(bright music) Support for Nebraska Stories: Title IX is funded in part by Husker Athletic Fund and the Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation (upbeat music) In this special edition of Nebraska Stories, a look at Title IX through the eyes of a Nebraska trailblazer for equity, the visionary leader behind Title IX with a Husker connection, the story of a Red Cloud woman who made "good trouble", and a collegiate coaching team setting a new standard.

(upbeat music) [Narrator] On June 23rd, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a landmark civil rights bill.

The new law contained 37 words that changed the lives of women.

(inspiring music) Public Law 92318, better known as Title IX, ensured gender equity in educational programs and sports in any schools receiving federal funding.

[Upbeat Music] I need to share with you, because we're going to talk about the business of healthy active living.

What are the possibilities if we secure our own mask first.

Turn to your neighbor and say, I hope she didn't steal that.

Dr. Joanne Owens-Nauslar is an expert on health and fitness who speaks nationwide about the benefits of being active.

What are the possibilities if we could get this country moving?

We have an energy crisis and it's mostly because we can't stay with it long enough.

We get tired.

[Michael] She's been described as the past president of everything, from corporate boards to fitness initiatives, statewide and nationally.

I'll be back.

See, they know it's feed time.

I'll be right back.

Here you go.

When she's not touting the benefits of an active lifestyle, she's living it.

Dr. Jo, as many call her, is the sole proprietor of a small cattle operation, she started years ago with her late husband.

-[Dr. Owens-Nauslar] -I call it Fossil Farm Fitness once you reach the decade mark of seventies and beyond.

Hey girl, there's your baby in there?

What are you doing, little?

Look at you.

Yeah.

I'm not going to touch her.

She's fine.

I will not touch your baby.

I know.

She's just fine.

You're doing a great job of being a mama.

Like I have a ladder that I need to get into the hayloft.

So you go out, you know, in the morning and you climb up and down that 10 times.

Agility, balance, strength.

All of those things are good.

So carrying the 40 pound feed bags the other day needed to lift that 60 pound calf.

I try to figure out everyday how I add additional physical activity in my day.

(Reflective music) [Narrator] Jo long ago realized what made her move helped her think.

Growing up on a ranch in Wyoming, she did everything her brother did.

She rode horses, bulls, even won a national championship in cow riding at the age of 12.

But at school and elsewhere, the opportunities were more limited.

I'd go home and talk with my mom.

And I'd say things like, do you think there's ever a chance that girls can play basketball and people will show up and watch them, and they might have a real coach?

We could not do anything in like the gymnasium if there were boys practicing.

[Narrator] By the time Jo was teaching and coaching at the high school level, not much had changed on the field or in the workplace.

We could not participate on a Friday or Saturday night.

Those were considered boys nights for athletics.

My first year I didn't receive any renumeration.

Men were getting 10% for coaching, being a head coach.

So my first year I did all that for nothing.

In the world of pay equity, I think about that, and I understand money isn't everything, but it ranks right up there with oxygen.

I really need that to be improved.

And I need people to understand why.

[Upbeat Music] [Narrator] These days, Jo still makes exercise a priority everyday.

Running is one of her passions, something she discovered almost by accident when she entered her first marathon in Lincoln in 1978.

She was the first woman to cross the finish line, though her win didn't exactly make headlines.

I believe it's something like female finishes in the top 15, and it was a male runner who ran with his female dog.

Dr. Jo made headlines in other ways receiving countless honors as a trailblazer for women's athletics and as a leading advocate for Title IX legislation requiring equal funding for men's and women's sports.

You think about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

You think about the 19th Amendment giving all women the right to vote.

To me, Title IX legislation is in the top three of legislative action about equity, parity, opportunity.

How can this be controversial?

It is the right thing to do.

The right and correct thing to do.

That's a tag play.

That's a tag play, gang.

'Atta way, 'atta way, 'atta way!

50 years after the passage of Title IX, Jo is still advocating for women athletes, especially her beloved Husker softball team coached by her good friend.

Where's your stool?

Oh, I don't sit on.

I sit on a ball bucket.

Jo, I'm not a spring chicken anymore.

That stool is in my office up top.

It's like this high.

I remember when Shep made that.

I know, but like that was when I was 35.

In Rhonda Revelle's 30 years as head coach, she's seen a lot of changes thanks to Title IX.

When I started coaching here, we were over at Mable Lee Field.

We didn't have a locker room.

Or, you know, the dirt that was put on our field was from a landfill, so we had to pick up rocks and nails and glass and all kinds of things every single day.

Nice.

That's nice.

That's pretty.

And, you know, now we share a facility that's comparable to what the men have on the baseball side.

Good pitch.

Is there still room for improvement?

Absolutely.

Every generation, we have piles of dirt to move for progress, right?

