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June 25, 2012

Ex-ISU coach has witnessed Title IX’s impact

Dennis Clark The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Title IX has turned the big 4-0!

Dr. Levon Garrison has seen firsthand women’s sports before, during and after Title IX while a member of the women’s physical education faculty at Indiana State University from 1960-88.

Riding the momentum of Title IX, Garrison built the ISU women’s bowling program into a national power — including a national title in 1984, and national runner-up finishes in 1983 and 1985.

Now retired from ISU, she still marvels at the evolution in women’s sports.

“Few people now under the age of 55 even know what Title IX is,” Garrison stated.

And she meant that as a good thing, inferring women’s sports have achieved mainstream status in many people’s minds.

For you people under 55, just what is Title IX?

Basically, the U.S. Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, banning sex discrimination at any educational institution receiving federal funds.

Title IX must meet a “three prong” test: (1) participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to the respective enrollments, (2) show a history and continuing practice of program expansion in response to the interest and abilities of the underrepresented sex, and (3) demonstrate that interests and abilities of members of the underrepresented sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the school’s program.

“The main difference from before Title IX and after Title IX is that women, college athletes, had a schedule,” Garrison recalled.

“We had club sports … then we went to teams. Then we had schedules, we had uniforms, we had budget, we had scholarships. Before, we didn’t have any of that.

“Before we’d get a call from say the Physical Education Department at Purdue, saying ‘we’re having a basketball day, you want to come up?’ The basketball club would pick some people and go up there and play.

“Then you had to chip in for insurance. As I recall it was 10 cents a person and it had to be postmarked before we left town.” She smiled, then quipped, “We cheated sometimes.”

Garrison is quick to point out the contributions of many others in the implementation of Title IX at ISU, one of the key people being Eleanor Forsythe St. John.

Forsythe St. John, a five-sport participant at ISU (1935 graduate), headed the school’s Department of Physical Education for Women (1960-77) and instituted scholarships for females athletes.

“If you volunteered to take a club sport, you got a gold star,” Garrison laughed. “One of the responsibilities for the coaches in club sports, then teams when they started out, was to drive the team to the meets or matches. You gave up your weekends or evenings. You just gave them up.

“All the original coaches were PE teachers. It was assumed if you taught it, you coached it.”

In fact, the bowling program began under Edie Godleski as an intramural sport. However, Godleski soon moved over to start the ISU women’s basketball program in 1971, with Garrison becoming the bowling coach.

At the outset, Garrison was not a full-time coach with a large salary. The team didn’t even have scholarships.

“I don’t believe I ever received money for coaching,” Garrison said. “I got release time. In other words, you were supposed to have 15 credit hours that you’re teaching. Maybe you’d only have to teach 12. By the time I retired, I was half-time coaching and half-time teaching.”

Bowling hit the ground rolling at ISU with the help of six universities — ISU, Vincennes, Eastern Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Ball State — forming the University Travel League. ISU enjoyed an 87 percent winning record in the UTL.

“When the women’s and men’s athletic departments moved together, we were able to start giving scholarships,” Garrison explained. “We started with three scholarships and later went to five. We were one of only a few schools in the country to offer bowling scholarships.”

Once the word got out about the scholarships, Garrison started receiving applications.

“I’d look at them, and then decide whether they were worth a scholarship. We had some good bowlers, had some bad ones, too. Had one or two that turned out to be pros.

“One turned out to be a [future] pro, I had her signed up for a scholarship and in order to get her to come I had to bring her friend, who was also a good bowler, on scholarship. Well, they came to Terre Haute, saw the housing situation … didn’t stay. Not the most appealing housing arrangements if you wanted to live off campus at that time.”

But while some blue chippers got away, Garrison had first-team All-Americans in Vicki Parker (1983, 84, 85, 86), Lynn Pruitt (1986) and Kathy Edwards (1988). Second-teamers included Traci Rosenthal (1983), Pruitt (1987, 88) and Edwards (1985).

Garrison and Parker were both inducted in ISU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

Style, along with substance, was important to Garrison with her teams.

“We had bowling bags with Indiana State on them,” Garrison said. “I’d always tried to dress [the players] up with uniforms. Not too skimpy, but enough so they could move freely. I always had them try to look nice, partly so they’d bowl better. If you have pride in your group, you’re going to perform better. Because you’re going to believe you’re good.

“They had to buy their own [bowling] balls. They wanted to know if they could take two. I said … ‘if you want to carry them, you can take them’. I also said ‘what can you do with two balls that you can’t do with one?,’ ” she laughed. “Now the pros have 10 or 12 for every oiling pattern.”

While the program enjoyed national success, it was not a happy ending. Bowling, gymnastics and wrestling were cut for budget purposes in 1986, joining swimming, field hockey and archery already on the sidelines.

Even with Title IX in place, Garrison to this day is still not sure how all those cuts, not just to her program, were justified. But she is pleased with the addition in recent years of soccer and golf as women’s sports at ISU.

“The women’s athletic programs evolved from Title IX,” Garrison stated.

“Before Title IX, as a girl growing up, competition was a nasty word. It wasn’t nice, it wasn’t ladylike. [Title IX] changed the whole feeling of competition for women. Shoot, at the time if we’d known there would be a women’s professional basketball league, we would’ve said ‘oh, you’re dreaming.’

“At the time, we didn’t realize the significance of [Title IX]. That’s true with many changes you go through, you don’t realize the implications until later down the road.”

Did Garrison foresee the rise in women’s sports when she joined the ISU faculty in 1960?

“No,” she stated quickly. “I’d guess I could foretell we’d have a women’s basketball team, a women’s volleyball team. But to the extent they’ve developed, [I had] no idea.”

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