1970s Female Athletes...

continued from front page not high and not all sports programs were in existence over 50 years ago, but since then opportunities for women athletes has grown, as has the publicity they receive.

There was a comradery amongst those teammates that remains to this day, and the sports they played, they loved – and they played them very well.

Pamela Clause McGroarty started coaching at Livingston High School during the 1971 – 72 school year. She coached basketball, field hockey, and tennis, and pitched in when track and field needed a coach. She also coached at Seton Hall University, and previously played field hockey, basketball, and softball at then Montclair State College.

“Back then, women’s sports came under the auspices of what was known as the Girls Athletic Association,” McGroarty recalls. “I started coaching tennis and basketball then, and both sports had about eight contests per season. We did some good things, and I loved it. I loved every minute of it.”

Celia Chen, MS, PhD Research Professor for the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College, was co-captain of the girls’ swim team, and she also played tennis. She graduated from Livingston High School in 1974. “Being an athlete at Livingston was just such a community for girls,” she says.

“I do remember we as women had to have the earlier practice times, so we had to be at the pool in the dark. That was brutal. I also swam at Dartmouth College, and the women always got the less than sufficient locker rooms and practice times. There was definitely no equity in those days, but I do know those years made me a stronger swimmer, for sure.”

Attorney Luanne Peterpaul played basketball for McGroarty, and also took part in club volleyball outside the school.

“Women weren’t really encouraged at that time to be active in certain types of sports,” she says. “It just was an interesting time. And I think that once you hit junior high, it was okay, but once you were in high school, it was a different ballgame. I think female athletes were looked at quite differently depending upon the sport. It was not like it is now, where there was a hope that you are going to continue on into the future. The coaching staff and the teachers were phenomenal in terms of the encouragement; it just had not yet made it to the students.”

Wolpert adds, “Before Title IX, they actually had girls’ basketball before that, they had girls’ tennis. Pam Clause was a great mentor, by the way; she played basketball at Montclair State College before 1972, so it was not the start of girls playing sports. It was just the start of being equal: the start of growth, having equal pay, equal facilities, and no discrimination.”

Schalkoff, who had quite a jump shot for

McGroarty’s Lancers, adds, “Pam Clause was quite the coach.”

McGroarty, who retired in 2011 as principal of Livingston High School, says, “If it were not for Title IX, we would not be where we are today. And I had kids back between 1972 and 1974 that accomplished some good things.”