The Title IX guidelines may have been muddled in 1972, but Dr. Donnis Thompson had a clear vision of what could be for women's collegiate athletics. Thompson blazed
a trail for UH womenThe total of Wahine sports grew
Tough cuts made
from 2 to 7 while she served as
the first UH women's ADBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comIn the early 1960s, she had seen the possibilities at the national and world stage as an international-caliber sprinter and relay runner, and the coach of the U.S. women's national track team. As the first women's athletics director at the University of Hawaii, she laid the foundation for Wahine sports through hard work and perseverance.
When Title IX passed, she was more than ready to run with the implementation of a women's athletics program.
"For the first time, there was national attention for the issue of the inequities in education between men and women," the 69-year-old Thompson said in a telephone interview from her Palm Desert, Calif., home. "For the first couple of years, the entire university waited and wondered for clear guidelines. What did Title IX entail exactly?
"Many of the people in power weren't going to make a move to change things until they saw that the guidelines were clear, and that there was no way to get around those guidelines."
Thompson credits Faith Evans for having the courage to file the lawsuit (see related story, B6).
"Some of the people in power wanted to play games, asking if we really meant what we were pushing for," Thompson said. "Then they kept bringing up that whatever was done would have to affect the men's programs.
"There were so many biases. The fact was that not too many had the vision to see they were dealing with human beings, not a division of the seasons. Our question was, 'Why shouldn't every human being have the right to achieve?' It did not have to be about males vs. females."
It turned into a struggle about power and money. Some blamed it on the hazy Title IX guidelines (which President Gerald Ford cleared up in 1975 with an amendment specifically prohibiting sex discrimination in athletics).
"There was so much pressure nationally for schools to comply," Thompson said. "And some people didn't like it if women's athletics shared the power and the dollars."
There was also a struggle to get recognition from the newly formed Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Although women's volleyball became a varsity sport at UH in 1972, neither the women's nor men's programs belonged to a conference.
In order to qualify for the 1974 AIAW national championship, a tournament was put together on Kauai with several of the island community colleges, Hawaii-Hilo and Brigham Young-Hawaii. The Wahine won and "we could say we were the Hawaii state collegiate champions," said team member Beth McLachlin. "That tournament qualified us in the eyes of the AIAW, but, because it was played out of season, all of us had a year of eligibility taken away.
"It was hard for us because we had no money to travel to play other teams and no teams would come here to play. A lot of times, we would scrimmage against the Punahou boys varsity for competition."
Hawaii went on to finish second in its inaugural appearance at the AIAW nationals. The Wahine never finished lower than third in seven AIAW seasons, winning the title in 1979.
Thompson, who was teaching physical education, was named part-time women's athletics director in 1972 and full-time AD in 1976.
"We came out and asked for our own athletic department," she said. "We said that if the university was going to be serious, they had to give some time to develop a program and make it more than just intramurals."
Thompson said she felt that the support from the athletes, their parents and the community helped make the program successful from the beginning. When she left to become the Hawaii superintendent of schools in 1981, the Wahine program had increased from two to seven sports.
"I am so pleased that I was put there at that time," Thompson said. "We had many people helping us make the change and they kept it going after I left. I think Marilyn (Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, current women's athletics director) has done a fabulous job."
Thompson, who developed glaucoma and is blind in one eye, has had a cornea implant to restore the sight to her "good" eye. She has also recently put her home up for sale and hopes to move back to Hawaii.
"The only problem I have now is when people start saying that it's the women's fault they have to cut men's programs," she said. "The problem is football. It may make the most money, but it also spends the most money.
"The real issue is equality across the board. I don't understand how you can blame an error, the inequity of the opportunities for women in education. There never should have been a problem in the first place if all were treated equally."
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UH made tough cuts
to add women’s sportsIt was a tough choice to cut two men's sports in order to add women's intercollegiate athletics at the University of Hawaii. Paul Durham said it was what had to be done.
"I think we were one of the first schools in the country that dropped a couple of men's sports," said Durham, the UH athletics director from 1968 to '75. "Before Title IX in 1972, there was never any real push for women's athletics that I knew of.
"Suddenly, we had Title IX and we had to do something. I was running a tight budget and went up to the chancellor and said, 'We need help. We have to start the development of women's sports.'
"He said he couldn't help us, couldn't get anything more from the state. I was told I had to do it with what I had."
Hawaii was still struggling to become an NCAA Division I program and had no conference affiliation. Durham cut men's wrestling and track.
"The sad part was cutting loose some good coaches and letting go of sports that were big in high schools," Durham said. "Those athletes now had to go to the mainland if they wanted to continue. But we had to have women's sports and I was all for it.
"(Women's athletics director) Donnis Thompson was the fireball behind the whole deal. All I did was help where I could."
Durham grew up in Portland, Ore., where he played basketball and football, and ran track. At Linfield College in Oregon, he played all three sports "until I got too heavy to run track," he said.
"And when I grew up in Portland, I only saw old men playing volleyball on Saturdays. I never developed any respect for volleyball until I came to Hawaii. Now, that and basketball are the two sports I enjoy watching the most."
Durham, 92, has season tickets to most UH sports and tries to attend as many games as possible.
"We have terrific teams," he said. "That's a credit to the athletic directors after me who hired great coaches: Ray Nagel, Stan Sheriff and Hugh Yoshida. And I really respect the coaches who do a marvelous job of recruiting good students.
"But I'm sure proud of the women's teams. I think we've become one of the top universities for women's sports."
