Sophia Throener Rodriguez, History 250: The Historian Craft, Spring 2023

After Title IX was made a national law, many universities grappled with how to manage the new legislation in various areas. There were many feminist activists who were excited about the changes that Title IX could mean for women in sports, the workplace, and schools. Although Title IX applies to more than just sports, women’s sports issues garnered the most attention. Whether negative or positive, Title IX had extensive press on university campuses. Unfortunately, a lot of the reactions from male students, faculty, and coaches in the 2000s at the University of Nebraska were negative. When men’s sports began to lose funding, they incorrectly viewed the implementation of women’s sports as taking away opportunities from men’s sports. Blaming Title IX for the loss of men’s sports in the 2000s at the University of Nebraska is inappropriate, as there were many other factors that were actually at fault for these cuts.

Title IX was passed into law in the United States on June 23, 1972. Spearheaded by representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii, it aimed to create equality for women in educational programs. Title IX reads:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

For college campuses specifically, this meant various things, including what many associate with Title IX: women’s sports. On October 1, 1972, the University of Nebraska released a press statement that included their plans for women’s sports programs at the university. It outlined the history of women’s sports at Nebraska, stating that there were gymnasiums on campus open to women in 1891, if they paid a one dollar fee to enter. Later, dance entered the women’s sports curriculum, along with extracurricular activities. The release states that a women's basketball team was started in 1896, which played competitively against other universities and high schools. The success of that basketball team brought in so much money that it was actually able to help fund the Men’s Athletic Club, which was struggling at that time. The Women’s Athletic Association was founded in 1917, and the University of Nebraska was one of the first colleges to organize such a group. Once Mabel Lee became director of the Women’s Physical Education Department in 1974, allocations were finally made for women to be able to play sports on actual fields. [1]

Despite the fact that Title IX was law by 1972, the University of Nebraska did not conduct an internal investigation on their men’s and women’s sports programs until 1975. This self-evaluation revealed the budgets spent on each individual men’s and women’s sports, as well as the number of scholarships that were given out, and the amount of each scholarship. Despite the fact that many equivalent men’s and women’s sports teams had similar quantities of individual scholarships, the amount of these scholarships were not comparable. Across nine total men’s sports teams that received University of Nebraska funding, 164 male athletes were awarded full ride scholarships, with 128 belonging to football. 86 were awarded partial scholarships. Across the nine women’s sports teams, however, zero female athletes were awarded full scholarships, and 56 were given partial scholarships. This totaled 250 men’s sports scholarships and only 56 women’s scholarships. This showcased the university’s lack of attention to women’s sports prior to the implementation of Title IX across the University of Nebraska campus. [2]3

By the early 2000s, the University of Nebraska had been given plenty of time to right the injustices that women’s sports were experiencing. In 2001, however, women’s sports teams, such as ultimate frisbee, did not receive the same treatment as the mirroring men’s team. They lacked the field structure that the men had and were forced to play on a field that was of both lower quality and had smaller space to play. Injustices like these were commonplace across the nation at many universities in various women’s sports. Title IX did not specify that men’s and women’s teams had to have the same quality of sport. Certain members of the public viewed the university budgeting for women’s sports as an unjust jab against men’s sports. They believed that men’s sports were the ones making the money that was allotted for women to even have sports teams, despite the fact that since 1917, there was a history of men’s sports using women’s sports funding. [3]4

In early 2001, the University of Nebraska cut the men’s swimming team. It has not been reinstated since. Its initial cancellation came with much uproar from the student body, who suddenly cared about the men’s swim team now that they thought it was women’s fault it was gone. The Daily Nebraskan published opinion articles on the subject that blamed Title IX for what had happened to men’s swimming as well as other men’s sports. In one of those articles, Francis Allen, the college men’s gymnastics coach at the university from 1969 to 2009, blamed Title IX for the downfall of men’s gymnastics and wrestling teams as well. He believed that Title IX was out to get men’s sports. An example he had for this was a logistical decision made by the university, where they took space from the men’s gymnastics locker room instead of the women’s swimming locker room, despite the women having offered a part of their locker room as well. [4]5

Although Allen assumed this was a Title IX issue, there are no recorded details as to why the university chose to take from the men’s locker room. There are no details as to what this locker room space was used for, or if it was simply more convenient to use the men’s space than the women’s, or why they were both asked in the first place. Presently, the women’s swimming program makes over double that of the men’s gymnastics team. As there is no evidence for this being a Title IX issue, it would be more appropriate to blame poor university logistics or budgeting issues rather than blame the implementation of Title IX. Despite Allen’s concerns over Title IX, the men’s gymnastics team went on to produce 24 All-American Athletes since the release of that article in 2002; 61 being produced in the history of the sport at the university since 1948. [5]6

