Sue Melhart’s perspective on WSU women’s sports
September 2007, Pullman Community Update
When Pullman's Sue Melhart (see photo) takes part in WSU's
"Legacy in Women's Athletics" events (see inset) here late this
month, she will do so with perspective.
She played women's tennis for the Cougars. She has taught in the
Pullman School District since fall 1977, starting soon after graduating from
WSU. Last spring was her 18th and final season coaching Pullman High School
girls' tennis.
Melhart grew up in Vancouver, Wash., graduating in spring 1972 from
Fort Vancouver High School. "I did everything I could do in sports,"
she said. There wasn't much for girls. For the school, she played tennis and
basketball and competed in track.”
::::
The Crimson and Gray: Honoring the Legacy in Women's Athletics —
Celebrate women athletes and coaches who represented Cougar sports prior to the
1982-1983 season, Sept. 28-29, 2007, Pullman. For info contact Tammy Crawford.
::::
With the Girls’ Athletics Association at the school, there was a new
sport every few weeks. One was ring toss. Take a rubber ring and throw it over
the net where you thought your opponent couldn't catch it. “This was the type
of sport available to girls. We weren't mad about it; we weren't sad about it.
That's just the way it was. We knew no difference. Everything that came my way
I did. Now I realize it wasn't much."
In the summer of 1972, the federal Tide IX became law. Prohibiting sex
discrimination in education, it's best known for fostering gender equity in
high school and collegiate athletics. Title IX would impact Melhart as a WSU
student.
Living on campus in Orton Hall, she enjoyed playing coed intramurals,
including flag football and coed volleyball. "Then, I heard there was a
women's tennis team that would compete in the spring. I thought that might be
fun."
Low key describes WSU women's tennis in 1973, Melhart recalls. Coached
by Sheryl Gotts, tennis team members used WSU motor pool cars to go to and from
matches in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.
For the 1974 and 1975 seasons, Linda Hackbarth was the coach. Some
know Hackbarth for her years after WSU, teaching at Pullman's Lincoln Middle
School.
Prior to the 1975 season, Melhart began playing racquetball on the WSU
courts to get in shape for tennis. Because she enjoyed the sport and had
immediate success, she decided to continue playing it and not tennis.
Although not on the 1976 team, Melhart said the new coach, Bente
Kjoss-Hansen, "took the tennis program to a new level." Former
teammates said the team was "more demanding, more formal and more
competitive. That's not to mean it was a bad thing, but it was a change. Today,
kids have a high level of competitiveness coming into college tennis. They're
prepared for it. "
Title IX resulted in athletics growing pains at the university.
"In 1982, the women's and men's athletics departments merged to create one
unified organization," according to the WSU Athletics Student-Athlete
Handbook.
Melhart said there was "no recipe" of how to merge. "It
was tough on both the women's and men's programs."
As a student, she helped with communications by being a liaison
between the programs. “There was a lot of give and take, but also some amount
of pushing and shoving," she said. “The men's programs were seen as being
threatened because of Title IX, while women's programs were viewed as 'being
given' things they'd never had before."
She credits "some open minds by men" — including 1972-1983
men's basketball coach George Raveling — for helping the merger. Jeanne Eggart
Helfer was a WSU basketball and track star, 1979-1982. The funding for her WSU
athletic scholarship — first ever for a woman at the university — was thanks to
Raveling funding it from his Cougar men's basketball budget.
With perspective, Melhart sees today's WSU women's athletes have
"always had the uniforms, the coaches ...they've had every advantage that
the male teams and players have had. I see a lot of equal programs and
opportunities. They know nothing different. It's okay with me that they don't
even think about the history. But I know that those of us in the early years
helped open the roadways for what they have today.”
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