This week’s news has brought back lots of memories for me.
In Monday’s paper was a story called “Forever Fillies,” noting the impending end on the almost 50-year-chapter of the Iola High School girls team mascot, the Fillies.
I graduated from IHS in 1974. That next year, the school introduced girls sports.
So no, I never experienced the Fillie legacy.
In fact, the only organized sport for girls in my growing up years was summer softball. As you can imagine, the competition was fierce. I didn’t last long.
Private dance or gymnastics lessons were also available, but the studios back then were but a shadow of those today and the expected commitment definitely on the casual side.
I can’t remember ever being encouraged to be strong, or competitive.
Instead, us girls were to be the support system for the boys sports by belonging to the pep club and dutifully following the lead of the cheerleaders.
The only real exercise I got as a youth was occasionally hitting a tennis ball with my dad and our annual vacations in Colorado.
It wasn’t until I was grown with children that Jazzercise and Jane Fonda’s aerobics became popular — a godsend for ungifted athletes like myself who nevertheless were learning to appreciate the benefit of exercise.
It was only in 1972 that Title IX was passed, the law that requires schools that receive federal funds to give their female students opportunities equal to those of their male students — including those of an athletic nature.
Before Title IX, only one in 27 girls participated in sports. Today, that number is two in five.
So for me, the name Mustangs or Fillies doesn’t matter so much as the significance that girls have the same opportunities as boys and will grow up learning valuable skills.
I look at young women today and marvel at their maturity and confidence that in many cases has come in part from their participation in sports. Right out of high school, they are so far ahead of the game compared to girls of my generation.
DON BAIN will be recognized Friday for his 32 years of service to the local school district.
