Tag: outdoor play

Boomers Remember the Time Before Title IX

Fifty years ago this past week (June 23, 1972), Title IX of the Education Amendment was enacted by Congress. It was Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana who authored the wording in the bill:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Women’s rights advocates were already marching and protesting the slow plodding of Equal Rights Amendment legislation. In a strategic move to avoid sparking public debate and further protest, the bipartisan committee asked women’s groups to not call attention to Title IX to let the senators do the work. As a result, the bill was passed without much fanfare.

Despite the fact that women had proven themselves more than capable of physical labor during World War II, decades of social mores dictated that sports were “unlady-like” and women should not be permitted to exert themselves in public. In fact, in some circles, it was thought that if women performed sports that required much physical activity, especially during menstruation cycles, they would be putting themselves in hazardous health situations! Still, the first women’s professional baseball league was formed during World War II, but it was dissolved in 1954. In the boomer era, attitudes were changing and feminist activism was calling for all types of equality for women, including in sports. Women could finally play in their own national championships in gymnastics and track and field in 1969; swimming, badminton, volleyball, and lastly, basketball, were added before Title IX became law.

Despite exceptions for certain sports at select schools, prior to this bill, girls and women had few opportunities to participate in organized sports at schools and universities. Schools, from elementary to high school and on to colleges and universities, had little, if any, budget for girls’ sports. According to Forbes, the year before the passage of Title IX (1971), universities dedicated just one percent of their athletic budgets to women’s sports. Title IX required them to match the funding of what was available to boys. Reports indicate just 15 percent of college women participated in sports in 1972, prior to the bill’s passage. Many universities did not sponsor a women’s basketball team at all before Title IX.

Coaching was another example of disparities based on sex in sports before Title IX. Reports indicate 90% of coaches for the women’s sports that did exist were male. It would be another 20 years before women made a significant mark in the coaching of women’s sports, but to this day, women still coach less than half of the women’s sports teams. Teachers and coaches recall that in that era, locker rooms were also a point of contention, as many venues built only male locker rooms. Since there were few women’s sports, there was (in their eyes), not a need for female locker rooms. Demand for equal locker room facilities were an ongoing project that would take another 20 years.

What sports were offered to women, prior to Title IX? Mister Boomer recalls that in his elementary school, there was no gym, and no organized sports. The local high school did have boys’ baseball, football and basketball teams, in addition to track and field and swimming. Girls could swim or join track and field.

It was President Eisenhower who first established the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. With memories of World War II readiness still in his mind, he became concerned that Americans would grow complacent and less physically fit in the boom-time after the War. Nonetheless, for various reasons, no programs of note were able to get off the ground during his presidency. President Kennedy “picked up the ball” and attempted to address the physical fitness of students. However, there was not a direct correlation drawn between physical fitness and sports, so the program — which concentrated mostly on exercise — had a moderate effect on health, but did not disrupt the status quo of the disparities between boys’ and girls’ sports.

What do you recall about the sports opportunities that were available to you, boomers?

Boomer Bikes Had Kickstands

If you haven’t ridden a bicycle in a while, you may or may not have noticed that the styles have changed quite a bit compared to the bicycles that boomers rode as kids. For one thing, what the heck happened to the kickstand? Newer bikes rarely come with an attached kickstand anymore. Some children’s bikes still come equipped with one, and lower-end adult models sometimes have the device, but for the most part, the kickstand — standard equipment on a bicycle in the 1950s and ’60s — has disappeared.

Kickstands were that metal rod with a spring attached that was mounted below the pedal wheel sprocket. The spring enabled the metal rod to be kicked up or down for use. The purpose of the kickstand was to allow the bike to stand upright on its own. Kickstands usually had a bend near the bottom that set a more parallel surface to rest on the concrete or ground. That bend, plus the roundness of the rod, meant the kickstand was not always very stable. A brush against the handlebars or even a gust of wind may have toppled the bike over.

The thing was, many boomers had their bikes with them all day, every day. If they rode to a friend’s house, the kickstand could be employed when there was no rider. Boomers would pedal to baseball practice, parks, or, as was the case with Mister B, the occasional A&W Root Beer stand with his neighborhood friends, where the kickstands kept the bikes upright while they were at the outdoor counter, enjoying a cold root beer in a frosty mug.

So what happened to cause manufacturers to ditch the kickstand? Several factors seem to be in play, starting with the “cool” factor. The Schwinn bicycles of the 1960s set the standard for cool in boomer bicycles, picking up the mantle from Radio Flyers of the 1950s. As the 1960s rolled along, it just didn’t seem cool to have a kickstand any more. Yet there were probably other reasons that were more pertinent. For one thing, a whole “serious” class of riders was emerging. There was a split between leisure riders and racers and road riders. That contributed to the increased adoption of hand brakes over the more traditional coaster brakes boomer kids had learned to use, and multiple-speed shifts as well. Two-speed and three-speed bikes were available as far back as the turn of the century, but most boomers (in Mister B’s unscientific poll) had bicycles with only one speed, coaster brakes, and a kickstand. Pedal forward to propel the bike, flip the pedals back to brake. Hop off the bike and deploy the kickstand, which was always on the left side. The story goes that people usually mounted horses from the left, so when bicycles came around, people kept that tradition, and the kickstand followed suit.

As trail and mountain bikes became more popular in the 1970s, it became apparent that there was no reason for a kickstand. Riders were hopping on and pedaling away, not stopping at a store or an ice cream shop. Serious bicyclists didn’t want the added weight as well, and even though the spring was meant to keep the kickstand stowed when riding, the shock of rough terrain and the need for clearance below the pedals for potential objects on the trail could easily trip it into flipping open, thereby endangering the rider.

Finally, there began in the boomer years a rise in bicycle theft that required users to lock up their bicycles when not in use. Locks could be attached to street signs, fences or bike racks. In any case, a kickstand was not necessary.

Today’s bicycles have a myriad of styles, seating, speeds and tire options, so much so that they are barely recognizable as the same vehicle boomers rode as kids. Remember fenders on bikes? They were another casualty of the changing times.

Did you keep your boomer-era bicycle, or repurchase one as an adult, to relive that nostalgia for the freedom a bicycle offered? Does it have a kickstand?