The Daily Illini: An Advocate for UI Women’s Athletics
May 3, 2022 | General, Title IX, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
FEATURE
For more than 150 years, The Daily Illini has served as the journalistic voice for the students of the University of Illinois. But during the early days of the Title IX era, it was an especially vociferous advocate for the campus's women's athletes.
Known more commonly among its readers as the "D.I.", its 1970s staff writers all fought for the rights of UI's burgeoning female competitors.
On Dec. 21, 1972, just six months after the United States Congress passed the Title IX Amendment, the D.I. published a lengthy article by Debbie Retel. The piece—sub-headed "A woman stays a woman even when it comes to sports"—challenged the stereotype that competitive athletics diminished a woman's femininity.
Her story began somewhat derisively. "Sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what little girls are made of. Yet, how female does a woman remain who participates in sports. Does it matter?"
Retel quoted Vicky Brown, a coxswain on the rowing team at the University of Oregon.
"No, an individual never loses her femininity. She is an individual by herself and everyone displays it differently than someone else. She's a woman no matter what she is, be it a discus thrower or whatever."
Echoed Nell Jackson, then UI Professor of Physical Education for Women, "I feel that no femininity is lost when a girl participates in sports. In the case of a discus thrower, the sport doesn't make the girl. There's a certain movement that one goes through to do it that is neither masculine nor feminine. If it's done right, it looks good and one can enjoy the movement whether it be a male or female doing it."
Retel also interviewed Sue Pfeffer, Champaign's director of the National Organization for Women, for her story.
"To me, a woman belongs everywhere," Pfeffer said, "whether she want to throw a football, play golf, or whatever. A woman should have the privilege to participate in any sports she wants. It shouldn't be up to the AAU or the NCAA or anything else to decide. Today's woman wants to play and participate in athletics. She wants to be a tennis champ, a hockey goalie, or virtually everything else that the world of sports has to offer. And through it all, she'll be as female as ever."
Retel also wrote about the discriminatory hurdles she encountered as a female reporter.
"I had been given a press pass to help cover the Illini football game at Ohio State, but there seemed to be a question in the minds of the OSU men who run the press box as to whether I should be able to use the pass," Retel wrote. "I was standing by my seat when the Columbus chief of police came up to me and escorted me to the man in charge. This man, the Sports Information Director, felt I had no right to be there because I was a woman. The fact that I was also a reporter covering the event seemed to be an extraneous consideration. After several exchanges in conversation, the man decided that I could stay … however, I had to sit in a new seat rather than the one my ticket was for and was warned 'this had better not happen again'. Needless to say, he also threatened to write letters to my editor telling him that he should have known better. I really don't know what the man feared would happen but it seems this fear is prevalent not only throughout the Big Ten, but also in covering professional sports."
Susan Sternberg, the primary beat writer for Illini women's athletics during that first season in 1974-75, composed both positive stories about those initial teams and ones that were critical of the budget inequities between men and women.
She enthusiastically wrote in August of 1974 about the Athletic Association's decision to include women's athletes into its varsity intercollegiate program but wasn't as complimentary when it came to comparing the athletic budgets of the men ($2.4 million) to that of the women ($83,000).
"The $83,000 is nice for one year," Sternberg wrote, "but the women should work themselves up to relative equality with the men. Women athletes really are more concerned about equal opportunity than equal monetary expenditures. Probably $2.4 million for a women's sports program would be a waste of money—the women just don't need that much money. Yet, since the men have a fine athletic program at Illinois, the women shouldn't be deprived of one. They should have equal opportunity and access to the best facilities and competition. The move this year towards concurrent competition by the Illini male and female teams is a step in the right direction. You've come a long way, Illinois women athletes—and it's just the beginning."
The D.I.'s male staff writers also were supportive, especially Jeff Metcalfe.
"Many (in the UI student body) will be too set in their ways to look upon women's sports as anything but the Athletic Association's weak sister," Metcalfe wrote. "They'll continue their ritual of attending the Saturday football games. For these people, the prejudice towards women's sports is perhaps unconscious and unintentional but nonetheless devastating. The only way to break it is to consciously and intentionally point it out. For all new students, the challenge is to come to school with an open mind and not simply relegate all women to the pom-pon squad. So when the nearest propagandist hits you with the pitch about buying a football or basketball ticket say you'll be glad to just as soon as you get done watching the women's tennis meet. It'll blow their minds."
Daily Illini editorials concerning women's athletics were commonplace in the 1970s, keeping the issue of equality front and center. Most commentaries called for increased funding; some criticized then UI Director of Athletics Cecil Coleman for not acting more decisively in handing out scholarships for females. That disparagement subsided a bit during the summer of 1975 when the Athletic Association announced that 76 tuition-waiver scholarships to more than 100 women athletes would be enacted for the 1975-76 academic calendar.
Thanks to the dedication of the Daily Illini reporters, coverage of Fighting Illini women's events have continued to surge since the mid '70s. However, a November 2021 story by D.I. digital content editor Claire O'Brien suggested that there's still a wide gap between the genders.
"Though women's sports are more visible in society," O'Brien wrote, "they are still not treated as equally as men's sports. The NCAA needs to stop preaching equality and start working towards it. The world is watching."
