She Shoots, She Scores

Coach Jeanette Bolden hands off to daughter Kimberly.

Same Games, Different Rules

Most universities had a lot of regulations to rethink if they were going to meet the letter as well as the intent of Title IX after it first passed. Kort remembers the inanity of pre-Title IX "girls' rules" for basketball that stipulated that only two players (called "rovers") were allowed to cross half-court. "There was this concern about girls exerting themselves too much, so running had to be kept to a minimum. There was also a rule that said you could only dribble three times and then you had to pass."

Women's basketball is a perfect example of how Title IX revolutionized women's athletics, agrees Anita DeFrantz, Olympic bronze medalist, first American woman on the International Olympic Committee, president of LA84 (formerly the Amateur Athletic Foundation) and one of Sports Illustrated for Women's 100 Greatest Female Athletes. "There was no running and no real competition. There was this whole school of thought that women are not naturally aggressive and that, in fact, competition and aggression were bad for women … Title IX affirms that sports belong to all of us and it's a part of our very nature as human beings."

Although those beliefs about inherent fairness and opportunity were codified in 1972, many Bruin pioneers excelled in sports before that time because they had the support of their families. Ann Meyers Drysdale '79, widow of Dodger Hall of Famer Don Drysdale and the first female athlete in the country to get a full-ride athletic scholarship, had parents who never differentiated between "my sister and me and my brother [Dave, who played on John Wooden's men's team in the '70s]. As far as they were concerned, we all deserved the same chance, the same opportunities when it came to all aspects of our lives, including sports."

She's raising her two sons and one daughter the same way. One big difference between then and now: Daughter Drew, 14, has "unlimited options when it comes to sports," Meyers says. Drew takes full advantage of that, playing soccer, volleyball, basketball and competing in the high jump. And Meyers, general manager of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, carries the torch at work as well: "As is often the case, young people don't always know that the opportunities they have now were not always available. It's up to us to keep telling the story, so these opportunities won't ever be taken away."

Another mom who's telling the story to both her kids and the "kids" she coaches is Jeanette Bolden '85, track coach for the U.S. Olympic Women's Track Team and UCLA's squad, as well as mother to 7-year-old twins Kimberly and Anthony. "For my own kids and the athletes that I coach, I tell them they can go as far as their interests, talents and dedication will take them," she says. "Their race, their age, their gender, none of that matters. That's how my mom raised me, even in the days before Title IX. She always said the only limits are the ones you put on yourself."

The Green Trailer Revolution

Even after Title IX, it took a while for the notion of equal competition under the law to take hold, even in pioneering schools such as UCLA. Softball skipper Enquist well remembers the struggles for decent facilities. Along with the famed "green trailer" that sat on the grass outside the Women's Gym and for years served as the home of the Women's Athletic Department, "our uniforms were the men's track team's practice T-shirts. I kid you not," she says. "At the time, however, the men's track team was phenomenal, and written on the inside of the shirt I got were the initials, ‘WB.' That was Willie Banks '78, J.D. '83 [the triple-jump phenom who would go on to become a three-time Olympian], so I just considered it good karma."

Coach Bolden also faced limitations when she first arrived at UCLA in 1981, almost a decade after Title IX was passed. She was attending Cal State Northridge and visiting famed Bruin track and field Coach Bob Kersee. "I remember being recruited and sitting with Bobby outside the green trailer and him telling me how great it would be and how far I could go if I transferred to UCLA," Bolden says. "It was kind of funny, because he was making this big pitch that there would be all this great opportunity at UCLA, and we were sitting on some bench at the bottom of Janss Steps because there was nowhere else to talk. It was too crowded inside the trailer."

After Bolden (and her equally famous teammate Florence Griffith) left CSUN for UCLA, she noticed another discrepancy. "I remember that we had to wait to practice until the men were finished on the track. No one was intentionally trying to treat us unfairly; it was just that no one had complained before or made an issue of it. Well, Bobby did. He got them to paint start lines and hurdle markers on both sides of the track so that the men and women could practice at the same time. It was a pretty simple solution."

Published Oct 1, 2007 8:00 AM