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By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
“We have gone from being unrecognized to being recognized; from being excluded to being included; from nobody to somebody.”
– Karol Kahrs, 1974
The University of Illinois’ 1974-75 athletics staff.
History reveals that Bevier Hall was the site for an Aug. 22, 1974 organizational meeting that invited all University of Illinois women interested in participating in the Fighting Illini’s maiden season of varsity intercollegiate sports.
Approximately 125 curious young ladies listened attentively as Director of Athletics Cecil Coleman and newly appointed assistant director Karol Kahrs provided an overview of the adventures that lied ahead.
“This male chauvinist world we’ve lived in for so long has not yet made room for the fairer sex in the Tribe of Illini,” Coleman said that night. “That time has now come.”
In actuality, the University was one of collegiate athletics’ pioneering programs, elevating women to a plane level with their male counterparts about seven months before Title IX became law in the United States on Jan. 1, 1975.
The majority of Kahrs’ first coaching staff—Betsy Kimpel (golf), Kim Musgrave (gymnastics), Jeanne Hultzen (swimming), Doug Ward (diving), Peggy Pruitt (tennis), Jerry Mayhew and Judy Harrison (track and field), Kathie Haywood (volleyball) and Steve Douglas (basketball)—had been plucked from UI’s physical education staff. None of the seven individuals had ever directed programs at the varsity level, so a Lewis-and-Clark-type adventure was certain to ensue.
UI’s very first women’s varsity competitions occurred on Sept. 14 when women’s tennis and volleyball launched their seasons. By the end of that first day, Illini teams had a combined record of 3-0. Tennis’s Sept. 14th match against Purdue, a 7-5 victory, not only marked UI women’s athletics’ very…
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