65 Comments

So relate to this story as graduated here in Oregon in 1967.…had to wait until college to be an athlete as no high school sports. Couldn’t buy a car, a house, or open a credit card without a male signature. I went on to be a good college athlete, a teacher, a high school coach, a school administrator, and am so glad things have changed for girls and women.

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

We've come a long way, Baby, and have a long way to go.

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

John.. another great column. Thanks for posting.

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When I was in high school, we played basketball in PE class with “girl’s rules”:guards could not cross the center court line to play offense. Sports with other schools were only for boys. In college at UCLA, still no women’s teams. I cheered the passage of Title IX, but even after that girls and women had to fight for equal treatment in school sports. Took even longer to change in pro sports.

I watched my daughter, now 26, grow up in a totally different world. She was a natural athlete and excelled in soccer and track. We regularly attended women’s soccer games at University of Portland. Sellout crowd. After some games, the team was in a nearby gym signing autographs. Long lines of girls waited with their posters of the team to talk with the players and get autographs. By that time I was an attorney; generally a man’s profession when I was a child. For there to be this progress, we have to keep opening our eyes to fight other areas of sex discrimination, but the world was a very different place for my daughter than it was for me as a child.

Thank you for reminding all of us of the progress women and girls have made in sports and the rest of the world.

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

Reading this column was personally jarring. As a young boy who attended 'bat' days in the late 1960's I never considered if girls were denied those coveted Louisville Sluggers or not. Today this would seem impossible. Things have sure changed and for the better in this respect.

Thank you for bringing us some great content and eye opening information. So ok, here's a quote all of us missed from yesterday's column; ".........like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get".

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

This warms the heart of a woman who was in athletics at the beginning of Title IX! Oh, the stories...

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

Thank You both for a marvelous story...cheers!

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by John Canzano

As you were describing the family I had to take a second look at the last name because we have good

friends that are Sicilian, his name is Joe and their daughter Gina...She played soccer and became

a jazz singer. Good story.

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Feb 5, 2023·edited Feb 5, 2023

Thanks, John. I just missed the Title IX era. As close as I came to playing organized sports was playing in a women's softball league each summer. We used a softball but played baseball rules. I think now of some incredible women whose athletic prowess was never recognized My favorite ball field was the one in Detroit (Oregon) where those who were much more talented than me could, on a good day, hit a homer that landed in the lake. Thanks for another exceptional story and for giving Gina her due.

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Another touching story by you, John. I like these that you publish very much.

My grand daughter, who lives with her family in Berkeley, is playing football on the "boys" team and is a rabid 49ers fan. She has also been into baseball (and hardball, not softball) as well as taekwando. I compare her possibilities in sports to my wife, who was an excellent runner as a child but there was no track girls team at her high school in LA. She had to train with another school that did have a team. Times have gotten worse on our old planet in many, many ways, but at least women's sports has changed for the better.

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What a marvelous article John. I have two granddaughters and I tell them they can be whatever they want to be. Do not take No for a answer on anything!

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John, You made my Sunday - great article! We girl-dad’s can never tell our daughters enough stories like this to inspire & empower them. Thank you!

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Ken Woody

Well done, scribe!

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I’m a girl who went to an A’s bat day when Charley O had his team in Kansas City, MO. I remember that green bat with Campy Campaneris’ name engraved on it which we kept in my brothers room with his other Little League bats but I always thought it was MY bat. I was the oldest of 4 but we only had one brother. I’m guessing I thought maybe they only handed out one bat per family?! But now I know “the rest of the story!” as Paul Harvey would say.

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As a parent of two daughters, I love this column!

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Nice article Mr Canzano, history is important for growth!

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