under the
jurisdiction of the NCAA. Some saw Holland’s move to the NCAA
as a betrayal of the women’s movement. But Holland’s
focus was on UCLA women’s athletics. “My first concern
was the UCLA women’s program,” Holland said. “I
didn’t have the same concerns for the protection of
women’s rights somewhere else.” According to
Banachowski, the move to the NCAA was a turning point for
women’s athletics, particularly in women’s volleyball.
Championship tournaments in the NCAA were run differently than they
had been in the AIAW. Instead of a pool-play format, which allowed
for at least double-elimination, the NCAA utilized a
single-elimination format. “(Joining the NCAA) really gave a
lot more credence to women athletes. I think from there, things
have taken off,” Banachowski said. “That upped the
level of intensity of play.”
Bumps along the road
Compliance was and still is a difficult challenge for institutions.
In 1975, in order to increase compliance, President Gerald Ford
signed into law a three-year window for compliance along with
regulations prohibiting sex discrimination in athletics. The
biggest obstacle though, came in 1984 when a small college in Grove
City, Pa. successfully brought Title IX applicability ““ to
athletics ““ to a halt. In the U.S. Supreme Court decision of
Grove City vs. Bell, Title IX was ruled as only applicable to
programs that directly benefit from federal funds, which freed
athletic departments from responsibility. The decision was
overturned three years later with the Civil Rights Act of 1987,
which mandates that Title IX applies to all operations of an
institution that receives federal funds. The changes were put into
effect in 1988.
“Sometimes we would get to play at Pauley, and we used
the JV/side court. For uniforms, we used men’s track
uniforms. We had a light blue shirt with a number, and we wore
pinnies that had to tie on the sides. We had navy blue shorts with
white trim and number on the leg.” -Ann Meyers, (UCLA
women’s basketball player, 1974-78)
Bruin milestones
Two of the first women’s coaches are now hall-of-famers
““ Banachowski (volleyball) and Sharron Backus (softball).
Banachowski, now in his 35th year at the helm, has won six national
championships, including three NCAA titles. Backus won eight
national championships between 1976 and 1996. Meyers was the first
woman to receive an athletic scholarship at UCLA. A star on the
women’s basketball team, Meyers was the first woman inducted
into the Basketball Hall of Fame (1993), the same year that Julius
Erving and Bill Walton were inducted. Meyers was also a member of
the track and field and volleyball teams in her time at UCLA.
Enquist was the second woman to receive an athletic scholarship at
UCLA and has won four national championships as head coach. Enquist
recalls that women’s sports were comparable to club sports
when she first started at UCLA in the sense that there was not a
lot of funding. Enquist’s first softball uniform at UCLA was
an old men’s track practice uniform. Meyers waited until her
senior year (’78) for her first new uniform. It was that year
that a training facility, a single table in the women’s gym,
was available to the women. But meager beginnings did not hamper
the success of early women’s teams at UCLA. In 1978, UCLA
hosted the women’s basketball Final Four, at the end of which
the Bruins were crowned national champions ““ the only
women’s basketball championship for UCLA. And that
championship was not an isolated event. During Holland’s span
as director (1975-1995) of women’s athletics, UCLA
women’s teams won 24 national championships and earned the
National No. 1 Overall Athletic Program 10 times in 17 years.
Relation to men’s sports
Title IX does not require identical funding for men’s and
women’s athletics. Instead, it requires that athletic
departments meet the interests and abilities of each gender. The
standard of equal treatment is assessed in terms of whether an
athletic program offers the same level of service, supplies and
facilities to both male and female athletes, not whether teams
receive exactly the same services. In terms of scholarships,
institutions are required to offer scholarships proportional to
participation. A common misconception is that in order to comply
with Title IX, institutions have been required to take from
men’s programs. Title IX does not require a decrease in
opportunities for men in order to create new opportunities for
women. It has been the case though, that some institutions have
chosen to cut away from men’s programs in order to reach
compliance. According to Marc Dellins, UCLA Associate Athletic
Director and Director of Sports Information, the decision to cancel
men’s gymnastics and swimming at UCLA in 1993 was the
indirect result of Title IX and the direct result of the Athletic
Department’s financial woes. According to Al Scates, UCLA
men’s volleyball coach since 1963, the number of scholarships
allotted for men’s Olympic sports was cut by two-thirds after
the implementation of Title IX. The men’s volleyball program
had 12 scholarships before compliance, and Scates now divides four
and a half among his players. “We just have a harder time
convincing guys to come here who can’t afford it,”
Scates said. “With fewer scholarships available, it levels
the playing field for all teams competing against us.” But
Scates isn’t complaining. “They treat our program well
at UCLA, and I understand what’s happening,” Scates
said. “I think it’s great that women have been given
the opportunity to compete. UCLA has certainly made great strides
there.”
“I was the first and only woman to sign a contract
with the Indiana Pacers. People were scratching their heads and
wondering why the Pacers had done that, but it was the opportunity
of a lifetime.” – Ann Meyers
Evolution of women’s athletics
The state of women’s athletics is worlds away from where it
began. This is true in terms of financial support, athletic
opportunities, television coverage and post-collegiate
opportunities. Enquist has seen the availability of professional
opportunities and endorsements develop first-hand. “Just in
our sport alone, ESPN has gone from one game on the final day on
tape delay to televising almost every game of the world
series,” Enquist said. “I’ve watched progression
of Title IX and it has essentially fueled women’s athletics
in America.” The establishment in 1976 of the Honda-Broderick
Cup Award, dubbed the Heisman of women’s athletics, increased
credibility of women athletes. “There have been a lot of
little steps to get recognition because of Title IX,” Meyers
said. “There are sponsors, Olympics and scholarships that are
being offered ““ all of this is because of Title IX.”
And UCLA itself has made a name in women’s athletics, winning
31 national championships since 1971. To think that it all grew out
of $268,000 and an expandable green trailer.