And your pile of dirt will be different than my pile of dirt.

Dr. Jo's pile of dirt was different than mine.

But we all have a responsibility to move that dirt and plow a path for the next generation.

And so for people like Jo, being a pioneer, really and a legend in being able to move dirt and create a path for women to plow through.

[Narrator] Dr. Jo led fundraising efforts for the team and set a new standard for booster clubs at the university.

She didn't see limits.

She didn't see a gender.

Like if the boys could do it, the girls should be able to do it.

And she's just doing what she does.

She's just being Jo.

She's not out to pick a fight or be in a fight with anybody.

She's just out to like, "We should be able to do this."

[Narrator] Now, Jo cheers a generation of young women who have opportunities she could only dream about.

These young women will have foundational building blocks that they can't even put a price on.

And who knows when they will rely on them.

Title IX is about opportunity.

It's about optimism and thinking about what should and could be better.

That is what just brings tears to your eye, but fills your heart with the fact that we made a difference.

(dramatic music) [Narrator] Title IX has a Nebraska connection through a former student who was the principal author of the landmark legislation.

Her name was U.S. Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink.

Patsy Takemoto was already a student at the University of Hawaii when she transferred to the University of Nebraska in 1947.

As a student of color, she was forced to live in a segregated dorm.

Takemoto protested against this discriminatory practice and worked to have segregation policies eliminated.

She finished college in Hawaii, then was rejected by all 20 medical schools to which she applied because of her gender.

Turning her interest to law, her experiences motivated her to change them.

Mink was the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House, representing her native Hawaii for 22 years.

Title IX was renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act following her death in 2002.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) [Narrator] In the southeastern corner of Nebraska, in the very same place known for being the hometown of writer Willa Cather, there lived another young girl whose fierce and feisty spirit would've made her an ideal Cather heroin.

Mom was the talker, I mean, she would tell you about her life, but she really didn't talk about when she was younger, real young.

It had to've been painful for her.

[Narrator] Glenys Kay Figgins was born in 1939.

She was the third daughter and youngest child of John and Elsie Figgins.

Her father was a blacksmith, and the family of five lived in the back of the shop in the small town of Red Cloud.

Both of Kay's parents struggled with alcoholism.

[Lady] Basically mom was a very independent, fierce child.

As mom grew up though, she was this joyful child.

The community rallied around her.

[Narrator] When her parents would leave town to drink, a very young Kay turned to the outdoors and sports to escape.

I think she was a natural athlete and enjoyed it so much that she didn't let society tell her that she couldn't go out there and she couldn't run, and she couldn't ride the horses.

Ride the horses.

And she couldn't ride the bike in a dress.

She just didn't allow society to dictate her role in life.

[Narrator] By her early teens, Kay was living in Hastings with her married sister.

There she joined a fast pitch softball league.

And in 1953, her team placed second in a regional tournament.

The sport would have a lasting impact on Kay.

Then at 16, Kay quit high school to marry Bill Mulkey, who was 23.

The marriage gave Kay security.

And within an year, their first daughter was born.

Aunt Cleo was worried about mom being, you know, a mother now, and so they came all the way down to the farm to check on mom and our dad was there and she asked where's Kay, and he said, well, she's down at the pond with Brenda.

And so they went down to the pond in the pasture.

There was one tree there and Brenda was on a blanket and mom was fishing, yeah.

[Narrator] By 1965, there were three more daughters, and the family was living in Lincoln.

In March, Bill went to a local lake to try out his Christmas gift from Kay.

It was a canoe, but while in the water, it capsized and Bill drowned.

At 25, Kay was left a widow with four young girls.

When you see, when she was married to Bill, our dad, she was trying to conform.

She was trying to be that perfect housewife.

But when dad died I think she just thought, to heck with that, I'm going to live my life the way I want to.

I'm gonna play fast pitch softball in the summer.

I'm gonna bowl in the winter.

I'm going to go hunting because I really enjoy doing that.

[Narrator] On Halloween of the same year, Kay met Wayne Cover.

They were married within two months on Christmas Eve.

So he had just got out of the military and he thought he was gonna raise us girls like the military.

And that didn't go over well 'cause we'd been free-range kids since we were this tall, you know?

[Narrator] It was a happy marriage, and by the early 70s, Kay, and her family returned to Red Cloud.

Her daughters were now old enough to play softball but the town didn't have a league, Kay set out to change that.

She played it long before we played.

And she played every summer that she could when she wasn't pregnant.

She loved the game, so why wouldn't anybody, any other girl?

And it would give us something to do in the afternoon, evenings, keep us outta trouble.

And so she approached the city council and asked for some money to get it started.

And they said, no, all the money is for the boys baseball.

And they said, in fact, if you wanna play at night you'll have to pay for the electricity to turn the lights on.

