Dundee celebrates 50 years of Title IX and its first sports teams for girls

DUNDEE – They were making history, but they didn't realize it.

And frankly, at the time, they might not have cared.

As the song says, the girls just wanted to have fun.

It was 50 years ago that Dundee High School, prompted by the landmark Title IX legislation guaranteeing equal opportunities for females, fielded its first girls athletic teams.

Eight pioneers from those teams during the 1972-73 school year gathered Tuesday for a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

“I just remember being so excited,” Sharon (Bunce) Fairchild said. "Finally, I could compete against the girls instead of my six boy cousins."

"I just remember being happy to have something to do after school," said Luan (Bunce) Sedlar, who played on the basketball and volleyball teams with her older sister. "It was very exciting."

Sedlar was so excited that she also ran track in the spring.

"I didn't like running, but I wanted to be on the team," she said.

There were many challenges for the early female athletes.

"Our games (for basketball and volleyball) were at 4:30 in the afternoon and we practiced before school because there was no other gym time available," recalled Valynda (Schuler) Mathis. "We were low priority.

"There were very few fans and the scores were very low."

"We weren't very good, but it was a lot of fun," added Fairchild.

Softball started a few years later, and Sedlar quickly switched from the track to the diamond.

"For softball, they found some old JV football jerseys for us," she said. "We wore those with jeans. That was our uniform."

It was a little better for swimming.

Dundee built its first pool in 1969 and the community formed girls teams shortly afterwards.

"We had AAU (swimming) teams, so it was not a big leap," said Pat Rigel.

And Dundee's girls were ready to compete in the pool. Cindy (Brown) VanVleet placed fifth and eight in the state finals that first year.

"We were spoiled because we had AAU, but it was different (swimming for the school)," she said. "It was cool."

Having fun was the main goal, but the girls realized that they had to stand their ground against the poor conditions they had compared to the boys.

"We finally pushed back some, but back then you had to be careful how hard you pushed," Bunce said.

VanVleet traveled from Arizona for the celebration.

"Looking back, I am really humbled," she said. "It was special."

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Dundee celebrates Title IX and its first sports teams for girls