Dr. Donna Lopiano: Baseball, Softball

 National Reform Leader

The payback for young girls who participate in sports includes several health and social benefits. Yet for years, marketers have pushed a girly, subordinate demeanor of women, discouraging young girls from being strong, active, and independent. Donna Lopiano ignored such pressures as a child. While many young girls growing up in the 1950s and 1960s viewed sports as a man’s game and preferred to watch, Lopiano could always be found playing with the boys. In fact, she did not even notice the difference between her and her neighborhood playmates until her gender denied her a spot on a Little League team that had actually recruited her at age 11. For the previous six years, she had spent hours after school perfecting her baseball pitches against the side of her family’s house. She idolized Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Don Drysdale, and dreamt of pitching for the New York Yankees.¹ When she was lined up at the field to get her uniform, another Little Leaguer’s father pulled out the rule book and demanded Lopiano be taken off the team because the rules stated that no girls were allowed. That very team went on to win the Little League World Series without her.

 

Lopiano was hurt by the exclusion and the subsequent pain drove her to work even harder toward success. She did not appreciate being told she could not pursue her dream and has worked tirelessly over the past four decades to prevent the same from happening to more young, impressionable girls. Until she was old enough to stand up for the injustices in women’s sports, Lopiano was forced to conform to the standard that males play baseball and females play softball. Lopiano learned to execute her powerful pitches with an underhand release and quickly excelled on the softball mound. In 1963, Lopiano was discovered by the Raybestos Brakettes, an amateur softball team for whom she played until 1972. During her 10 seasons, Lopiano earned All-American honors nine times and was named MVP three times. Her force from the mound led to a .910 winning percentage with 183 games won and just 18 games lost. In 817 innings pitched she struck out 1,633 opponents at the plate. A force at the plate herself, Lopiano twice led her team in batting average with .316 and .367. In addition to sharpening her softball skills, her career with the Brakettes provided her with the opportunity to travel and explore other parts of the world. By the time she was 18, she had already toured France, Hong Kong, India, and Australia playing the game she loved.²

 

One of the most amazing aspects of Lopiano’s amateur softball career is the fact that it spanned over her high school, collegiate, and postgraduate educations. In between long practices, intense training, international travel, and national championships, Lopiano managed to graduate from Stamford High School, Southern Connecticut State University with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, and the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees. Lopiano’s career as a Raybestos Brakette also did not interfere with her success on the field hockey, volleyball, and basketball teams. Including her amateur career, she played in 26 national championships in the four sports. The success she earned as an athlete led her to coaching positions for collegiate men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s basketball, and women’s softball programs.

 

At just 28 years old, Lopiano was hired by the University of Texas, Austin, as the director of intercollegiate athletics for women. Her energetic attitude and high standards appealed to the selection committee. Lopiano put pressure on the coaches both on and off the field. In her first 10 years, she went through 16 coaches in eight different sports. She made it clear to her staff that winning, as well as education, was a priority. Lopiano warned coaches that their jobs depended on whether or not their teams were top 10 programs. Lopiano also stressed that their jobs were equally dependent on the success their student-athletes achieved in the classroom. Within just one year after she began holding her coaches accountable for academic performances, the athletic department’s mean SAT score increased by 100 points. During her 17 years at the University of Texas, the Longhorns graduated 95 percent of its women athletes who completed their athletic eligibility. Athletically, Lopiano’s Longhorns were equally successful. Eighteen National Championships (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women [AIAW] and National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA]), 62 Southwest Conference Championships, more than 300 All-Americans, and over a dozen Olympians made Lopiano’s women’s program a dominant one in collegiate athletics. Her program’s success was a direct result of her philosophy that money and coaches were the two key ingredients for a collegiate program. Lopiano believed that if she adequately funded the program then she could attract the best coaches who would accept her demands, athletically and academically.³ By attracting the best coaches, Lopiano predicted the best athletes would follow. Lopiano developed her department’s budget from $57,000 in 1975 to almost $3 million in 1987.⁴

