Title IX at 50: How girls sports changed through the years

In 1972, Congress passed Title IX, part of the education amendments of 1972, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law.

Prior to its passage, few opportunities were available female athletes. In 1972, approximately 30,000 women participated in collegiate athletics. High school programs weren’t much different. According to History.com, 295,000 girls participated in high school sports in 1972.

Title IX was established to correct imbalances between women’s and men’s athletics.

Now, more than 2.6 million females participate in sports at the high school and collegiate levels.

How has Title IX affected women’s sports in Orchard?

Controversy with girl’s basketball started with the University of Nebraska. History.nebraska.gov states after the 1908 basketball season, the University of Nebraska dissolved its women’s basketball team.

“Physical recreation was ok, but highly competitive, “mannish” play was said to be inappropriate and even harmful to women,” the article states.

Orchard had a girls’ basketball team around this same time.

“The Oriole Flyer,” the Orchard school’s newspaper, from Dec. 19, 1974, gives an overview of the history of women’s basketball at the school.

Flora Newman remembered “way back” to when the girls’ basketball team traveled to play Plainview in 1920.

According to the article, she said, “They left Orchard about 8:00 a.m. in the morning to go on the train to Plainview. The team rented a room there, and after they played the game, they returned to Orchard on the train about midnight.”

Newman went on to explain that the same team had only lost one game, to Ewing, by the score of 14 -11. They could only play Clearwater, Plainview, Neligh, Chambers, Page and Ewing.

Members of the first women’s basketball team in Orchard were Eva Clifton, Lena Brown, Anna Nelson, Floy Stevens, Lois Clifton, and Thelma Shaw.

The game was played as “six-man” half-court ball, where the extra girl was known as the running center. Uniforms consisted of “white middies with black ties and black cotton bloomers,” according to the article.

“In 1924, the Nebraska High School Athletic Association voted to abolish the girls’ state basketball tournament and to bar girls’ teams from entering any state, district or county basketball tournaments in the future,” according to the article.

Orchard is believed to have continued to have a girls’ basketball team until 1928.

Girls’ basketball was not allowed to be played again until 1972 when Title IX was enacted by Congress. After 46 years, Orchard girls’ basketball practice finally started again, Nov. 25, 1974.

The 1974-75 team members were Lorinda Erb, Colleen Knapp, Debbie Pruss, Lori Leiding, Connie Heiss, Connie Beelaert, Leah Hill, Renee Erb, Julie Williamson, Lisa Eley, Julie Cheatum, Sally Wilson, Michelle Dempster, Robin Schleusener, Kathy Stelling and Cathy Wellman. Arlo Pinkerman was the coach along with Pam Snyder as student manager.

volleyball had been played at Orchard for a long time. The Oriolettes were district champs, regional champs and state qualifiers at the first-ever Nebraska volleyball State Championships at Nebraska Western College, in Scottsbluff, Nov. 16 and 17, 1972. They lost the first game at the state tournament.

According to an Oct. 25, 1974, article in the “Orchard News,” the volleyball team consisted of Connie Beelaert, Debbie Nelson, Lorinda Erb, Shari Heiss, Diane Meisner, Debbie Godel, Vicky Miller, Lori Leiding, Connie Heiss, Amy Buxton, Rita Meyer and Colleen Knapp. They were coached by Arlo Pinkerman.

The team played Fremont-Bergan and won in two games, with scores of 15-8 and 15-6. They went on and beat Emerson-Hubbard. Finally, they made it to the finals of the state tournament undefeated. They placed second after losing the championship game to Madison, ending with a 25-1 record.

When looking at women’s sports today, it is important to take a look back and see some of the people who were the first players of the small town’s teams.

Connie Heiss Mitteis, of Orchard, played on the first Orchard girls’ basketball team in the 1974-75 season, after the program started after it’s hiatus.

“One thing I remember is the first year, we sometimes had trouble running our plays, so we would occasionally just freelance - that’s what we called it - and won games anyway,” Mitteis said. “I think that was why we upset some teams because they didn’t know how to defend us.

“The Oriole Flyer,” dated Feb. 14, 1975, included game scores.

The Oriolettes won the first game against undefeated Spencer, with a score of 51-46. But they lost a second game to Stuart, with a 29-26 loss. The Oriolettes began dominating, with a 56-13 win against O’Neill and continued the winning streak, downing Ewing, 42-15. Butte handed Orchard a 39-33 loss, but the orange and black came back to beat Elkhorn Valley, 43-38.

Orchard tried to seek revenge against Stuart, but lost again, 37-33. On Feb. 13, the Oriolettes played Spencer again with a loss of 50-40. The team then ended its season with a victory over the O’Neill Eaglettes.

“When I say freelance, that was more our first few games, not having had organized girls’ basketball at a younger age had a lot to do with understanding the game,” Mitteis explained. “We were all used to playing with our brothers and sisters at home.”

Orchard made back-to-back appearances in the girls’ state basketball tournament, In 1991, Overton defeated Orchard, 62-50 in the first round.

Cambridge eliminated the Orioles, 78-59, in 1992.

Like basketball, volleyball had its turn of events as well.

Mitteis’ sister, Shari Heiss Ickes, now of Page, was a sophomore when the Oriolettes made it to the first-ever state volleyball tournament. She was a senior when the team returned to the tournament in 1974.

“We had a pretty decent team both years we went,” said Ickes. “In 1972, we were district champs, regional champs and state qualifiers.”

Ickes recalled the state tournament being in Scottsbluff at the time and even driving on icy roads one year.

“Being the first-ever state tournament, and having absolutely no idea what to expect, we got there, and it was being held in a very large, domed gymnasium, two courts with the highest ceilings we'd ever seen - two games going on at once and whistles blowing everywhere was new to us,” Ickes explained. “Needless to say, we didn't do very well.”

The Oriolettes lost the first game at the state tournament in 1972 and were eliminated from the tournament. However, Ickes said this prepared them for a trip to the state tournament again two years later. She said the team had a great 1974 season was undefeated until the final game of the state tournament against Madison.

“It was a very emotional time,” Ickes said. “We felt like we had won because we played some pretty good-sized schools from bigger towns in the state tournament and held our own quite well.”

The Oriolettes were victorious over Fremont-Bergan and Emerson-Hubbard in two sets. At that time, volleyball was played as the best two out of three sets to 15.

“The rotation rules were similar (to now), but there were no overlapping rules that I remember,” Ickes explained. A serve in the net was a side out, one that hit the net was a re-serve. No rally serving.”

Ickes also doesn’t recall switching positions after a serve like volleyball is played today.

Orchard was in Class D during the 1972 NSAA State volleyball Tournament in Scottsbluff. They lost the first game against Milligan 15-4 and 15-3.

In the 1974 tournament, Orchard was in Class C when they defeated Fremont-Bergan 15-8 and 15-6. They excelled to the semifinals when they then defeated Emerson-Hubbard 15-8 and 15-3. The championship game was against Madison when the Oriolettes were defeated 15-13 and 15-10 for a runner-up finish.

The Orioles did not qualify for the state volleyball tournament again until 2000, when they lost to Harvard in two sets. In 2002, Orchard earned the Class D2 runner-up title, with wins over Ansley and Banner County, before falling to Paxton, in three sets, in the finale. The team traveled to the tournament in 2003, finishing 1-1, with a win over Mead and a loss to Paxton. In 2004, Archbishop Bergan handed the Orioles a loss in the first round, 3-1.