 Jo Ann, but I go by Joe Witness. Well, I learned to play tennis in my freshman year at high school, and I just stuck with tennis and played, you know, and when we reached college there really wasn't any programs for us, you know, but it was just beginning to start. And I remember I played, my first year of college I went to Central Washington in Ellensburg because I had a high school coach, or teacher I should say, because we didn't really have teams in those days. We just had intramurals, you know. She said, well, Joe, if you're really interested in becoming a physical educator, you need to go to Central Washington where I went to school because there's a really good lady there that will teach you how to be a good coach and a physical educator. And so there were about three of us from the high school that all went up to Central Washington because of this. And so my first year that I was there, the gal that was an Oregon graduate, and her name was Jesse Puckett, and she had been teaching up at Central Washington for quite some time. And the University of Oregon called and said, Jesse, we want you to come back to the University of Oregon and head the physical education program. And so she left, and we had another gal that was teaching at Central, and she was really good too. And so I stayed there one more year, and then I transferred back to the University of Oregon and graduated from there. And then I got my master's there, too. And that was what, like, 55 to 60? Yeah. When I first taught, my first year of teaching was at Pleasant Hill High School. And I taught there for a year. And then there was a job opening at Willamette High School, so I applied for that. And I taught at Willamette High School until I moved down here. Well, I moved to Ashland to start a business. And I quickly found out that people weren't so much interested in nice looking sportswear clothes for women. And so we started a business called Kim Joe Casuals. And that was about the time when women started going to the Salvation Army and buying old clothes to wear. So they weren't as interested in having nice women's sportswear anymore. So we stuck with that for about six years. But in the meantime, I had to teach in order to help the business along. And so when I moved down here, I got a job at Ashland. It was called Junior High then. And I think I was there for two years. And one day the assistant principal came in and said, and took me out of class and said, Joe, I need to talk to you about something. So we stepped out in the hallway. And he said, the principal and I have decided that we needed to tell you that there was a job opening in physical education and we think you're the person for it. And I just couldn't believe it that they would tell me that. They weren't trying to get rid of me. But they knew that I had my master's degree and I needed to be somewhere else. So I applied for the job and got it. So the high school people told you about the college job? The Junior High, yeah. They told me about it, which was outstanding of them to do that. Who were the coaches there at the time? I really can't remember. I think the name Jim Songster comes to mind. He was a coach at the Junior High. He taught PE there, too, I think. Boy, that's been a long time ago. So anyway, I got the job and I was so proud to have been selected, I really was. And I loved the whole time that I was teaching at SOC. It was a great, great time. I started at SOC in 1965. I retired in 1988. And I taught various PE classes and I also worked with major students and supervised student teaching. And I coached the women's volleyball team for 18 years and the women's tennis team for 13. And it was a good time. Women's sports were just getting started. And that was something that the men coaches had to deal with, too. Because they wanted gym time and I wanted gym time for my volleyball team. And the tennis could be worked out a lot better than the volleyball, because the men would be starting their basketball training and they wanted the gym, too. We had a few discussions about that. There was only one court at the time? Yeah. Well, no. We had two gyms, the main gym and then we had a linoleum floor gym down the hall. But, uh... Was that the girls' gym? Yes, that was the girls' gym. So I finally wrote a letter to our department chair. November 9, 1979. Dear Dr. Merriman, it's the time of the year again when dissension seems to strike over practice times. When basketball practice started, we moved to gym 135 at 330 to do our conditioning and some warm-up activities without making any fuss. Basketball had a scrimmage with COS the other day and when it didn't end until 420, I did not mention it or complain. Although our practice time was cut by a good 45 minutes by the time everything got set up. I reminded Gordy of our last home match against OSU and asked to get into the gym at 330. Then after refiguring the time, I went to him again to ask for an additional 15 minutes. I was told in no uncertain terms that I did not need any more than one half hour to set up and that they would not leave until 330. I've been setting up the gym long enough to know how much time it will be needed to be set up, the net and pad and standards, set up team chairs, scoring table, timer, game equipment, pull out the and dust off the bleachers, run up the baskets, wet mop the floor, have my players do their own taping because the trainer would be busy with football at that time and yet have adequate warm-up time available for both teams before the match starting time. I know that Gordy would be very disgruntled if his team did not get the amount of warm-up he feels is necessary before a game and we were short time. If this is a cooperation I'm going to get from Gordy, then I feel that his team should be out of the gym by four o'clock. I went to the gym at that time yesterday