UM women athletes get national push

ORONO – Women’s Sports Foundation executive director Donna Lopiano brought a message of hope, encouragement and support of women’s athletics to the Bangor area Sunday as a featured speaker for “Realizing the Dream: Celebrating Women in Athletics.”

It was the first of what organizers hope will become an annual fund-raiser for University of Maine women’s athletics. Planners had hoped to sell 20 tables at $1,000 apiece for the dinner at the Black Bear Inn. They sold 23 tables and raised $23,000.

Robert Holmes, UMaine vice president for development, announced that Francelia D. “Frankie” Corbett of Lenox, Mass., has made a $100,000 contribution for an endowment to women’s athletic-academic scholarships at Maine.

Frankie Corbett and her late husband Donald were members of the Class of ’34, and Mrs. Corbett was a field hockey goalie for Maine, Holmes said.

Before the dinner, Lopiano addressed a small but enthusiastic gathering of community members and UMaine students at Alfond Arena’s Dexter Lounge.

She said she hopes the group will take advantage of the offer the WSF is making citizens of this community.

If community members organize and complete the necessary steps to form a Community Awards and Grants Program – with full assistance and direction from the WSF – Lopiano said the WSF will provide that committee with awards and grants of upto $1,000 per year to present as the committee chooses.

Former Bangor YMCA president Sherrilynn Smith and the Y’s senior program director, Elanna Clark, believe the program has great possibilities for the area.

“Recognition of the accomplishments of girls and young ladies in athletics would be a wonderful addition to our community,” said Smith of the program that would, each year, recognize outstanding female athletes and community members who contribute to sports programs for girls.

“It’s a very interesting concept,” Clark said. “Our community does a great job recognizing our young men. We need to recognize our young women, too.”

Lopiano, whose dream since the age of 5 was to pitch for the New York Yankees, became an advocate for women’s athletics at 11 when, standing in line to receive her Little League uniform, was told: “No girls are allowed.”

Lopiano is a former internationally recognized athlete who was a nine-time All-American in softball, an athletic administrator, and president of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in the early 1980s when it was absorbed by the NCAA.

She spoke of the numerous health benefits for women – physical and mental – that sports fosters, as well as social, cultural, business and political benefits of being involved in team sports.

UMaine softball sisters Cindy and Kelly Harrington had a surprise for Lopiano when they introduced themselves. Their mother played against Lopiano when Lopiano was a member of the world-famous Raybestos softball team.

“That takes me back 30 years,” Lopiano laughed. “Please give my best to your mother.”

The WSF was founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King with $5,000 in tennis winnings she was to give to her favorite charity. That charity was women’s sports, but the money had no place to go, so King created one.

Lopiano asked her staff when she arrived at the WSF 2 1/2 years ago: “Are we winning yet?” She was referring to how far women’s sports had advanced since passage of Title IX in 1972. The answer: Not yet.

Pointing out that prior to 1970 one in 27 girls played varsity sports in high school, and that one in three participate today, Lopiano added females remain far behind men in athletic visibity, financial support and recognition.

One way to change that, she said, is to get the community involved. That is why she came to Maine.

The WSF has 72 Community Grants and Awards Programs in 32 states. Lopiano would like to increase that to 33 with a program in Maine.