(upbeat music) [Narrator] Kay was undaunted, she organized three multi-aged fast pitched softball teams.

The teams couldn't practice on the baseball field, so they used the playground.

When the league went on a winning streak, Kay and other mothers went back to city hall to ask for support.

They were given half for the baseball team's money.

So I played that whole summer.

I played two teams, I played with the younger team and the women's team.

I drove down and it was later summer and there were some gals playing.

And I leaned against my car and I was watching them in the closing innings of this game, and I thought to myself, I think I could do this.

And I was 18, I just finished my first year at Kearney State College.

[Narrator] Marla Teegerstrom came from a long line of ball players.

Her grandfather, dad, and brother were all catchers.

Her mother and aunt played league ball too.

Kay knew about her lineage and made her the team catcher.

Connie Miner's parents were also athletic.

Her mother ran track in high school.

When Kay noticed Connie's natural talent for throwing, she made Connie the team's pitcher.

She brought me along really well with the understanding of just go out and throw as hard as you can, we'll work on the technique.

Don't worry if you hit some people, we don't care.

You know, that's part of the game.

I mean, so that never really did bother me, and some people took that as I was cocky and I didn't care but that's not, that's part of the game.

I mean, that's what I was taught.

If someone stepped off the bag, we got you out.

If you ever ran the bag, we got you out.

If you were gonna bat, we harassed you.

I would not have wanted to play against us.

I know.

And I've had people come to me later and go, you guys, you are really mean.

(laughing) You know, the whole, hey, batter, batter, batter, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, we just were too good.

We weren't polite when we played ball and that's how we were taught, and that's how you won games.

A lot of teams that we played, played like hard like that, you know what I mean?

Like we slid, we dove for balls.

We didn't let 'em bounce in front of us.

We're gonna layout and try to make a play, so we were taught that.

And a lot of teams we played, they just didn't, not all of them played as aggressively as we did.

Superior did.

-Yeah.

-Not all of them.

You'd never say it about a baseball team.

[Narrator] Red Cloud won 68 games straight.

The league played ball as it was meant to be played which sometimes upset the other side.

I didn't see Kay lose her cool very often, but it was usually because of mistreatment of one of us players and indiscretion on the field that she felt she needed to point out to the umpires.

She would defend us, which was very empowering for us.

She had a great knowledge of the game.

She always had the softball rules book in her back pocket, and she'd pull it out in the middle of a game.

It's like, well, that's not in the rule book.

Well, that's the way we play it here.

I mean, I remember him saying that.

Yeah, she... And she can usually go right to it too.

They got on me a lot because once I learned how to pitch and stuff, I really flew off the mound.

And they call say that I wasn't staying in contact.

He would go up and down the third baseline while I was pitching, and he called me dragging lady.

And he was just yelling at me constantly.

I ran into a former coach that my mom always would fight with.

I stopped up at this roadside melon place and he's there he's selling the melons.

And I said, "Hey Jake," I said, "I'm Kay Cover's daughter," and he took one look at me, and he said, "Your pitcher never pitched legal."

(laughing) [Narrator] The town rallied around their softball team.

Local businesses sponsored their uniforms, which was uncommon for women's teams.

And it drew some attention from their competitors And they would tease us about that and call them our pajamas.

Oh, you came to the game in your pajamas.

They're just different things.

You know what kids do, you know?

But it didn't really, none of that stuff bothered us.

We would take a look at the scoreboard 'cause I think we pajama kids were way ahead of you people.

(laughing) [Narrator] Kay was active in the league for nearly a decade, but a chronic lung disease brought an end to her coaching days.

Then, in 1988 at just 48 years old, Kay Cover died.

(gentle music) [Kate] I think that we all knew that she truly cared about us as a person, not so much as an athlete, and giving that opportunity to us that I don't think she had as much.

She knew how to make you feel important to the team.

She was very positive.

I think one of the biggest things she gave a lot of young girls was confidence in themselves.

That's what I think was a big key.

Because, you know where do you get that from?

When in that age, you know, if I look back and think, wow, where would we be if we didn't have women like that?

But that was a role model for us 'cause it was a woman that went out there and said, you guys we're gonna have softball.

And she taught us so much.

(gentle music) [Kathy] Her whole life, she fought the good fight, and along the way, she made good trouble.

(gentle music) (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) [Devin] 10 foot, baseline foot.

[Carrie] Here we go.

[Devin] Baseline foot.

Baseline foot Meg, baseline foot.

[Narrator] Many sports teams like to call themselves a family.

And a family is built on trust and respect.

Good roll Haley.

Good Grace.

Good pass.

Good finish, Mal.

I think that Coach Devin is a perfect example of how men should respect women.

And I think Coach Carrie is another amazing example of how women should respect men.

