Susan True – National Trailblazer for Girls Sports

In the 1980s and 1990s, no one advanced girls participation in high school sports at the national level more than Susan True. As assistant director of the NFHS for 17 years, True was a leader in girls gymnastics, volleyball, field hockey, swimming and diving, water polo and spirit. She also was vital to the start of the NFHS Equity Committee and helped build working relationships with various national governing bodies to help their understanding of the NFHS. She served as vice president and on the board of trustees of the Women’s Sports Foundation. True was one of the organizers of the Women’s Intersport Network, which is involved in annually hosting the Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration in Kansas City.

Question: The 50th anniversary of Title IX occurs in June. What does that law mean to you?

True: Title IX isn’t just athletics. Title IX is your nursing department; Title IX is your business department. As you look at the picture of women’s opportunities today, we’re far better off than in 1972. But we are not equal at all. Take the NCAA, for example. This is the first year that the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament had as many teams as the men’s basketball tournament.

I’ve often said, and I know this isn’t true across the board, but men were the ones that wanted us to get involved. They wanted to write one basketball rules book instead of two and so forth. Someone asked me what happened? I said, “Well, we needed money.”

I think we still have a way to go. And I’m sure that it’s also true for minorities. How well are we doing at putting qualified people in the positions they’re applying for?

Question: In 1972, when Title IX legislation was passed, you were hired as Washburn University’s gymnastics coach in Topeka, Kansas. What differences did you see throughout athletics in that role before and after the law passed?

True: Just prior to Title IX getting passed I was at a high school that did have a gymnastics team, if you want to call it that. They did also compete interscholastically in tennis. Those were acceptable sports.

Washburn had a couple of sports, but for its size, the fact that they then had girls gymnastics, girls field hockey, girls basketball, volleyball and track was pretty good in 1972. Part of that was due to the head of the women’s department – no matter whether it was for academics or sports – was a woman. She pushed things as much as she could, but we still had difficulty. I used to tell people, “We don’t push too terribly hard because Washburn’s men’s program’s funding is so far below anybody else in our league that across the board we’ve got to convince our president that we need more money.” It was better when I left, but not that good.

Question: While at the NFHS, the first rules for girls were introduced in the sport of basketball. How had the battle for girls sports participation evolved from when you were in high school through the passing of Title IX?

True: I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, from junior high on. That was a “large enough school area” that they did not allow interscholastic athletics for girls. The interesting thing is that the people who opposed it the most were the older women in physical education. I’m not sure how they first come to think that. They were convinced that if we tried to play full-court basketball that we would collapse in the middle of the floor. So, I grew up with that thinking, and that I wanted to be a physical educator.

There wasn’t any other big plans until 1972, which is when I moved from a part-time high school teacher to Washburn University in Topeka to be the gymnastics coach. I’d never been a gymnast, but I was a judge. I guess they knew that I would go to clinics. So, for 1972 to be the start of the push for women’s athletics, we just started from the ground up at Washburn.

It’s interesting. Those women against it might have been old enough that they didn’t really get into it. However, it was the women who had taught physical education – many of them like Karen Kuhn and a number of those who had to coach everything in high school – that helped grow opportunities for girls.

I have a friend who started the women’s athletics program at Kansas the University of Kansas. She had seven sports and a budget of $2,000. It was a slow start. One of the biggest issues I’m sure the state association staff had was that for quite some time, people thought Title IX only applied to collegiate athletics. The idea that high schools would have to do this was really something amazing to them.

The one change I did see through all the years I was involved was from fathers who had daughters as athletes. We got phone calls at the National Federation about how some girls soccer teams were wearing old boys soccer uniforms. When fathers began getting involved with it, things started to change. It also helped that the fathers in these cases had often also been competitive athletes, too. They knew what the positives could be from participating. The positives are just enormous.

Question: A known pioneer and advocate for Title IX, what role did you play in promoting the law throughout your career?

True: I wrote articles about it, gave talks addressing it, and discussed it at conferences. It was important to get out into the schools to be sure they really understood this law. At Washburn, my friends and I even wrote some articles about the girls sports movement and Title IX.

Once I was in the national office, I got contacted more often about Title IX and had the opportunity to speak on it – even to college students. I was also on the board of directors for USA Field Hockey, USA Gymnastics and USA Volleyball. Those were some of my sports.

Whether you are an expert or not, students and those wanting to learn more about the law would start listening to you. It was amazing when you would go to colleges. They really just didn’t understand the law. The three-prong tests, which is still there, is something they didn’t understand.

I continued to study it more and more because I got asked to speak more on it, but I was in a national organization. Although audiences didn’t know me from a hole in the wall, coming from the national office gave me a voice that I didn’t have before. I think state association women had a voice that a high school teacher might not have.

Question: What led you to becoming such a distinguished coach and athletics administrator?

True: Growing up, I was a little cheerleader on the sideline. That’s what we were allowed to do. And thank heavens when I was a cheerleader at Kansas State University that we did not do what the cheerleaders do now.

That eventually brought about the National Federation writing what we called the Spirit Rules Book because there were dance lines and so forth. Well, now they’re athletes and they’re doing risky things. The National Federation felt like we’ve got to get a handle on this before someone really gets hurt.