Although funding was one of the reasons the men’s swimming team was cut in 2001, what many opinion articles fail to mention, is the other reason. The university saw the men’s swimming team as a liability. By fall of 2000, the team’s coaches had garnered over 50 accusations of violations from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA. Although only six of these alleged violations were found to have basis enough to have violated NCAA rules, the university had already instructed these coaches to quit the year prior, and they made the decision to cut the men’s swim team in its entirety following the accusations. The cutting of the men’s swim team did not benefit the women’s swimming team in any way, including financially. In all actuality, despite the fact that the women’s team was not cut, many women on the swim team chose to leave Nebraska after the fall of the men’s team. Whether or not one agrees with the university’s reasoning behind cutting the men’s swim team in 2001, blaming financial issues supposedly caused by Title IX alone for the failure of that sport blatantly ignores the public relations issues that the university chose to consider at the time, or the possibility of poor financial judgement. In fact, one article released in The Daily Nebraskan about the men’s swim team does not even mention Title IX. All that is said is that the team was cut due to budgeting issues, expedited by NCAA issues. [6]7

The word “proportionality” is thrown around often when speaking about supposed injustices towards men’s sports caused by Title IX. The proportionality prong is one of three prongs that universities can choose in order to be in compliance with the legislation of Title IX. Many universities find it to be the easiest prong to work with, thus it is the most popular to mention and apply. Throughout the history of Title IX’s implementation across the United States, the proportionality issue has been viewed quite incorrectly. Some argue that football should be taken out of the picture when it comes to proportionality. Even without football, however, the funding from UNL in 1974 was not remotely proportional. [7]8

In 1993 Ken Hambleton from the Lincoln Journal Star wrote an article in the sports section with his opinions on proportionality. He perceives injustices in the “hyper-logical” thinking of Title IX. People focus too much on numbers and less on the actual intent of universities towards equity. Hambleton implies that the idealization of Title IX causes the loss of both taxpayer and university dollars, as it cannot be put into place exactly how it was legislated. He implies that in order to treat men’s and women’s sports as proportional, one would set unrealistic expectations for female sports scholarships. This would be true if proportionality meant that the budgets had to be the exact same, but it does not. [8]9

Proportionality simply means that opportunities for men’s and women’s sports must be proportional to the male and female population at the school. Even so, Title IX allows variance within that, and there are many schools that do not even come close to meeting proper proportionality. In Sports Lawyers Journal, Elisa Hatlevig, a Minnesota attorney, writes about the details of the proportionality prong, and why many people blame Title IX for the loss of men’s collegiate athletic teams. She states frankly that, “the proportionality prong is often used arbitrarily by schools who do not want to take a harder look at their budgets or who know that they can get away with cutting men’s swimming or wrestling without suffering repercussions.” This lies within the responsibility of these institutions to make a tangible effort at equality for men’s and women’s sports, instead of taking the easiest way out of the new “problem” posed by Title IX. If there were budgetary failures within the University of Nebraska that caused the demise of mens sports teams, Title IX is hardly the only thing to blame. [9]10

Many suggest that instead of university demographics, proportionality should be based on interest surveys of the female population at every university. This could cause many issues. The tendency to express interest in something that does not exist at one’s university is far lower than the tendency to join a sports team should it already exist on campus. Hypothetically, a female student would be sent an email with a survey that would gauge her interest in collegiate sports. One issue with this is that if she were not to respond to the survey, it would automatically count that student as not being interested in sports. A university cannot guarantee that every female student is checking their emails and responding to a survey that has such great ramifications on their opportunities at the university, yet so little probability of output or attention. This also opens the door to universities deliberately making it difficult or inaccessible for female students to complete these surveys. Another issue that arises is that only women enrolled in the university would be taking these surveys, which discounts prospective female athletes who would be attending the university in the future. Additionally, male students would not be required to take these surveys, and male sports would not change as a result of no male responses, as men’s funding is seen as the automatic choice. [10]11

Title IX was enacted in the United States to give some semblance of equality to women’s sports, who historically had, and continue to be, forgotten or cast aside. Using surveys to gauge female interest, or taking shortcuts in budgeting issues in lieu of attempting to create tangible equity at an institution does far less for either gender than Title IX was intended to do. Prior to Title IX’s implementation in 1972, many universities did not have equal opportunity for women's sports teams. When all of the funding was going to men, the men’s teams were bound to lose funding when part of it had to be allotted to women’s teams as well. That is not to say that all women’s teams took from men’s funding, as the majority made their own funding once they got started. Since men were accustomed to the privilege of being the only ones in funded sports, this equality felt like oppression. If the solution was to take no funding away from men’s sports in any capacity, women’s sports may not have had the ability to become what they are today. Additionally, blaming Title IX for the failure of various men’s sports, specifically at the University of Nebraska, is a gross misconception. Title IX’s existence does not negate the fact that in the 2000s, ignoring NCAA violations, poor logistical decisions, and poor performance in general can contribute to the demise of any sport, regardless of sex. The complicated nature of Title IX legislation made it so that many universities did the bare minimum to make compliance, resulting in men’s sports cuts, and no real equity for women’s sports.