and his boys were still running around the perimeter of the basketball floor. We began setting up the standards and he informed us that we'd better not do this or he would chain the insides of the doors. Last year we'd come to the gym at four o'clock and have to stand around for five to ten minutes watching his players run. I will not do this again this year. When the facility conflict for basketball and badminton was discovered, I moved the PE 294 badminton class to gym 135 without putting up any resistance or asking that a switch be made after half of the term, even though it is a detriment to our major students' class. I wanted Gordy to have a good start with his basketball team this year. I just happened to coach two sports for main gym time or tennis courts. Not as much of a problem since the new courts are needed for several teams. I'm willing to share, but when my teams are continually short changed and the men's coaches are downright conniving and rude, then unfortunately I start getting my back up too. If these things only happen occasionally, I could understand, but the same kinds of things have been going on since I started teaching in 1956, and I've had it. This happens to be volleyball season, not basketball, and it is a very critical time for the team. We won our league and have earned the right to attend the NCAA regional tournament. In my opinion, practice times will have to continue to prepare for the national tournament, and I do not want any more hassles with our basketball team, with our basketball coach and our team. I have been coaching two sports for the past 12 and 13 years. I have taken these coaching responsibilities seriously and have done the job to the best of my ability. It is not worth the continued frustration of trying to work with some of the men's coaches, and if things cannot be equitable for the women's program, then maybe Southern Oregon State College had better find a new coach for the women's volleyball and tennis teams. Sincerely, Joanne Widnes. Apparently we need another meeting to discuss use of the main gym and cooperation between the sports of basketball and volleyball. How about Monday at 12 noon? I say, Bert, the purpose of the letter was not to have another meeting to discuss the use of the gym. I would like the answer from you, not an exchange of opinions between Gordie and myself. Thank you, Joel. I know that Gordie was very, very temperamental and he did not think that the women deserved to be in the main gym. But that was just one coach. I think I got along with all the rest of the people on the staff. I really enjoyed all my time at Salk. I loved teaching at Salk. I really did. And there weren't that many, many bad points about it at all. We worked things out as best we could. What were your uniforms like? Well, we first started out. We just really, they were kind of funky. The volleyball team wore the same clothes as what the basketball, women's basketball team would wear. And then I think the track team wore the same uniforms. But then we finally got into it and we had some nice uniforms. Was it difficult to get funding to travel to tournaments? Were there lots of tournaments? Yes, there were lots of tournaments. And as I recall, we didn't have very much money. And so we started out on trips to other schools taking sack lunches. But we finally did get a meal's budget then. They finally decided, well, okay, I guess we're stuck with you guys. So we'll give you some meal money too. So things changed quite a bit from when you started. Oh, yeah, yeah. They really changed. Who were the other women you worked with at the time in sports? Well, of course, there was Ben Bennett and there was Sally and Mary and Forsythe. Yeah. Ruth Bevere, swimming. Oh, that's right. Ruth. Yeah. How could I forget Ruth? Yeah. And was Karen Merchant, did she do gymnastics for a while? Yeah, she did. What were the tournaments that you were working with? We were the Cascade Conference. And that included up to Washington and not down into California, but we did travel. My tennis team went down into California and played their teams. And over Idaho. Yeah. Well, sometimes the men got Greyhound buses to travel in too. But they used the vans a lot too. They didn't have traveled with Greyhound all the time. Can you talk about Bev Bennett? What was Bev like? Well, Bev graduated from the University of Oregon and she did mostly dance, modern dance. Well, she was so busy with upper campus business all the time because she was on some boards and stuff. And I think that's when she finally decided to give me the tennis team because she was never around to help the girls. And so I kind of snooped around and went down to help the girls because she was never there because she was in meetings. Tell me about Ruth Beiber. Ruth Beiber? Yeah. Well, she was a very good swim coach, taught swimming. That was the only sport that I think she did. She was into the health aspect too. She taught a lot of health classes. You can't believe that I was there that long. From tennis, it was 68 to 81. And then I knew that Sally was real interested and I needed to give the job to her and just keep the volleyball because there's too much. My volleyball players would finish and before they would even finish the tennis people wanted me to be coaching them because they were back to back kind of things. And so I just decided that now Sally can do as good a job as me or better. My total record for 19 years of coaching, 662 matches, 378 wins and 284 losses. We qualified for district playoffs, 13 out of 19 years, sock placed in the top 10, 11 out of 19 years. My volleyball team member Cindy Skillman became our first All-American in 1981. I turned her name in and the powers that be that determined the All-Americans decided that she had done enough to become an All-American. The Cascade Collegiate Conference