Her name was Mabel Dorris.
She was the P.E. teacher at Marycliff High School when I attendedfrom 1969 to 1973. She was tough, gruff, no-nonsense. In our senioryearbook, she was the only teacher who didn't submit a fluffy quoteto run under her picture. In her P.E. classes, we played half-courtbasketball, daydreamed as we dribbled and never broke a sweat. Wefaked our way through showers - stepping in, shrieking, thenstepping out.
Now I understand, 30 years in retrospect, that Mrs. Dorris knewher basketball and would have made a helluva coach, if only. . .
At the NCAA women's tournament games Saturday night at theSpokane Arena, I scanned the crowd hoping to see Mrs. Dorris there,though she died long ago. Her spirit was there, perhaps, along withsome real Mrs. Dorris counterparts, those women who lived anddreamed in the time before Title IX opened up sports for girls.
There was a grief piece for me while watching the games, a senseof what pre-Title IX women missed.
Girls and women who loved the game, played and coached it well,have always existed. But that talent had few places to carry girlsin the old days, so for most, their basketball abilities lived anddied in school gym classes.
I thought of Mrs. Dorris as I interviewed the impressive players.She would have approved of their toughness, their poise and theirteam spirit. Jackie Stiles, the scoring phenom from SouthwestMissouri State, deflected questions about her own abilities topraise teammates. She sweated like a guy, as did many of the othergirls. They didn't seem afraid of showers.
They were all born several years after Title IX passed in 1972,born into an era where girls meet basketballs in neighborhooddriveways, elementary schools and sports camps. These young womenweaned on basketball might laugh aloud if you tell them what it waslike in those old days, but here's a glimpse:
At Marycliff, we didn't collect trophies or memorize sportsstatistics. Instead, we collected dance pictures and it is shamefulto admit that I once memorized how many dance pictures each of myfriends had on their bedroom shelves. Cheerleading tryouts, and theLilac Princess competition, were the highlights of the spring. Wecalled those athletic among us 'man-girls.'
Even if you had sports ability in your genes, as I might have (mydad played football at Gonzaga University in the days of leatherhelmets, and two of my nephews were star high school athletes), ittook tremendous energy, talent and motivation to even play clubball. Little hope existed for girls like me, those boy-crazy,melancholy types who wrote bad poetry, and who in these modern timesmight snap out of their adolescent angst by joining sports teams.
Christine Syme, 47, had the luck and talent while growing up inWisconsin. She's assistant sports information director at EasternWashington University and she worked behind the scenes at thetournament Saturday. She was raised in a family of jocks and playedclub ball in her teens. Title IX passed her senior year in highschool in Janesville, Wis.
At the University of Wisconsin, she played basketball, tennis andvolleyball, but there were no scholarships, no weight training and'no one came to our games.'
Syme later coached high school in an era when things were intransition for girls, but coaches faced lousy pay, empty gyms and,sometimes, ridicule.
'These girls take for granted the things we wished for as kids,'Syme said as she and her daughter Maggie watched the SouthwestMissouri State and Duke girls warm up.
She said it with gratitude for the present, rather thanbitterness about the past.
And that's the only way, because that's how history unfolds.Small steps lead to big changes, but the changes can take decades.And those women and men who take the first steps aren't alwaysaround to see where the path ends up. Mrs. Dorris wasn't, but otherswere.
They lived to see almost 11,000 people pack the Arena to watchgirls play incredible ball. They lived to see this televisednationally.
On Saturday night, I wanted to offer up the entire scene at theArena - the cheerleaders, the bands, the fans who traveled days towatch their teams, the cool women coaches shouting and pacing on thesidelines, the female sportswriters - to the pioneers. To thosewomen who taught drifty girls in P.E. classes and dreamed of greaterthings for those girls. To the early coaches who played to emptygyms but persevered by imagining the crowds to come.
Thank you, and great game!
This sidebar appeared with the story:
TONIGHT
West final
University of Washington plays Southwest Missouri State for thechampionship of the women's West Regional at the Arena.
Tipoff: 7:07
TV: ESPN2
