Dorsi Raynolds remembers being taunted when she tried out for the swimming team in college.
Raynolds, now head coach of the UB women's swimming and diving team, remembers the stinging words and teasing of her classmates. It was 1972, the year Title IX - a federal law guaranteeing equality in athletics and education for men and women at federally funded colleges - was passed.
"Today, it's really a totally different type of ball game, as opposed to then," said Raynolds.
She said Title IX opened up a world of doors for women by requiring schools to increase female opportunities, meet the needs and abilities of its female students, and make athletes and female athletic programs proportional to their female enrollment.
"I think Title IX is a function of generations,' said Associate Athletic Director Nanette Harvey. "Thirty years ago, it wasn't a culture acceptable for women to play sports (in). You were a tomboy. You were a freak. It was pretty much isolated."
At the end of January, the Bush administration's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, created by Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige, met to discuss relaxing some Title IX requirements.
Nothing has been changed yet, but the committee's report is expected by the end of this month. University officials said that even if Title IX requirements were loosened, UB - which is currently only 1.1 percent away from exact proportionality between female athletic programs and female enrollment - would not change its policies.
"I think you have to be careful about tinkering with Title IX," said President William R. Greiner, adding with a laugh, "... If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Harvey said it is UB's commitment to athletics - both male and female - that drives the university's program. However, she said she is not sure about schools across the country.
"I'm scared to death about what could happen," Harvey said. "To think that everybody in the country is going to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do is ridiculous."
The commission's meeting came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, which claimed that Title IX forced schools to cut wrestling programs to meet requirements.
According to National Collegiate Athletics Association statistics, there were 374 NCAA wrestling teams in 1980, compared to 239 in 2001.
Wrestling Head Coach Jim Beichner said he and his players are not against Title IX, despite the bad rap the media has given wrestling coaches across the country. In comparison with the more than 6,000 high school wrestling programs in the country, Beichner said the proportionality aspect of Title IX on the collegiate level needs to be examined.
Beichner described the Title IX controversy as a "media circus," in that the media has depicted it as pitting men against women when that is not the attitude of the players or the coaches.
Women's volleyball Head Coach Sally Kus, who grew up in the era of Title IX, said everyone simply wants to play sports and often the battle becomes a heated match, forcing one sport to clash with another.
"I'm afraid the sports are attacking each other instead of promoting each other," said Kus.
Wrestler Garrett Bontempo said he and his teammates are only concerned about the sport they are playing.
"I just think that we're always there to represent the University at Buffalo and expose the sport of wrestling," said Bontempo, shaking his head.
For swimmer Katrina Sinclair, sports have been a major part of her life since age 6. She said changing Title IX would be "criminal."
"I'd have to say that (sports) has shaped every aspect of my life in a positive way, and I think that it will continue to shape my life, even when I'm not swimming," said Sinclair.
But Beichner said some universities do not see athletics as pure love of the game. He said the problem is that while UB has increased women's programs to fit into compliance, many other colleges have sliced into men's programs.
"Shoot, it's not just wrestling," Beichner said. "You're talking about swimming; you're talking about gymnastics; you're talking about volleyball."
On the other hand, he said in many instances Title IX becomes a "bean-counter's game," and colleges add programs that serve no purpose just to comply. Arizona State recently added a women's crew team.
"There's no water in Arizona State," he said. "There's no water there, no lakes, no rivers. They're doing it for only one reason: the numbers game."
Even if Title IX were eliminated, both Beichner and Harvey said the wrestling programs cut in the last few years would most likely not come back. For most colleges, revenue-generating sports with large rosters take top priority.
In 2001, the UB football team had 104 members; currently, it awards 85 scholarships annually. According to Greiner, many universities', especially Division I schools, football numbers throw off the statistics.
"I think mostly (the Title IX issue) is driven by the problem of football creating such a skewing of the number of men necessary to staff a men's athletics program compared to a women's, and I don't know how you deal with that one," said Greiner.
Ultimately, Kus said there will be a time when Title IX is not necessary, but until then, UB and other institutions are not ready to relax restraints.
"It's still a thing where little girls are playing Barbie dolls and little boys are playing catch in the backyard," said Kus.
"Until we have a whole generation that grows up not understanding a need for Title IX," she said, "we'll have a need for Title IX."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