 

While the short-term numbers prove Lopiano’s success, she made great strides for women’s sports in the long run as well. A pioneer for her time, Lopiano has served females everywhere with her advocacy for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education programs and activities receiving federal funds. Title IX is commonly referred to for its impact on sports, but it also pertains to drama, band, and other extracurricular student activities. Title IX is credited with increasing female involvement in sport more than tenfold. In 1970, only one in every 27 high school girls played varsity sports compared to one in every 2.5 girls 30 years later. Title IX has led to increased funding and support for women’s sports, bringing the ratio of girls playing much closer to the ratio of boys in sports, which is equal to one in every two. Lopiano was instrumental in implementing Title IX at the University of Texas, pushing equal rights for women, something she was denied in her youth.⁵

 

Lopiano moved to the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) in April of 1992 to continue her advocacy for female athletes’ rights. The WSF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 1974 by tennis legend Billie Jean King to advance the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity. The Foundation’s programs, services, and initiatives are dedicated to participation, education, advocacy, research, and leadership for women’s sports. In her 15 years as executive director, Lopiano secured funding for girls’ and women’s sport programs and educated the public and corporations about the importance of women’s health and gender equality in sport. Lopiano believes the 1996 Summer Olympics was a celebration of Title IX, showing the first generation of success stories in gymnast Kerri Strug, sprinter Gail Devers, softball player Dot Richardson, swimmer Amy Van Dyken, and basketball player Lisa Leslie who all took home gold medals. Young girls everywhere suddenly had female role models in the sports world despite the lack of professional athletic opportunities for females in the United States. Individuals and parents under the age of 40 are also of the Title IX generation and have been a major influence on children, according to Lopiano, by encouraging both sons and daughters to participate in sports.

 

The Sporting News named Lopiano one of “The 100 Most Influential People in Sports”; College Sports magazine ranked her among “The 50 Most Influential People in College Sports”; Ladies Home Journal named her one of “America’s 100 Most Important Women”; and she was named as one of the century’s greatest sportswomen by Sports Illustrated Women. She is an inductee of the National Sports Hall of Fame, the National Softball Hall of Fame, and the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. In honor of her many contributions to women in athletics at the University of Texas, the crew team christened the Varsity Eight shell “Donna A. Lopiano” in April 2005. Lopiano sat on the United States Olympic Committee’s executive board for many years and was awarded the 2005 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Women and Sport Trophy. Since 2000, the IOC Women and Sport Trophy has been awarded annually to a person or organization in recognition of their outstanding contributions to developing, encouraging, and strengthening the participation of women and girls in physical and sports activities, in coaching, and in administrative, journalism, and media positions.

 

In August 2007, Lopiano announced her retirement from the Women’s Sports Foundation. In 2008, she founded Sports Management Resources (SMR), a consulting firm specializing in educational sport. As president of SMR, Lopiano is helping sports organizations solve integrity, growth, and development challenges. A champion athlete in her own right, Donna Lopiano is similarly considered a champion of equal opportunity for women in sports. Her educational advocacy of ethical conduct garnering gender equality in sports made Lopiano a pioneer whose bravado, intelligence, and determination have left an everlasting—and feminine—effect on American sports.

 

Notes

[1] Alexander Wolff, “Prima Donna: Women’s Athletic Director Donna Lopiano Has Taken the Bull by the Horns at Texas,” Sports Illustrated, December 17, 1990.

2 Wolff, “Prima Donna.”

3  Wolff, “Prima Donna.”

4 Texas Woman’s University, “Texas Women’s Hall of Fame: Donna Lopiano,” http://www.twu.edu/twhf/tw-lopiano.htm, August 18, 2004 (accessed July 27, 2005).

5 Women’s Sports Foundation, “Title IX and Race in Intercollegiate Sport,” http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/issues/disc/article.html?record=955, June 23, 2003 (accessed April 2, 2008).