Here we go, ready?

[Narrator] Coach Carrie and Coach Devin lead the University of Nebraska at Kearney women's basketball team.

The two share a love for the sport, and a last name.

Carrie Eighmey is the head coach, and Devin Eighmey is her assistant, and her husband.

They started dating shortly after they both arrived on campus.

Carrie to coach the women, and Devin as an assistant on the men's team.

He claims that I was coaching down here.

And he walked into the gym and saw me coaching, and immediately thought, wow, that might be the person that I marry.

I was maybe took a little, little bit longer than that to be convinced that that was gonna be the case.

I just remember thinking it's gonna go one or two ways, and be really awkward at the office.

For I'm gonna have to probably resign or it's gonna go well.

It went well.

The two eventually got married and Devin moved to the women's team to coach with Carrie.

Perfect.

Stay, stay.

Good.

There was a lot of conversation about it 'cause, she's really, the most unselfish person I know.

So that was early in the conversations of, are you sure you wanna do this?

I'll follow your career.

I'll give this up if you wanna chase this.

And I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be able to, to be on staff with her, and I'm glad that we made that decision.

It's been great.

It's been probably the best decision we've made.

You know, we have the opportunity to, to be around each other a lot in a profession that requires a significant amount of time.

It allows us to be great at marriage and great at our careers, all in the same token.

Show me what you're gonna get from rockers.

How about that?

[Narrator] The two spend their days together, strategizing ways to make their team better.

So you're saying here we need to probably just go with our cutters.

Go with our cutters.

[Narrator] And then putting those plans into practice, at practice.

Be ready.

Be ready, right?

Rebound it, 'Lis.

Good.

Perfect.

[Narrator] And when work is through, they go home to be together.

Which is a lot of time together.

Devin and I joke a lot that, we've spent more time together in our five years of marriage than most married couples have, in maybe 20 years.

So we've gotten to know each other really, really well.

[Narrator] And that shows on the court, where their players learn lessons from Carrie and Devin about basketball, and marriage.

Yeah.

It's real life and they're not afraid to show that.

And I just, we're really lucky that they're able to share that with us.

Here we go.

I think when we first started coaching together, we tried to be perfect.

We tried to act like or pretend like there was never a disagreement.

And then I think after some time we realized that that's not necessarily what young people need to see anyway, they need to be able to see people in a marriage or in a committed relationship that can have a disagreement, and do it respectfully and still be totally fine.

[Narrator] The lessons Devin and Carrie have been teaching on the court, are working.

During their six seasons in Kearney, the Lopers have become national contenders.

Along the way, Carrie has earned a national coach of the year honor.

She was a standout basketball player in high school and college before even becoming a coach.

She's watched women's basketball get better through the years.

Good, Lex.

[Narrator] Carrie gives the credit for that to pioneers in women's sports, like Billie Jean King and Pat Summitt.

And the historic Title IX legislation, aimed at making educational and athletic opportunities for men and women more equal.

The Title IX movement and the progression over the last even 20, 25 years since I was, in high school.

And you see the result of that is the talent.

And basketball players that are playing in college now are just, their basketball IQ is better.

Their skill is better and that is because of opportunities.

Good.

Here we go.

Be better than you were last time.

Let's go.

And I think we're on the verge of hopefully having some really good female coaches breakthrough even on the men's side, because there's some unbelievable coaches out there and unbelievable players.

From a female standpoint that need to be, given exposure and opportunities.

There's still a gap and, I think we're working on that.

[Narrator] Their players also have an appreciation for how far women's sports have come.

As well as recognizing the need to go much further.

I think girls have taken on basketball a lot more than they used to, and sports have become more mainstream.

And it's okay for us to be athletic, and be physical and work out a lot.

We still uphold men's sports at a much higher level and we value it a lot more than girls.

And that's just something that I, I hope we continue to work for and that, I myself wanna be part of that movement towards improving the respect and the valuing of girls basketball and sports in general.

And I hope that the next generation does that, too.

Obviously right now, with what our country's going through and even social media and the awareness, and publicity it brings to various issues, one being equity in sport.

I definitely think that that has helped, and definitely we're going see more and more change.

But I don't think we'd be where we're at, if we didn't have Title IX.

(scoreboard buzzes) The Lopers basketball team, like women's sports in general, has come a long way.

So have Carrie and Devin.

Their hopes for the future are simple.

Lead a successful team as coaches, and be a successful team as husband and wife.

It's just about serving each other.

And me serving her, especially as her husband.

I think that's ultimately where it starts and it's been really, really good.

And hopefully we can do it for a long time.

It's similar to what people say about Nebraska.

It's not for everybody.

This is probably not for everybody.

It's not easy because there's a lot of challenges along with all the benefits, but it's for us.

And it works really, really well for us.

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