The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, March 29, 2019 — 7
‘That’s the way it is’: Sheryl Szady’s fight against the status quo
In observance of Women’s History
Month, The Daily’s sports section is
launching its second annual series
aimed at telling the stories of female
athletes, coaches and teams at the
University from the perspective of
the female sports writers on staff.
We continue the series with this
story from Daily Sports Editor Paige
Voeffray.
Women’s athletics has come
a long way since the first official
varsity Michigan teams took the
field in 1973. So much so that it’s
easy to take what the women have
today for granted. Each team is
equipped with multiple coaches,
trainers and nutritionists to stay in
peak condition. All the athletes are
given stacks of new clothes every
season to make sure they’re looking
their best. They’re even flown all
over the country to compete against
the best teams.
This is common practice —
almost expected.
But it wasn’t always this way.
There
were
many
women
that came before these athletes
that fought and pushed for what
they deserved. But there was one
woman in particular who couldn’t
seem to let it go and wasn’t afraid to
take on important people, and every
woman who wears a block ‘M’ on
their chest has her to thank.
Sheryl Szady didn’t want any
attention. She didn’t want to cause
any issues. She just wanted to play.
And because of that, Michigan
athletics has never been the same.
***
Szady attended Michigan from
1970-1974 and played on the club
team for field hockey and basketball.
There wasn’t practice equipment or
warm-up uniforms, and only some
teams would have a volunteer coach
if they were lucky. And that might
have been suitable for a while, but
Szady looked around at the other
universities’ varsity programs and
wondered how Michigan had fallen
so far behind.
The club teams would play the
varsity programs from these other
universities, but their conditions
were nothing alike.
“We were playing the varsity
teams at Eastern, Western, Central,
Michigan State, Adrian, as a club
team,” Szady said. “I mean I’m
calling the varsity coach as a club
team being like, ‘Can we schedule
a game?’ And they’re picking the
day, I mean I had like no clout. They
were like, ‘Thank you for playing
us.’ ”
Szady recalls washing her own
uniform after every game, sharing
12 rolls of athletic tape over a
season, and even driving across the
state in a teammate’s roommate’s
sister’s friend’s car. It seems trivial,
but this was a big deal to these
women.
“We don’t want more. We don’t
want to take from (the men),” said
Michigan softball coach, women’s
athletics advocate and essentially
the face of women’s athletics at
Michigan, Carol Hutchins.
“Nobody ever wanted to take
away
their
opportunity.
We
just wanted to have the same
opportunity. And funny how they
found a way to fund it because you
can find a way to fund whatever you
think is important.”
This situation wasn’t ideal, but
for the time being, it worked — until
it didn’t.
In the March of her junior year,
Szady began to call her usual set of
coaches to schedule games for the
next season, but they all turned her
down. Her friend Linda Laird, the
women’s club basketball manager,
experienced the same thing.
“Finally, the field hockey coach
from Eastern called me back and
said ‘Sheryl, nobody’s going to
play you this year,’ Szady said.
“We decided to blacklist Michigan
until the University elevated their
women’s program.’ ”
For Szady, the next step was
clear — elevate the program.
***
For most people, taking a club
team to the caliber of a varsity
team would be a daunting task.
Many wouldn’t even know where
to start. Title IX had been passed in
1972, however the implementation
guidelines weren’t written until
1975, so Title IX wasn’t available for
Szady to plead her case.
So as a junior, Szady went after
the one thing that makes all athletic
departments run: money.
This would go further than a
couple of fundraisers. Szady went
to the Office of Development and
asked to have Women’s Athletics to
be added as a solicitation option on
the donation cards.
“My thought, at the time, was
that if we had enough money, we
could run our program at a varsity-
type level,” Szady said. “Which is
overly simplistic, because you need
university support.”
Through her efforts, Szady met
with Henry Johnson, the vice
president of Student Affairs.
Her initial plan was to ask
Johnson for funding, but when
other schools decided to stop
playing Michigan, she knew they
needed a varsity program.
“So we talked and he said to
come back in a week, he was going
to get me an appointment to talk to
Robben Fleming,
the
president,”
Szady said. “And
I
thought,
‘OK,
I just talked to a
vice
President,
I can talk to the
president.’ ”
While Johnson
couldn’t get Szady
on
Fleming’s
calendar,
he
secured
another
opportunity:
presenting
this
situation to the Board of Regents.
Szady and Laird knew they
needed to impress the group, so they
came in their best outfits and had
their materials already prepared.
However, there was another group
of students presenting before the
women. They were requesting
that Jewish holidays be considered
when
making
the
academic
calendar, but their methods weren’t
so well received.
“They got up there and were
banging on the table,” Szady said.
“Good point, wrong delivery. I
thought, ‘Oh good, they’re just
going to love hearing from two
more students.’ ”
Each presenter was given five
minutes to speak, and the women
were never cut off and told their
whole story. And it worked.
Fleming asked Marie Hartwig,
a professor of Physical Education
and long-time advocate of women’s
sports and recreation, to head
a committee to study women’s
intercollegiate
athletics.