Endnotes

1. United States Courts, “The 14th Amendment and the Evolution of Title IX,” United States Courts, 2019, https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/14th-amendment-and-evolution-title-ix.; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Public Relations. October 1, 1972. Office of the Chancellor. Title IX Records, 1976. Series No. 5/0/1, Box No. 1. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives, Lincoln, Nebraska.
2. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, “Women’s Basketball.” In the Group Portrait of the 1905 Class Basketball Team, Seven Young Women Pose, Seated on a Studio Floor. The Middle Woman Holds a Basketball, Which Serves as a Trophy for Class Champions ’05. A Pennant in the Background Reads: Girls Inter-Class Basketball Pennant 1901-2 Won by Class of 1905., September 19, 2005, Black/White Print, B1, F3, September 19, 2005, https://shorturl.at/djBV3.
3. University of Nebraska Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, “Title IX Self-Evaluation Report”. March 24, 1975. Office of the Chancellor. Title IX Records, 1976. Series No. 5/0/1, Box No. 1. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives, Lincoln, Nebraska.
4. Karen Brown, “In Ultimate, Women Could Rule,” The Daily Nebraskan, April 3, 2001, https://www.dailynebraskan.com/in-ultimate-women-could-rule/article_5376fcc7-5eb2-5f74-a1d3-9ddf086714a4.html.; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Public Relations. October 1, 1972.
5. Emilio Barrientos, ed., “The Evolution of College Sports: The UNL Men’s Swim Team 1922-2001 · Nebraska U,” unlhistory.unl.edu, 2012, https://unlhistory.unl.edu/exhibits/show/unl-men-swim-team.; “Francis Allen - Head Coach - Men’s Gymnastics Coaches,” University of Nebraska, https://huskers.com/sports/mens-gymnastics/roster/coaches/francis-allen/7797.; Vince Kuppig, “Title IX Side Effects Endangers Male Athletics,” The Daily Nebraskan, October 8, 2002, https://www.dailynebraskan.com/title-ix-side-effects-endangers-male-athletics/article_bae9b41f-9028-5319-a883-7d6ddc52a23c.html.
6. Barrientos, ed. “The Evolution of College Sports: The UNL Men’s Swim Team 1922-2001.”; “University of Nebraska - Lincoln Athletics Programs,” www.collegefactual.com, https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-nebraska-lincoln/student-life/sports/#:~:text=UNL%20Swimming%20%26%20Diving&text=The%20women.; “Nebraska Men’s Gymnastics History,” University of Nebraska, accessed May 5, 2023, https://huskers.com/sports/2016/6/8/3471.aspx.
7. Barrientos, ed. “The Evolution of College Sports: The UNL Men’s Swim Team 1922-2001.”; David Diehl, “NU Drops Men’s Swimming Program,” The Daily Nebraskan, March 26, 2001, https://www.dailynebraskan.com/nu-drops-mens-swimming-program/article_647ec770-1286-5e26-9e8c-a26948bf77aa.html.
8. Elisa Hatlevig, “Title IX Compliance: Looking Past the Proportionality Prong,” Sports Lawyers Journal 12 (2005): 87–122, http://libproxy.unl.edu/login?url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/sportlj12&i=10; University of Nebraska Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, “Title IX Self-Evaluation Report.”
9. Ken Hambleton, “There Is No Place for Logic Where Gender Equity Is Topic.” Lincoln Journal Star, June 22, 1993. RG 42-06-02. U. Comm Subject B. 04. Athletics: Title IX. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.
10. Elisa Hatlevig, “Title IX Compliance: Looking Past the Proportionality Prong.”
11. Erin E. Buzuvis, “Survey Says . . . A Critical Analysis of the New Title IX Policy and Proposal for Reform,” Iowa Law Review 91 (2005): 821–84, http://libproxy.unl.edu/login?url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/ilr91&i=833.
12. Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.“Women Playing Basketball” The University of Nebraska -- Game of Basket Ball. A Group of Women Are Playing Basketball Outdoors. It Looks as If Two of the Players Have Just Had a Jump Ball, and Another Player Is Ready to Catch the Ball That Is Still in Motion. In the Background Is a Building with a Sign Reading “Museum Science Hall” on Its Façade. October 14, 2005. Black/White Print. B13. https://shorturl.at/fnQT2.

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• Kuppig, Vince. “Title IX Side Effects Endangers Male Athletics.” The Daily Nebraskan, October 8, 2002. https://www.dailynebraskan.com/title-ix-side-effects-endangers-male-athletics/article_bae9b41f-9028-5319-a883-7d6ddc52a23c.html. United States Courts. “The 14th Amendment and the Evolution of Title IX.”
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