Government rules U.S. schools must provide sports to disabled (Read 141 times)

Here's a radical thought: why not do away with athletic scholarships? Make all scholarships on an academic and needs basis. Or provide scholarships for other activities that could turn into career - performing arts, outing club, or whatever (maybe there are scholarships already, I dunno). I recognize that athletic scholarships may be the way out of some really poor economic situations for some people.

Where I went to undergrad (graduated '69), they had some limited intramurals for the women, no intercollegiate stuff at all for women. There weren't any sports to offer a scholarship in. Things were starting to change though. I think it was my senior year when they had an open house in the new fieldhouse facility to show us racquetball courts, and I forget all what else. Then told us: oh, you can't come back here. It's the men's gym.

When I was in hs, we did have 3 sports (field hockey, basketball, and softball). FH and BB uniforms were used for several years and had to be turned in at end of season, including warmup sweats. We provided our own softball uniforms (red shorts and white blouse). I was in new high school so from 9th grade on, we had pretty much the same team (actually, from 8th grade on since the older class was fairly weak). We had about half a dozen that played varsity in all 3 sports all those years plus summer softball (until they said we couldn't play in the summer league until after the school season). (Softball was my true love, and as a kid, I wanted to be a professional.) By the time we were seniors we were pretty good - 2nd or 3rd in FH, 1st in BB, undefeated in softball after having won the league championship the prior year with no seniors. BUT we never got varsity letters. We got charms instead. When our 1965 softball team was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame a few years ago, I thought they might give us letters. Nope. (some of my teammates who went to the more athletic schools did reach some level of All American in field hockey or basketball.)

Boys football team lost every game (or might have won one in last year), but they got letters.

So sorry for not feeling too sorry for men's teams that didn't have scholarships when there was no women's team at all   I know the daughter of a friend of mine probably got her swimming scholarship as a result of Title IX.

I think some of the interest by women has and will change as opportunities present themselves, and they grow up knowing these opportunities are there. Some schools that focus more on academics may have both fewer men and women interested in sports. Coaching will likely improve. Student athletes will be better trained. (heck, there's some team action in elementary school vs the recess that we had) Strength and conditioning may be more common rather than just going out with some calisthentics and some drills. I know my undergrad school within a few years went from having umpires that would put homeplate in backward (sigh - definitely not a jock school) to having teams that were competitive within the league and sometimes at national level.

Women did marathons as early as 1956(?) (Pikes Peak) and 1963 (Equinox) and nobody's vagina fell out. What took Boston and the Olympics so long to figure this out?  (Olympics was a matter of getting the number of nations with women's marathons up to some number, and I believe that's what Katherine Switzer did.)

And, yes, as pointed out, there can be some very costly interpretations that don't really benefit anyone.

How many disabled kids are out there that would like to play some sport at some level? I have no idea. And because they haven't had that opportunity and maybe never learned some needed skills, they may not realize they're interested.

I wasn't talking about men not getting scholarships. I was talking about men's teams being cut - not allowed to have a team.

Earlier posts were commenting about scholarships. Is it not being allowed to have a team, or do they play at "club" level where they maybe don't have the support (like travel funds) of a regular team. There are probably rules as to what you can do or not do that way.

I think some NCAA rules may come into play about not accepting funds (maybe from boosters?), so the only way the athletes can fund their life is through scholarship, but not sure.

I know one of my races helps fund some UAA ski team equipment (jackets or something, varies by year).