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’79 Graduate Recalls Early Days of Title IX

Title IX was still in its relative infancy when Mary Collins ’79 was the star player on the undefeated Loomis Chaffee girls basketball team in 1979.  

“Things had begun to change a lot, but we were sort of caught in a middle zone,” Mary said. “Basketball at the time was not the sport girls were playing. My brother, who was 12 years older, played at Loomis and played Division I basketball, and I wanted to impress him, so as a young girl I learned to play. 

“It is true I was the star on the team, but part of that was few girls had started playing at an early age, and I had started when I was 9. Most didn't pick it up until maybe eighth grade or freshman year in high school. But because we had so many natural athletes, we put together a great team.”  

When the Loomis Chaffee girls basketball team won the Class A New England championship last season, the memories of that ’79 team were top of mind for Mary. Title IX, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary, was in its seventh year. Different time, different era, but the same Pelican pride.  

In 1979 Mary, Kate Rugen ’79, and Julia Russell ’79 shared the Barbara W. Erickson Athletic Achievement Award, the highest honor a female athlete at the school could win. They were quite the multi-sport trio, Collins said, listing the accomplishments of Kate and Julia as if it were yesterday. 

Loomis went 11-0 in basketball that season and outscored the opposition 618-293. Mary, a senior, led the team with 19.5 points a game. The teams on which she played during her sophomore, junior, and seniors seasons went 32-7. Mary was invited to the Junior Olympic basketball tryouts for New England, did not make the final cut, “but I still always remember that honor.” 

Kate went on to play basketball at Dartmouth College, captaining the team her senior year in 1983, and she played some pro tennis and became a teaching tennis pro. Julia went to University of Pennsylvania, where she was a four-time letter winner, three-time All-Ivy League player, and team MVP in field hockey and made the U.S. national team.  

Mary went to Gettysburg and played on the basketball team, although the team had some lean years during her time. She also ran track and played field hockey. There was no women’s track program, so Mary ran on the men’s team. She also was part of Gettysburg’s national championship team in field hockey, even though that was not her best sport. It didn’t matter. She was quick, and she was athletic. 

Had circumstances been different, Collins could have ended up playing basketball at a Division I school. As she says, things fell through the cracks. Back then there wasn’t as much guidance for a top female basketball player as there would be today. Back then, there were not as many opportunities. She will never forget what Loomis did for her, though. 

Mary’s father died when she was a 14-year-old freshman. 

“Bill Eaton could not have been a more supportive male role model,” Mary said of the former longtime Loomis Chaffee coach and athletic director. “He let me run my freshman year on the boys track team. My senior year we had 30 or so girls on the track team that went undefeated. But my freshman year I was one of two girls on the track team and ran with the boys. 

“When my father died, Loomis saved me … and the fact they created sports opportunities for me saved me, and the fact that Bill Eaton said, ‘Yeah, come out and run track’ saved me. I will always feel so beholden to the school.” 

After graduating from Gettysburg, Mary earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Virginia. She ended up playing the most competitive basketball in her life in the Washington, D.C., area in a post-collegiate league in the '80s that had mostly former Division I players, and she won the MVP award one season. At the same time, she launched her journalism career with various freelance jobs at National Geographic and the Smithsonian and teaching part-time at Johns Hopkins. She has written several books.  

Mary now lives in West Hartford and is program coordinator of the Writing Minors at Central Connecticut State University. 

“I still sneak over to the Jewish Community Center [in West Hartford] to shoot hoops,” Mary said. “I have terrible back injuries, so I can't play but shoot at least once or twice a week. I find it very relaxing.” 

Athletics certainly helped mold her life. 

“A lot of the things I learned as an athlete and from Bill Eaton … I have to keep mentioning Bill Eaton …  the discipline, the drive, the thick skin, they really helped me become a journalist in D.C. in the ’80s and ’90s. There weren’t a lot of women … so my sports career really ended up helping me with that.” 

Discrepancies remain today between men’s and women’s sports. Mary finds it to be a complex issue. She thinks it is terrible that many male athletes leave college after a year or two and fabulous that female athletes likely will stay the four years and get a degree. She finds the men’s game to be all about money, having completely lost its “amateur whimsy joy.”  

“I think women are still in a space where they can create a better model where they get the attention and the money they deserve but don't fall into the trap of the men’s game … It’s a game, and it’s important to take seriously that there are women playing the game, but I think it’s a huge risk to think this is life and it’s more important than a million other things I could be doing with my life,” Mary said. “That was oddly a gift that Gettysburg ended up giving me.” 

Playing basketball at Gettysburg did not turn into the best experience for her on the court. Having no women’s track team at the time also was an issue. 

“But it turned out to be an indirect gift for me because I had to develop a fuller self,” Mary said. “I think we have forgotten to show the men athletes how to be good at life. They're still showing the women athletes how to be good at life. And I hope as we continue to advocate for equality, we show that is a better way. I think most people want parity completely, but the men have a terrible model.” 

  


 

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