Lucy Parker loves competitive sports, and actually prefers tennis to golf. But when it comes to women’s sports at Eastern Michigan University, the alumnus and former administrator would pick up a stick, racquet or club and strike any ball to promote students and coaches. She gets another chance to do so later this year, when the golf outing that bears her name has a 20th and final start.
“Women’s sports have come a long way at Eastern and universities everywhere,” said Parker, 71, who retired in 1991 after 14 years overseeing women’s sports. “But there are decades of inequities still to be addressed, and I’m glad the golf outings have been successful in raising money and awareness.”
Parker’s life as a student athlete, coach and athletic administrator spans the evolution of women’s sports at the college level. As a freshman at Michigan State Normal College in 1954, she continued to play tennis and basketball, sports she excelled in as a student at Detroit Eastern High School.
But for female students of that era, there were no varsity sports. Instead, they played on what were then called club sports. At MSNC, that meant the women of Jones Hall, for example, played the women of Goddard or Goodison halls; basically, with the exception of some limited nearby travel, competition consisted of one residence hall playing another. “In that era, it was about students who loved to play and people who loved to coach,” said Parker (B.S. ’58, M.S. ’66).
Starting in the 1950s, regional and national bodies formed to help govern and promote women’s athletics. This was the world that Parker and others encountered until the passage of Title IX, a 1972 federal law calling for equal treatment of men and women “under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” as the law states.
This was later broadly defined to include athletics, although the word isn’t mentioned in the legislation itself. After years of legal disputes, rules clarifying Title IX were finally written and enforced by the federal Department of Education. By 1980, the National Collegiate Athletic Association fully embraced women’s sports, bringing them under its authority and technically on par with men’s sports.
By the time Parker retired as associate athletic director in 1991, women’s sports at EMU had indeed grown in parity to men’s programs. Scholarships were more widely available, coaches were paid full-time salaries and University budgets had increased. Today, EMU has 12 women’s varsity sports and nine for men.
After teaching and coaching at high schools and Henry Ford Community College, Parker accepted a job as EMU’s women’s tennis coach in 1976. Women’s athletics had just recently moved from the physical education department within the College of Education to the athletic department. She was then hired by EMU’s acting athletic director Ron Oestrike as the women’s supervisor, working in that position for a year. In April 1977, she became the women’s athletic director and continued to coach tennis until 1979.
At that time, EMU offered 42 tuition and fee scholarships for women. Three years later, it offered 84. Today, the budget for women’s teams is $2.1 million, which covers all operating budgets as well as coaches’ salaries and benefits. EMU offers 131 scholarships for women (the NCAA maximum) totaling $1.9 million.
Parker points proudly to hard-fought gains made by women during her tenure. She had to overcome such inequities as smaller food allowances on road trips based upon the assumption that women ate less than men, and putting four women in a room – two to a bed – as a way to lower expenses.
Along the way, she led movements to make coaching positions full time; increased tuition-only scholarships to full scholarships; added softball as a sport; promoted the hiring of assistant coaches; assisted in getting dedicated lockerrooms for women; started awarding varsity letters; led the movement for the softball complex; and started the inaugural golf outing and related endowment fund in 1988.
In tribute to her service, the fund and golf outing were renamed in Parker’s honor at her 1991 retirement. Today, at $350,000, the Lucy Parker Women’s Athletic Endowment is among EMU’s largest. Endowment income helps three sports teams annually, chosen in rotation, funding everything from new equipment to travel-related expenses to tournaments. If this year’s fundraising goals are met, the number of teams helped will increase to six.
The fundraising goal is $100,000 in challenge funds. If the outing sells out with 144 golfers, the challenge funds will be added to the endowment.
“Endowments are the building blocks of the future,” said Craig Fink, associate athletic director dor development and executive director of the EMU Athletic Club. “By meeting the ambitious objectives we have for this year’s event, we can help five or more women’s teams each year with additional critical funds for their operating budgets.”
Parker still calls Ypsilanti home, although she spends more time each year at a second home in Bonita Springs, Fla. She continues to follow sports, especially pro football and her beloved Detroit Tigers, which she has followed since elementary school. Despite her enthusiasm for sports and competition, she says the priority for student-athletes is clear. “They are there to get an education,” she said.
(For more information or to support the leadership fundraising effort, contact Craig Fink at 734.487.8236 or craig.fink@emich.edu.)
Lucy Parker Golf Outing
When: Friday, June 20 Where: Eagle Crest Golf Course
Why: To support women’s athletics at Eastern Michigan University
Cost: $150, includes golf, cart, lunch, dinner; $75 for graduates of the past decade (1998-2007); $50 for dinner only
Details: Shotgun start at 9:30 a.m.; celebration dinner begins at 5 p.m. The keynote speaker is Donna Lopiano, chief executive office of the Women’s Sports Foundation