The
committee began in April, and by
the end of June recommended that
six women’s sport club teams be
elevated to varsity.
“Do you know how fast that is?”
Szady said. “Fleming received the
report and approved it by the end of
July. Marie Hartwig called me and
said, ‘I just received a message from
Fleming’s office, he directed me to
start women’s varsity athletics this
fall.’ ”
***
At
first,
Szady
and
her
teammates enjoyed some perks that
they weren’t accustomed to. They
travelled in University vans, even if
the coach and a senior had to be the
drivers, and they were given meal
money.
One evening, the team went to
Big Boy after a game. The women
were given $3.50 for a meal, and so
after ordering the special for $2.50,
they all had one dollar remaining.
Szady feared that if they didn’t
spend the money they would never
see it again. So each athlete ordered
two pies for dessert.
“Here comes these two trays
with these huge pies,” Szady
said.“We catch the coaches going,
‘What the hell is going on?’ and we
responded, ‘We’re spending our
money.’ ”
It was a change of pace to what
they were used to, but the women
enjoyed it while they could.
They still didn’t have complete
uniforms, scholarships or media
coverage, but they knew change
didn’t happen overnight.
After a gymnast fell of the
balance beam and dislocated her
elbow, the women were finally
granted an athletic trainer.
“Much progress was reactive
in nature,” Szady said. “So we
stumbled into progress, but if it cost
money, it didn’t happen for a long
time.”
It was Szady’s firm belief that
athletic director Don Canham tried
to ignore women’s
athletics in hopes
that it would go
away. It didn’t.
The
women
continued to see
differences
in
what they received
compared to the
men. The women
were
still
only
playing
in-state
rivals,
while
the men had a national schedule.
The
women
would
receive
small scholarships, but only for
the semester that they were in
season, while the men received
full scholarships. If the men made
a postseason run, the athletic
department and the NCAA covered
the costs, whereas the women
had to make their case for athletic
department funds, if they were
good enough to make it that far.
Hutchins
remembers
having
teams sell programs at football
games or clean Crisler Center after
concerts to earn the extra money
for the softball team.
“Title IX had passed in ’72
and you saw in the mid and late
’70s people realizing that they
had to have athletics for women,”
Hutchins said. “They had to fund
and support teams or they were
going to face federal loss of funding,
because that’s the penalty of not
complying with Title IX. Lawsuits
were starting to happen, so having
a team doesn’t mean you support it.
It means you just have it.”
But Szady wanted just one more
thing: varsity awards.
Szady received a lot of pushback
from Canham, but she wanted the
same varsity awards that the men
received, and she wanted the same
block ‘M’ on those awards as well.
She was told she was on her own —
a familiar refrain.
Szady had petitioned the student
government for a seat on the
Board in Control of Intercollegiate
Athletics, and she was quickly
granted a spot. Canham assigned
her to the Board committee on
Varsity Awards. Ultimately, the
committee agreed on a new
schedule of awards for both men
and women: first a jacket, then a
plaque, blanket and finally a watch.
However, the block ‘M’ on the
varsity awards was a different
matter.
A motion for varsity awards for
men and women with the same
block ‘M’ was tabled by Canham
when it appeared it would be
close to passing. The vote occured
six weeks later in June 1975. In
the meantime, letters were sent
by Athletics to all the Michigan
letterwinners — the men of the
M-Club.
The letters, one from Bill Mazer,
then president of the M-Club, and
the other signed by then basketball
coach Johnny Orr, and football
coach Bo Schembechler expressed
similar sentiments.
“The letter read, ‘You can’t allow
them to give the same Block ‘M’out,
it’s bad enough we’re giving them
one at all. How can you let them
give the same Block ‘M’ for which
you bled and sweat on the fields of
Michigan for. They want to give
your Block ‘M’ to synchronized
swimmers and softball players.’ ”
Szady recalled.
At this time, Michigan didn’t
even have a softball team.
The letter went on to say that
if anyone had any issues with
this
proposed
vote,
to
voice
their concerns to
the
committee
members
and
gave
out
their
home
addresses.
Szady could fill
a paper grocery
bag two-thirds of
the way full with
the
letters
she
received.
Szady remembers one letter
in particular that still sticks with
her. A doctor wrote to share how
displeased he was with what she
was trying to do, and wasn’t shy
about voicing his thoughts. But
at the end of the letter, he drew a
picture telling her what kind of
block ‘M’ she should get — a bra
with the ‘M’ in the cleavage.
On the day of the vote, Szady
traveled to Ann Arbor. She had
missed the evening news the
night before, but Al Ackerman, an
NBC Detroit sports anchor, had
stated that if Michigan didn’t give
the women the same block ‘M’,
he would never report another
Michigan score on his broadcast
again.
This was information Szady
wished she had known when
Canham called her into his office
an hour before the vote.
Canham immediately asked her
what she wanted. She explained
she wanted the same block ‘M’ for
women as the men. He countered
with a blue ‘M’, an old english ‘M’,
anything but the yellow block ‘M’.
