OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN SPORTS: A FEMALE ATHLETE'S EXPERIENCE AND PERSPECTIVE by Sheryl Swoopes A SENIOR THESIS in GENERAL STUDIES Submitted to the General Studies Council in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas Tech University in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of BACHELOR OF GENERAL STUDIES Approved R. JUDITH HE Y Assistan v· e President, St~den A airs, TTU Co-Chair of Thesis Co · tee DR.;2RY OWENS Department of ~th, P.E. and Recreation Co-Chair of Thesis Committee Acc~ted DR. DALE DAVIS Director of General Studies DECEMBER 1994 :r')\r,.".-- 1~ \ ',,' j \ : ' ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . \. ,,~ . Opportunities for women in sports is a very important subject to me. In preparing my paper, a lot of people were there to help me with it. My thesis committee members--Dr. Mary Owens and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Judith Henry--contributed a lot of their time, professional advice and direction along with moral support. Dr. Dale Davis, Texas Tech University Director of General Studies, provided patient assistance from the beginning of the proposal to the finished product. My typist, Amy Nelson, contributed her time and even her weekend to work on it. And I thank my mom for being there, not just four years through college, but five. I am also greatful to my fiance for being there to encourage me not to give up. Last, but not least, I thank God for giving me the talent to play basketball and the wisdom and knowledge to prepare this thesis. For all of the help that I have received, I am greatly appreciative. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................ii CHAPTER I. A PERSONAL CASE HISTORY ............................................. 1 My Background ............................................................ 1 Junior High ................................................................ 3 High SchooL ................................................................3 The University of Texas ................................................. 7 South Plains College ................................................... 10 Texas Tech University ................................................. 12 The Final Four ............................................................ 1 5 II. TITLE IX ......................................................................... 18 Passing of Title IX ...................................................... 18 Court Cases .............................................................. 18 Results of Title IX ....................................................... 19 III. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES .................................................. 24 Careers in Broadcasting .............................................. 25 Professional Basketball League in the United States ...... 25 BIBLIOGRAPHy ................................................................................. 28 iii CHAPTER I A PERSONAL CASE HISTORY In exploring the topic of "women's opportunities in sports," I will begin in this chapter describing my own past experience as a female athlete, proceed in chapter two to analyze some of the factors that are shaping women's collegiate sports in the present (especia"y the passing of Title IX), and conclude in chapter three with some speculations about the future for women in professional sports. She gets the rebound, dribbles the length of the floor, crossover dribbles past one defender, reverse pivot and spin past another defender and scores. Texas Tech University has just won its first ever Women's NCAA Division I National Basketball Championship, 84-82, over Ohio State University in Atlanta, Georgia, in April of 1993. My Backgrouod Who would have ever thought that something like this could happen to me, Sheryl Swoopes, a little West Texas girl from Brownfield? I grew up in a single-parent home with Mom and two brothers, James and Earl. The reality of ever winning something as big as a National Championship only seemed like a dream. Little did I know that the game of basketball would someday turn my life completely around. 1 It all began when I was seven or eight years old, growing up in Brownfield. With not much to do in town, especially for an eight year old, I decided to try my skills at a sport--basketball. We did not have the money to buy a goal or have a driveway built to play on, so we had to make do with what we had. My brothers put together a tire rim, without a net, and an old wooden frame for the backboard. Every day after school my brothers would come home and do their homework, and then it was outside to shoot some hoops. I, on the other hand, would come home, do homework, and then play with my kitchen set or dolls. After a while, I got tired of dolls and kitchen sets and decided I wanted to do something a little more fun and exciting. I wanted to play ball like my brothers. I knew this idea would not go across well with them or my mother. My mom did not want me to play because she thought I would get hurt. My brothers did not want me to play because girls were sissies and could not play basketball, especially with boys. I was determined to play anyway. The first few times I played with them were nightmares. They did everything from hitting me with the ball to pushing me down on rocks, stickers or whatever else they could find that would hurt me. like any eight-year-old child, I ran inside crying to mom and told her what happened. She would rub my knees and say, "Baby, I told you those boys are too rough for you to play with. Stay inside with mama and play with your dolls." At that moment I felt rejected, not only by my brothers but my mom as well. I thought that of all 2 people, my mom would understand how I felt about playing basketball and support me, but not even she knew how much all of this meant to me. As the years went on, I continued trying to play basketball with my brothers, but nothing ever changed. I finally decided to give up. Junior High Once I entered junior high school, I decided to give basketball another shot. I made the A Team (the better team). It just did not seem like much fun anymore, because I did not have my brothers telling me I could not play, so it did not feel like a challenge. I tried not to look at it that way and to go ahead and have fun playing with all my friends. Through the two years of junior high that I played, I began to enjoy the game even more than I had growing up as a child. I had grown up a little and learned to enjoy more parts of basketball, like the competition and the friendships, instead of just playing for the fun of it. I realized that I had accomplished something individually, but the only thing I had not done yet was prove to my brothers that I could play. High School Going into high school was a hard adjustment for me. I was scared because I did not have many friends and did not know my way around, not to mention I was a freshman. The only thing I was excited about and looking forward to was basketball. Playing in high school was different from playing 3 in junior high because there were three different teams that one could try out for: the freshman team, which was the one I thought I would make, the junior varsity and the varsity. I was nervous and scared the first day of practice, but at the same time very excited. During the first few weeks of practice the varsity coach would come and watch us workout everyday before it was time for the varsity team to work out. We all tried to play extra hard and impress the coach, but all we could do was make mistakes. I never felt I was good enough to make the varsity squad as a freshman, so I tried not to think about the possibility of it happening. I continued to practice with the freshman team until about two weeks before our first game. I was getting ready for practice one day when the varsity coach approached me and said he wanted me to suit up with the varsity team for the day. I was in total shock and did not know what to say or how to react. I tried to remain calm and act as if I could handle it, but down inside I was about to explode. I guess one of the reasons I was so surprised and excited was that I had never in my wildest dreams thought I was good enough to play with the "Big Girls." After he told me the news, I could not wait to tell my friends. I knew they would be just as excited as I was, but to my surprise, they had already heard and did not seem too excited, as I had thought they would be. They started calling me names and said I thought I was better than they were. I did not know what to say or do, so I just walked out and started to cry. 4 went to the coach and told him what had happened in the dressing room and that I did not want to lose my friends that I had had since junior high. He explained to me that I had to grow up and do what was best for me if I wanted to be successful someday. He also said he understood how hard it was for me to leave the girls I had grown up playing with, but on the other hand they should want the best for me as well. At that point, I thought about what he said and decided that no thing or no person was going to stop me from doing something I had always dreamed of doing. I got ready for practice and didn't think about anything else. At first I was scared and afraid to get out there with the varsity girls, but after a while I relaxed and everything worked out all right.