|
|
| by
Carol Schmidt, MSU Communications Services |
| Photo
by Erin Fredrichs, Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
| . |
| There
are young women stretching for a run outside
Ellen Kreighbaum's office in the Hoseus Health
and PE Center on the MSU campus. The slap
and boom of women playing volleyball echoes
down the hall. |
|
|
| For
Kreighbaum, Montana State women's athletics pioneer, these
are the sights and sounds of success. |
| "I
think Title IX has made a tremendous impact," Kreighbaum
says. "The idea that women could and should compete. That
made a big difference." |
| But
it hasn't always been that way at Montana State and the
Title IX legislation mandate needed someone to implement
and police it. For more than four decades, that person
on the Bozeman campus has been Kreighbaum. |
| "When
I first came here, participating in athletics was absolutely
the wrong thing to do for women," Kreighbaum recalls.
She first set foot on the MSU campus in 1965. A graduate
of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Kreighbaum came
to Bozeman to direct women's intramurals after one year
of teaching high school and elementary school physical
education in Illinois. Always athletic, Kreighbaum had
been a gifted basketball player and swimmer who had no
venue for competition. |
| "I
was quite pleased that when I went back to my high school
reunion, one of the former boys' basketball players in
my class told me he wished I would have been able to play
on the boys' team because I was as talented as or more
talented than the boys on the team." |
| In
1965, Women's Intramural funding was totally separate
from the men's programs and not equal. Women were restricted
to use the university's only gym from 7-9 p.m. every Thursday
evening. All sports opportunities for women were funded
by $300 (subsequently raised to $500) given to them by
ASMSU plus money from Kreighbaum's pocket. |
| Like
a marathon runner, Kreighbaum made progress a step at
a time in the following years. She put a notice on the
women's locker room door that she was assembling an intercollegiate
women's basketball team, bought t-shirts for them and
set up a schedule for them to play others colleges and
universities in Montana. Fifty women tried out for 24
spots. For three years the MSU women's team won all of
its games until finally losing to Simon Fraser University
in the Northwest District Regional championship. |
| In
the next few years, Kreighbaum helped do a few important
things for women's athletics, women faculty members, and
her future. She succeeded in her request to athletic director
Tom Parac to oversee it by moving her thriving women's
athletics program into the men's athletics department. |
| In
1973, she joined a successful suit filed by several women
faculty members asking for equal pay. In 1976 a federal
judge found that the university was not in compliance
with civil rights legislation and awarded three year's
back pay to most, if not all, women faculty members. |
| Kreighbaum
earned her Ph.D. at Washington State in sports biomechanics.
In the process she became a pioneer in both MSU women's
sports and internationally in the science of biomechanics.
During the recent Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Kreighbaum
was quoted in national publications on the biomechanics
of the winter Olympic sports. |
| Title
IX, with its premise that women should have equal opportunity
to participate in competitive sports, was implemented
in 1972 and led to the addition of several women's sports
at MSU. But Kreighbaum believes the law didn't really
have a great impact until just recently when the federal
government began enforcing it. |
| Title
IX is not without its detractors, Kreighbaum says. There
are those that erroneously believe that Title IX is the
reason that some sports, such as wrestling, have been
phased out at many universities. She is quick to add that
at MSU women's gymnastics was eliminated at the same time
as wrestling. Kreighbaum believes the reason for the demise
of many competitive sports--male and female--is the emphasis
and amount of money designated to football in many athletic
programs. |
| Kreighbaum
says that there are many people who deserve credit for
the success of Title IX on the MSU campus. Among those
are former presidents Carl MacIntosh and Bill Tietz, and
Ginny Hunt, the first and last director of the independent
MSU Women's Athletic Department. Kreighbaum believes that
MSU women's athletics currently has strong support from
its new athletic director Peter Fields and MSU President
Geoff Gamble and his wife Patricia. |
| Kreighbaum
believes that the time has come for women's athletics.
|
| "The
big change was when women's sports became marketable,"
Kreighbaum said. "You turn on the TV now and you see women's
sports and athletes like Venus and Serena. You see advertisements
for women's sports clothing and shoes. TV has brought
these women's faces to the world and young kids can name
their women sports heroes. |
| "Socially,
males are beginning to respect women who are active, who
are physically skillful and who can join them in participating
in tough, demanding physical activity. Relationships are
based on participating together in activities such as
hiking, swimming. We have a healthier society now." |
| And
how does that make a pioneer like Kreighbaum feel? |
| "Good,"
she says nodding. "Really, really good." |
