Henrietta Hay's Column

A young friend of mine, who is going to college on the west coast, is writing a term paper on women in sports. He asked me about my athletic experience back in the dark ages (he was tactful enough not to word it that way), and how it compared to that of girls in sports today.

My first reaction was to say that in my day we played for fun; today they play to win. But it is not that simple. My friend the philosopher pointed out that we too would have played to win if we had had any real competition. Women's sports reflect social mores and the changing roles of women.

The combative spirit, the physical drive and athletic skill were not lacking in women in the thirties, but we were not brought up to use them.

Little girls have every bit as much physical energy as little boys. But society has channeled it differently. There were no organized sports for little kids, so we played those wildly physical games like kick the can and a form of football in the middle of the street. Well, the little boys did. The little girls were discouraged from them, and the few of us who joined in were known as tomboys. The fact that they had produced a tomboy was somewhat embarrassing to my parents, but I will give them high marks for never seriously discouraging me.

At Colorado University I became an athlete instead of a tomboy, but socially it wasn't much of an improvement. Women's sports were strictly intramural. That meant that every team had good players and lousy players, and the competition was more social than athletic. Even that was not without physical risk, however. The most serious injury of my career came during a softball game when I was catching and my roommate was pitching. The batter hit a high fly between us, and we both went for it, our eyes on the ball. We met in the middle with a mighty crash, and when I began to see daylight again there were a lot of new stars in the afternoon Boulder sky.

We were really playing for fun. In spite of that, or maybe because of it, I had a wonderful athletic experience in college, playing in nearly every sport.

And then came the seventies with the women's movement and Title IX. The status of women's sports underwent a major change.

Today little girls start playing soccer almost as soon as they can walk. But as Diane Carman said recently in the Denver Post, "For girls who have been rewarded all their lives for being patient and waiting their turn, the whole concept of athletic competition requires a pretty serious re-education program."

That was pretty obvious to me as I watched a team of second grade girls play soccer several years ago. They all but said, "Excuse me," when they kicked the ball, and they ducked when it came toward them. But they learned. Today they are fast and skilled and tough. Their attitude is, "Don't get in my way."

Women athletes have learned competitiveness to match the competitive world they live in. They have learned how to push and battle to win. They have gone from 2nd grade soccer to Olympic gold medals and professional basketball.

The experience of girls today is far more strenuous than it was in my time. They have competitive leagues and coaches that want to win. Their sports experience can be emotionally hard, physically difficult, and often unfair. But they learn teamwork and cooperation and how to fight hard for what they want. They learn to compete and how to win and how to lose. The tough training girls now are getting in sports programs will serve them well in the world they are facing. And I hope they're having fun, too.

My young friend asked me whether my experience in sports helped me to deal with the problems of living in later years. The answer is, "Yes." The program was right for then. It would not be right today. To try to train girls today with yesterday's rules would be to send them into tomorrow's competitive world with one hand tied behind their backs.

Women's sports definitely reflect the changing roles of women.