was established in 1978 and sock was either first or second place for eight out of 10 years through 87. We went to the nationals in 1977, sock placed seventh in the nation at the AIAW National Small College Championship. Tennis-wise, we went to the nationals. I think we placed tenth. What year was that? Anyway, one year we placed tenth in the nation. This is when I was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame. Can you tell me what your body felt like and how that helped you think more strongly or be more strong as a woman? Oh yeah, because if you go out for a sport you have to, you know, you have to, if you want to be good at it, you've got to exercise and you have to, you know, build your muscles and everything else and it just makes you feel good, you know? I guess that's the best thing you can say is that you just feel like your body will do what you want it to do and it makes you feel good that you're strong enough and you've trained it hard enough that you can do it and it helps you, you know, keep your muscles going and strong and it just makes you feel good, that's all there is to it. Is there a relationship between the physical strength and capability and leadership and confidence then? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know, it's just something about moving and having a tennis racket in your hand and I loved playing badminton too. That was great. Were there many girls like you? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right, there were. Then because we were all interested in tennis, you know, we became really good friends, you know, and we're proud of each other and the accomplishments and when we, our high school team won the city championship all four years that I played tennis there. They were, we were just, we bonded, we worked hard and we won. What is the relationship between team sports and opportunity or leadership or confidence, things like that? You know, when you play by yourself, you know, you're the only person that you have to depend on whereas with a team, you build support with each other because you know how each person is going to react and what they're going to do and you know, if they're a hitter, they, you just know that, okay, she's our best hitter on the team, we got to get the ball to her more times than anybody else but we're not ignoring the other people either but the setter has to know which hitter is on and can do the best job at the time so she would set to them more than she would set to the other players. So it's a team, team effort and you all come together and when you're out there by yourself it's just you. Very different experience. Yeah. And typically women's sports were individual sports, right? Golf, tennis, badminton, those are individual sports where a woman is challenged by herself. Right. Now there, I know we also, the team, we played singles and then after we played our singles then we would double up with a partner and play doubles. Because that, that's what the whole thing would be. You would play so many singles matches and so many doubles matches to make a complete match. But that's different than five guys or five people on a baseball field or eleven people on a football field. That's different. How many, how many for a volleyball team? Six. Six. Yeah. So again that's sort of a different dynamic. Yeah. And it seems to me men had the advantage of working in teams and adjusting and supporting in a different way, right? Yeah, right. And for a longer time. So were you conscious of that when you were teaching, when you were kind of moving through the coaching? Well I guess so. You know we were striving to show that we could do just what the men could do. I mean there was a difference because of structure and muscle and all that. But we still felt that we, we could play just as hard and as the men. You believed that. You taught that by example and through instruction. Right. How did other people perceive that? How did the women receive it? How did the men coaches view that? Well I think the men probably trained harder in the, in the workout room than what the women did. But the women did a lot too. I think you, you grow up like I, like I was, I'm an Oregonian. I was born in Corralis, Oregon and I love this state and I'll never leave it either. But you just, you know, all we had was recesses in grade school. And so we did have a bat and a ball and we could play softball. So that's what we did most of the time. Besides swinging on swings and, and climbing apparatuses and you know you go across the bars and everything. That's about all we had. The boys and the girls. Uh-huh. We had a basketball hoop up there and I kept looking at that and I think that there were a number of us that asked the teacher about it. What, what's that, that rim up there? What, what, what that is? And so she, she finally got us a basketball. But anyway, you know, it was just a dirt floor in the playground area. So I don't know how I got interested. I guess I got interested because I had an opportunity and a coach at high school that taught me how to play tennis. Now I know that there were, there were some people that grew up in their, their schools where the women, the girls got to play with the boys in basketball. And they, they would, you know, nobody's thought anything of it at that time I guess. But there were a few girls that were good enough to play with the boys and they did. It's been great to see the progression through the years and to see how it has finally developed into what it has for women. And I'm, I'm, I feel good about being able to say that I'm one of the pioneers. No, as I say, it's just, I couldn't have been happier coaching and teaching at SOC. It was great. I still think that SOC had one of the best schools around Oregon because we, we were very interested in our students. And we did a lot for them.