Again, he asked, ‘What do you
want?’
“Now in retrospect, I should
have said four tickets on the 50
(yard-line) for life,” Szady joked.
Instead, she didn’t waiver, and
told Canham she would take her
chances with the Board and left
for the meeting. The vote passed
nearly unanimously with all but
one voting against, and the women
were going to get their block ‘M’.
Months
later,
when
Szady
received her letter jacket in the
mail, she opened it to find a jacket
with a small, square, orange-
colored block ‘M’ — not what she
had fought for.
“And so I call up Marie
(Hartwig) and I say ‘What is this?’
And she said ‘It’s the jacket you’re
getting.’ Meaning she’s not fighting
for this. She fights Canham and
she’s probably losing her job,”
Szady said. “And I said, ‘That’s not
right.’
“And she said, ‘That’s the way it
is.’ ”
***
Even
when
Phyllis
Ocker
became
athletic
director,
she
couldn’t do anything to change the
letters until Canham’s influence
was completely gone. The culture
he created was so entrenched that
no progress could be made.
“I remember the jacket. I used
to hand them out to my student
athletes. They were ugly,” Hutchins
said. “And in their own right, it’s not
that they weren’t nice looking, but
then (the men) had the letter jacket,
and then we had that.”
It wasn’t until 1991-92 that the
athletic director at the time, Jack
Weidenbach, started to give women
the same block ‘M’ on the same
leather-sleeved jacket as the men.
For forty years, she talked
to anyone she could. She wrote
letters and made phone calls, but
to no avail. It wasn’t until she
ran into current
athletic
director
Warde
Manuel
after a women’s
basketball
game
that things really
started to be put
in
motion.
She
approached
him
about her idea for
giving
18
years
worth of athletes
the
appropriate
jackets, and Manuel said that it was
definitely going to happen.
Szady wouldn’t believe it until she
saw it. While out to dinner in April
2016, she received the long-awaited
email from Manuel acknowledging
the fundamental role played by the
early women letterwinners, and the
re-issuing of their varsity jackets
with today’s varsity jacket. Only
then did she share her joy with all
the other restaurant diners.
After the initial wave, the
University received 120 orders of
new jackets. The University was
pleased with itself, but Szady wasn’t
satisfied.
After doing her own outreach,
the University received 647 jacket
orders. But by her estimates, 881 of
the 900 women had been contacted.
Her work was done. But she
wasn’t satisfied.
Szady organized for as many
‘Jacket Gals’, as Szady and the
women refer to themselves, to get
together at a football game. About
300 women came from all over
the country with their families to
celebrate, and the icing on the cake
was they were going to hold the
banner before the start of the game.
Until they weren’t. Weeks before
the game, Szady received a phone
call explaining how there were too
many Jacket Gals and that they
would be bigger than the marching
band. Szady knew the women
would be crushed. Szady also
suspected that if they were football
players, they would be holding the
banner on the field.
So she did what she does best —
let right win out.
“Meeting
with
Athletics,
I
said, ‘You know people are going
to be really mad about this. They
bought tickets, they’ve got airplane
tickets, they got hotel rooms and
they expect to be recognized
on the field,’ ” Szady said. “And
Letterwinners M club just went
very silent. And the guy in Athletics
said ‘Sheryl, people are still calling
saying why do we even have women
on the football field.’
“And I couldn’t believe he
repeated that.”
After the Jacket Gals shared
their concerns, the issue was
resolved with all 300 Jacket Gals
honored on the field at halftime.
As Szady led the 300 in their new
jackets with the right ‘M’ out of the
tunnel onto the field, she finally felt
like all her hard work had paid off.
***
There were times when Szady
never thought the conditions would
improve. Everyone seemed so set
in their ways that progress seemed
unlikely.
Even in current times she still
faces struggles that people wouldn’t
expect. But when she sees what the
female athletes have now, she loves
it.
“I know a lot of women, and
Sheryl Szady’s one of them, who
fought like hell for that. And went
through a lot of shit — for lack of
a better word — from people who
treated her poorly,” Hutchins said.
“I know a lot of people who were
fired in that era and to this day are
still fired when they bring up the
inequities that still exist. Because
there still are inequities.
“We’ve come so far and it’s taken
a lot of people who are vigilant.
And people have talked about Title
IX that we don’t need it anymore,
because ‘Oh look at what you
women have.’ I say you don’t take
down speed limit signs, because
people will start driving 90. You
have to have a law because we need
boundaries. … If they were going to
do the right thing, they would have
done it then.”
Szady and Hutchins can both
agree that women’s athletics still
has strides to make. Szady has some
more ideas for how the athletic
department could change, but she
won’t rest until things are equal.
Truly equal.
PAIGE VOEFFRAY
Daily Sports Editor
COURTESY OF SHERYL SZADY
Sheryl Szady has fought for over four decades to fight for equality in Michigan athletics — receiving pushback from the athletic department at seemingly
We just
wanted to
have the same
opportunity.
“You can’t
allow them to
give the same
Block M out.”