Oct. 17, 2006
By Megan Youngblood
CSTV.com
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MEGAN YOUNGBLOOD
Megan Youngblood is CSTV.com's women's basketball columnist. |
The Waldorf-Astoria's Grand Ballroom was bursting at the seams Monday night, jam-packed with multiple generations of the world's greatest female athletes. The Women's Sports Foundation and Billie Jean King hosted 91 prominent female athletes and guests at its 27th Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner.
A "Grand March of Athletes" promenaded the start of the ceremony, which was an impressive display of strength and achievements. The overwhelming athletic sight would have even made those ballyhooed runway models want to pick up a dumbbell.
Among several awards given, highlighting the night were the inductions of four International Women's Sports Hall of Famers, a class that included five-time Australian Olympic swimming medalist Shane Gould, world champion distance swimmer Diana Nyad and former Iowa State track and field stand out Nawal El Moutawakel. Rounding out the class was 34-year veteran women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer.
In her acceptance speech, three-time National Coach of the Year Stringer emphasized how Title IX has opened doors for her, although, from its onslaught, created a paranoia that questioned women's reasoning for pushing the law and that threatened the state of men's sports.
"I span over a long time and that is pre-Title IX," Stringer said. "I have to tell you that there were lots of whispers about this legislation that was going to affect change and the opportunities that men had."
When the Rutgers' coach started at Iowa, she didn't even expect to be compensated.
"I was concerned because I was going to be paid to coach, and I couldn't imagine that," said Stringer, who didn't compare her coaching compensation to that of the paid male coaches of the time. "There was something about that that really bothered me, because I loved coaching so much that I would have paid anything to do that. But to think that we were going to be paid. There were men that were intimidated and there were women that were subjugated and intimidated along those lines."
The more Stringer looked at what was wrong in those times, the more she saw what needed to be changed for equality's sake. And those ideas for changes were always prompted by the word why.
"My father once told me that if you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything," Stringer said. "And sometimes we make sacrifices. Sometimes we accept criticisms. But the truth of the matter is that when there are inequities, as there were then, you have to be willing to stand apart from yourself but to pass for others, for future generations of the young people.
"So I constantly ask questions all the time," Stringer continued. "Why is it only that we have two leather basketballs? Why is it that we take no trainers (on the road) and didn't have doctors? (But) the rest is history because our team ended up playing in the National Championship."
As the only coach in NCAA history to lead three different women's programs to the Final Four, what encouraged her to coach at a very early age was actually a failed, or rather unsatisfactory attempt, at cheerleading, although she really wanted to play basketball. Before Title IX, her high school didn't have to adhere to any legislation that garnered females with equal playing rights. Hence, there wasn't a women's basketball team.
"I tried out for the cheerleading squad," Stringer said. "And I should tell you that I was not interested in `2-4-6-8 who do you appreciate', at all," Stringer said. "I wanted to get close enough to the sidelines so that I could encourage my friends to `put your head down, follow the blockers.'"
It was from that point on that she perfected her basketball critiques, which have spun her into 700-plus wins, becoming the fourth women's basketball coach to tally that many Ws.
Stringer accepted the induction with an overwhelming gratitude and the acknowledgment that changes still need to be made.
"We've come a long way," Stringer said, "and yet we've got so much more to go. We must ask the questions why. We must get involved."
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