NCAA Women

The Originals – Stanford University Athletics

The Originals - Stanford University Athletics


ALLISON BROWN ’77 was in the Stanford band. She first played clarinet and for a while the tuba, ‘scattering” through halftime shows, as the band did, and painted “Boobs on Toobs” on her tuba bell.

“I’ve always been a very strong feminist,” she said from Berlin, her home since being granted a Fulbright Scholarship in 1982. “Reducing women to a body part is not something I would normally do, but that fit. It drew attention to women being out there, in a way that the Stanford band could relate to. I felt like it was OK.”

Brown started out majoring in chemistry because she felt it was important for women to be involved in contraception research. Eventually, she grew weary of chemistry and sat for a heart to heart with one of her professors, Carl Djerrassi, the father of the birth control pill.

“It’s true, there have to be more women doing this,” Djerrassi told her. “But it makes more sense to have women doing it who want to be there.”

Brown switched to German Studies, leading to a career as a translator of books and museum exhibitions in Germany. In the life she’s made there, she plays the clarinet in Berlin’s women’s concert band, organized a soccer team that won a Gay Games gold medal, and likes to run half-marathons, eager to attempt another for the first time since enduring a heart attack in 2019.

Brown arrived at Stanford in 1973 from Dix Hills, Long Island. Though a fan of the boys’ team at Half Hollow Hills High School, she never played soccer herself. She played fifth singles badminton; but “I wasn’t very good,” she said. “I was more in charge of the tea for the break.”

Allison’s mother, Tibby, was a civil service worker in family court and fought for equal pay in the courtroom. Barbara preceded sister Allison at Stanford and was active in the Women’s Center, a resource center, and in 1974 helped create a “Guide for Stanford Women,” a 40-page pamphlet with health, legal, and safety advice: “You’ve seen your advisor six times and he still doesn’t know your name … you’re three weeks late … you want to play lacrosse but there’s no women’s team … your bike has a flat tire … you need a job but the ads say ‘male preferred.’”

“She was the feminist before me,” Allison said.

To Allison, athletic ability wasn’t a prerequisite for her involvement in sports. When the boys of Branner Hall played pickup soccer in front of the dorm, Brown joined in. When Branner formed an…

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