Women on the Court
How Title IX Changed High School Sports  

by Ronald D. Pesch

During the 1997-98 season, 696 Michigan high schools will participate in the sport. Yet, thirty years ago, girls basketball barely existed in the Wolverine state. The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), the governing body for high school sports, has only sponsored a girls’ basketball championship tournament for twenty-five years. The boys’ basketball state tourney dates back to 1917. 

Why the difference? It’s not that girls hadn’t played basketball. In fact, the sport dates back to 1898 in Michigan. It is even believed the girls’ game predates the boys’ at the high school level. Women’s basketball remained popular into the 1920s. However, the Great Depression forced schools across Michigan to cut sports programs to the bone. Among the casualties were girls’ athletics. In other regions of the country, girls’ basketball survived, firmly entrenched and extremely popular. Although 1973 was the first girls’ championship tourney in Michigan, the year marked the fifty-fourth girls’ state cage tournament in Oklahoma and Iowa. Oklahoma began tournament play in 1919, missing one state championship in 1934 because of the Depression. In Iowa, where the girls often outdraw the boys during March Madness, the tourney began in 1920.

Despite the prosperity of the war years, girls’ athletics failed to return to many Michigan schools. By the mid-1940s, girls’ basketball had all but disappeared. Concerns about the expense of running a women’s program, the lack of spectator interest and the girls’ physical well-being were often cited as reasons for not providing competitive sports for females. While men began to explore an expanding menu of athletic activities, women found few avenues of athletic competition available to them. (Even cheerleading was dominated by men until after World War II.) Competitive athletics did not fit in with the “sugar and spice and everything nice” attitudes of the postwar era.

During the 1950s most activity on the girls’ basketball court occurred in parochial schools or as intramural sports in gym class. If the girls played, it was, for the most part, the half-court game known as six-man basketball. Involving three players on the offensive and three players on the defensive end of the court, the game was, according to popular belief at the time, less strenuous on the girls.

“I started coaching in 1956, when I was a junior in high school,” said Diane Laffey, the state’s leader in girls’ varsity basketball victories. “It was a local grade school, Our Lady Queen of Peace, in Harper Woods. The boys had everything to do, while the girls had nothing. So a friend of mine, Marie Goubert [later a high school basketball official in Michigan], and I asked the priest if we could start a girls’ team. It was three on each side of the court.”

“The girls themselves wanted to become involved,” said Jo Lake, athletic director at Grosse Pointe South and a former coach at Flint Holy Rosary. “They wanted something to do. At Flint Holy Rosary in 1964 there was absolutely nothing for the girls to do. The girls knew I had played in high school. They asked me if I would open up the gym. It was very contagious. Soon they were asking if they could play games against other schools.”

Citing their own exposure to sports, more and more women began pushing the idea of athletics for females in high schools. Barb Crill, head coach of the 1976 Class A state champions from Marquette, attended an all-girls school in Staunton, Virginia, as a youngster. Girls’ sports were common in Virginia; Crill played golf, field hockey and basketball and swam in high school. “My dad got me playing softball when I was about seven and I was introduced to a very good sports program in school. We would get on a little bus and go over the Blue Ridge Mountains to play other schools in the area. The people there really enjoyed their sports. It was fun for me.”

Crill’s career led her in 1967 to Marquette, where she found a district with few athletic opportunities for girls. “It was just natural to start teams for girls,” noted Crill about the development of the sports program. “I enjoyed seeing the kids progress.” The girls assisted in the growth of Marquette’s athletic program. “The kids made their own rules and regulations and they stuck by them,” added Crill. “They decided that everyone had to participate in three sports during the school year. A girl could play basketball, but she also had to participate in two other sports.” 

Girls’ basketball during this era was much different than the game we see today. Brenda Gatlin, a coach in Detroit, described the typical 1960s season. “We played a five-game schedule. After the game, the host would supply cookies and milk. It was a requirement that each of the girls on the visiting team receive an orange. It was like a little social. We played at the same time as the boys. Because the boys needed the gym, we didn’t get too much practice—maybe two days a week for an hour. But it was fun. We’d call around and ask different schools if they wanted to play.” 

Being a women’s coach during this time required an additional level of dedication—the job often meant handling every duty imaginable. “I can remember we had no money for uniforms,” recalled Lake about the early days at Holy Rosary. “We had to sew our own. Then one day we were allowed to purchase store-bought shirts. But we had to wear them for all sports. As coach, I also had to drive the bus to away games.” 