I started coaching in 1972 when gymnastics was not what it is now. I went to as many clinics as I could go to. In those days, you used video. We recorded them and would show our student-athletes a video of how stuff goes.

After our gymnasts were injured with a brain concussion and a broken arm, my husband, who was with the National Guard, asked how he could help. Being an ex-tennis player, he had perfect timing to serve as a spotter. We really kind of coached together that first year or so because he could spot things that I couldn’t. And we learned together.

By the time we left, they were ranked fifth in the country in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). That’s around the time the NCAA decided to get involved in it. And that was eventually a good idea. In the beginning, I think the girls got recognized less than they did when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was doing it, but I was in favor as long as the women didn’t suffer from it.

Question: As a rising female in athletics administration during the late 1970s and 1980s, did you have any mentors during your early career? What role did they play?

True: There was a lady who was a couple years younger than I was, Peg Marmet. She got the job at Topeka West when I had given up on getting into the teaching ranks and we had started our family. Peg then moved to Washburn, where she taught and coached the gymnastics team until she left to grow her family.

Washburn then got Jan Nuzman, who was really the coordinator of athletics without having the full title. She got me involved and we battled for Title IX together.

When you came into the Federation, you typically were hired by coming through a state association position. Well, I came from a university. The main reason was that gymnastics was really becoming hot, and the executive director felt if they hired a gymnastics person then that person has probably also taught physical education. The thought was that this hire would also know about volleyball and other sports. I got the job because I’m very concerned about gymnastics, its risk factors and all of that.

Coming in from a school, I felt like I didn’t know anybody. Before I went to my first athletic directors conference, Karen Kuhn from Wisconsin and Dorothy McIntyre from Minnesota called to wish me good luck because they weren’t going. That just meant the world to me. A lot of those state association people are still the people I’m the closest to. We all really worked together to try to make things better for girls.

Question: Did you face any challenges on the state and national levels as a female in an administrative role?

True: I had six sports and seven rules books. The guys had two. They eventually finally came to me and said I needed to give up one of my sports. That wasn’t easy because I had gotten to know the people across the country in that sport.

We formed an equity committee, which was really quite important. Before we formed that committee, though, our executive committee made the decision – and this was historic – to have each of the eight sections nominate prospective rules committee members that included a man, woman and a minority. This took place fairly close to when I retired.

The changes in the committees were amazing. When we were previously asked to nominate, we thought of people we knew. The guys knew the guys and the gals knew some of the gals.

Question: As an NFHS assistant director, you were responsible for several boys and girls high school sports, along with serving on numerous committees. What accomplishments stand out to you as the most significant from your time in those roles?

True: There are some besides going into the National High School Hall of Fame, which was significant to me because it’s the type of recognition that suggests you’re doing a half decent job.

With volleyball, I got more involved with its board and was on the executive committee. After I retired, I received the Frier Award from USA Volleyball. That’s the highest award they give to a volunteer and someone who is not a coach or a player. I felt like that recognized how I did a good job for them.

It was interesting with USA Swimming because a lot of our coaches coached by USA Swimming rules. A lot of our officials also officiated both college and high school, so one of the changes I was proud to have made was with the flip turn on the backstroke.

Like with volleyball, where I invited a USA volleyball representative to join our rules committee meeting to better understand some of our rules differences, I asked USA Swimming and even USA Gymnastics if they would like to do the same. They were there as an expert if the committee wanted it, but also to learn how we operate. I believe they found out that the National Federation operated some of their rules better than the National Governing Body was doing.

USA Swimming had talked to some high school officials and coaches and said it needs to be passed, and said we don’t have to answer to the Fédération Internationale De Natation (FINA). I asked what feedback they had heard from high schools and they told me they think it’s marvelous that we were asked to do it. So, it went on the agenda and passed. Before our rules committee even met, FINA passed it. When high school people can do that, it makes them feel good, it makes them feel a part of it, and it was a really dynamic change in swimming rules.

Question: You were recognized as one of the top five leading women in girls high school sports by the NFHS during its Centennial Celebration in 2019. What does that level of recognition mean to you?

True: The honor I feel about that designation far outweighs any other recognition I’ve received. It’s the type of thing where you think of how you can name 25 other people who could be included.

When the National Federation recognizes you with people like Karen Kuhn, Dorothy McIntyre, Ola Bundy, Becky Oakes and so many other deserving women, it becomes one of those things that’s just way more than you could ever imagine happening. We all just did our jobs.

I was fortunate enough to have Brice Durbin believe that I could come to the National Federation from a different route than most other people. He thought I could fit in and maybe make a difference.

I used to tell Brice before he passed away that while I enjoyed being at the university, I’m like a lot of coaches. I’ll never forget when basketball coach Roy Williams said, “I got into coaching because I liked teaching. Once I became the head coach of a college team, I had to do all these other things.”

I was just a dissertation short of a doctorate. If I stayed at the university, I had to have one even though half of my time was in coaching. Brice called me the day before Labor Day and offered me the job on the phone. Now, he was known for checking all those things out before he called you. I told him so many times that he gave me the job of a lifetime. There is no way I could have ever dreamed as a junior high girl who decided she wanted to teach physical education that I would get to work with and know as many people as I did. And it started with Brice giving me that job.