It wasn’t until 1966 that the MHSAA formed the Girls Athletics Committee to look at the growth in girls’ high school sports in Michigan and across America. The group held its first meeting that October to craft guidelines for schools offering girls’ athletic programs. For many coaches it signified the start on the long road back. 

Despite renewed interest, schools still were not required to offer interscholastic athletics programs for females. Opportunities within the sport were slim. Relatively few four-year colleges offered scholarships for women basketball players. 

Karen LaFata, a 1970 graduate of Detroit St. Anthony, had played basketball under Laffey. Despite being a fine ballplayer, LaFata was unable to secure an athletic scholarship. Like many others, she was faced with no outlet after high school. 

In some areas of Michigan, the only opportunity for the budding female athlete was a summer city league. For Denise Sharps, a 1972 graduate of Muskegon Heights, basketball was not an option during her high school years. Because her school did not have a team, she learned the game on the playgrounds around her home and in the city league. She also learned by watching idols play on television—NBA athletes earning a living playing the game they loved. 

Not until the passage of Title IX in 1973—legislation prohibiting discrimination against students based on race, sex or religion—did the sport really begin to grow in Michigan. Title IX forced the creation of a women’s athletic program at a number of high schools and colleges across the nation. In Michigan it forced action by the MHSAA in the form of the girls’ state basketball tournament. 

In December 1973 eight high school teams gathered at four different sites around the state to compete for Michigan’s first basketball championships. In Class A, Detroit Dominican downed Grand Rapids Christian 70-43 at Grand Blanc High School. In Class B, Hudsonville Unity Christian slipped past Saginaw MacArthur 49-45 in Grand Rapids. In Class C at Owosso, Hamtramck St. Ladislaus capped an undefeated season with a 67-43 win over Blissfield. Ewen-Trout Creek also finished the year undefeated with a victory over North Muskegon 57-48 at Alma. “I think interest in the game picked up with the start of the state finals in 1973,” said Laffey. “Prior to that, all the girls could do was win a league championship.” 

Title IX also opened up a number of job opportunities for both women and men. Prior to its enactment, all women’s teams were to be in the charge of and under the direct supervision of a female member of the faculty and had to be coached by women. With Title IX, this was no longer the case. A man could now fill these positions. 

“I believe men began to take coaching jobs once the sport was more established and the money was there,” said Peggy Van Eckouct, longtime coach at Grosse Pointe South. “Some took the job because they felt it was easier. The referees were calling all contact. They didn’t think that girls should be that physical. It was almost like a separate game. In the state we had boys’ basketball and girls’ basketball. Now it’s different.” 

Title IX also meant more opportunities for students following high school. After graduating from Muskegon Heights, Sharps honed her skills at the local community college. Her abilities led to a scholarship at Indiana State University. After college, she fulfilled a dream by playing the game at the professional level. In 1979 Sharps caught on with the Iowa Cornets in the short-lived Women’s Professional Basketball League; the team advanced to the final round of the league playoffs. She played two more seasons, with Chicago and Minnesota, before the league collapsed in a sea of red ink in 1981. 

Despite not being able to play college basketball, LaFata maintained her interest in the sport and put herself through college. She became a teacher and later a coach at Mount Clemens L’Anse Creuse. Today, she coaches basketball at Macomb County Community College. 

Women continue to press for equal opportunities. The desire to play in a major college facility resulted in moving the 1997 finals to Central Michigan University’s Rose Arena after a seven-year run at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena. 

The game also continues to grow economically. The Women’s National Basketball Association, with the huge resources and the marketing clout of its sponsor, the NBA, has arrived on the scene. The American Basketball League, a second female professional league, provides the athletes with another option. Both leagues (featuring a number of former Michigan high school athletes) are battling for personnel and audiences. At the college level, the women’s NCAA tournaments have exploded in popularity. In March a sell-out crowd of 16,714 watched the University of Tennessee win its second consecutive national title with a 68-59 victory over Old Dominion. Unlike the men’s game, coaches do not fear the early departure of their star athletes for greener pastures. To date, both professional leagues have agreed that they will not recruit undergraduate players. Only time will tell if the professional game will succeed financially, and if so, whether financial success will alter the women’s game. 

The popularity of the game soars with today’s youth. Thankfully, it is no longer out of place for a child, regardless of gender, to receive a basketball. 

Ronald Pesch is a sports historian who lives in Muskegon. His first article for Michigan History, “Vaudevillians by the Lake: Buster Keaton and Friends,” appeared in the September/October 1995 issue.