 My name is Gail Patton and we are at Court One of the Ashland Tennis and Fitness Club in Ashland, Oregon, and I am one of the tennis pros here. And so my sports journey, you know, actually started in Sacramento, California in the 1950s and I started playing tennis in 1958. At the time it was really the only sport that was available for girls because I took lessons at the Swim and Tennis Club where my family belonged and just a little history of girls and sports at the time that I was growing up. I always knew I was an athlete. I was probably better than most of the kids, boys and girls in my class, whatever sport we were playing, but I was never called an athlete. I was called a tomboy all the way up through high school. And so I always, you know, wondered why that was. My brother was able to play Little League Baseball and I wanted to play and I was told I can't play because I'm a girl and that's sort of the way it was. And no one around me, you know, in the adult world said, wait a minute, that isn't right. And so most of us just thought, well, I don't like it, it's not fair, but I guess that's the way it is. It was like there was no adult in my life to say, you know what? That's wrong. I'm going to fight for you about it. I think it was just sort of, well, that's the way it is. And I said, well, I'm as good as those boys are that are playing baseball. And I play baseball all the time. You know, we play in the street. We play after school. We play in the park. So why can't I play with them? It's like, well, because you're a girl. And you know, but when you're 10 years old or whatever and somebody, you know, an adult says, well, you can't do it, you know, and we were taught to okay, if an adult says something, that's what it is. And so, you know, I've learned to be more outspoken and say, hey, you know, I think there's a better way to do something. So in junior high, I actually went to a school district where they did have sports for girls. They were either before school or after school. We weren't allowed to have a league like the boys did. They called them sports days. So we'd practice for all these weeks and then we'd go to a sports day and all the other, you know, girls teams from volleyball or basketball or whatever from the district would come. And the same thing in high school. We had, you know, we had teams but it was PE teachers who coached the girls team and I found out later they were not even paid. They did it out of the goodness of their heart. The boys teams, the coaches got paid. The girls teams, the coaches didn't get paid. I went to college at UC Davis and there was a good women's program there. And the NCAA at the time didn't want to have anything to do with women's sports. So there was a national women's organization, the AIAW. And it was all women who promoted women's athletics at the college level across the country. And so we did have a league and we did have conferences and we played a lot of the Pac-12 conference now, Stanford and Cal and other schools, you know, in Oregon or mainly in California and Nevada and such. But even at that time we went to, I think it was the first invitational national basketball tournament that was offered for women in 1970 in Colowe, North Carolina. The UC Davis team, our basketball team, was invited and we didn't even have warm-ups. And the day before we left, an anonymous donor got us warm-ups. And it turned out, I found out later, it was a father of one of the players. And up until that point they had given us, they were the hand-me-downs from the men's wrestling team. That's what we had been wearing as warm-ups. And so, you know, even at the college level, and this was in the late 60s and early 70s, there was a real discrepancy. We had a softball team. The men had a baseball team, a huge field, nice locker room and stuff. Our women's softball games were played in a tiny field without fencing around it. And so if the ball hit the bike path on a bounce, it was a ground rule double. If it was hit completely into the street, it was a home run. And yeah, you know, that type of thing happened. My last year of playing college softball, varsity softball, we were undefeated. And we had earned the right to go on to the, you know, I don't know if it was a district tournament or a sectional tournament. And the athletic director said, no, it wasn't in the budget. And our men's team came in third in their conference, and we were first and undefeated. We were not allowed to advance. They were allowed to advance. And I remember some of our players, we were really, really upset and we were going to go to the administration. And our coach fought for us, but she said, do not, do not go to the administration. And I think it's one of the few things in my life that I didn't do and I wish I had. I was so afraid that she was going to get fired because she had gone out and lived for us. And we didn't want to make things worse. Well, turns out she got fired anyway. And we didn't go support her and we didn't go fight for our own rights. And I still, and that was in 1972. And that's still one of the things I really regret in life, that we didn't fight. So when I got out of college, I started coaching and teaching in a school district in Sacramento and I was a girl's athletic director. And I really fought hard. There was a big gym and a small gym at the school. And the big gym said boys' gym and the little gym said girls' gym. It took me two years and fights with administration and boys' coaches. They took those off and now it's the large gym and the small gym. And they were making all the women varsity teams play in the small gym, where all the boys' teams, varsity and JV, got to play in the large gym. And so we ended up being able to play all the women's varsity matches in the large gym. And then within a year, volleyball was in the large gym. So was basketball, you know, the varsity and the JV. They just played them on different days. And so, but it was a long, you know, it was a constant fight. You know, with administration who weren't used to really supporting the girls' athletics. And from there, I ended up going up to the University of Oregon to do second masters up there in sports science. And I was teaching tennis there and I was also teaching basketball. And one of the classes I had was mostly men in it. And that was really the first time it's like, okay, you know, I'm being treated like, you know, I'm a coach, I'm a teacher, I'm not a girl's teacher, you know, so that was really nice. And so once I got up to U of O, I thought, I'm not sure I want to go back and work at the junior high or the high school. And so I started at the college level and worked in Wyoming, worked at a small college, Rocky Mountain College in Montana. And then in 1985, ended up at Southern Oregon University. When I went to Rocky Mountain College, it was a very small college, but that was the first time in athletics that I was at a school where it was purely Title IX. I had the exact same budget as the men. And I was coaching women's college basketball at the time, exact same opportunities, same recruiting budget, same scholarship budget. And it was absolutely, you know, wonderful. And I realized this is the way it should be. And unfortunately, coming to Oregon after that, it wasn't quite the same. We didn't have the same budget, even though we were in the same conference. We didn't have the same scholarships. You know, and one of the things they said was that, well, the men's team brings in money and the women's doesn't, but at the same time, they weren't promoted the same at the time. Things have changed an awful lot. And I'm glad to see that. You know, some years it's the men's program that's excelling, you know, and some years it's the women's program that's excelling and they both are getting support. And I really, really like that. So and Bev was still here when I came in 1985. And so, you know, and Sally was instrumental in introducing me to people who were instrumental in women's athletics in Oregon, including up at the University of Oregon. We, Sally, got her doctorate there. And we had some of the same professors and some, you know, at the U of O. And one of whom played in the women's national baseball league during World War II and, you know, so we had some real incredible role models there. And, you know, and, and definitely in people here, like, like you said, Bev, you know, Bev Bennett and Ruth Bever and some of some of those other people. So I actually got to be here. I took Ruth Bever's place when she retired. But, but, you know, we, we had a really the women's faculty. We, you know, we would go out and have meals and we would celebrate holidays and exchange Christmas presents and things like that. So it was definitely a sorority. And I found that wherever I was in athletics, it was, you know, we really supported each other and had each other's backs. And so that was really helpful. You know, and I found out when I, when I left college and started coaching at the high school level, I was thinking, geez, you know what? I am, I'm teaching kids things that I never learned until college because I really never had any instruction. It was like, OK, we're going to play volleyball and we're just going to do this. But, but everything I did, except for tennis, was self-taught until I got into college. And, you know, so I really started in the, in the early seventies in the school district where I was working in Sacramento. We just saw the Girls Sports Program blossom and, you know, to be a part of that. And I've always, whether it's coaching at the college level, the high school level. Matter of fact, last year I went back and coached the high school at Ashland. I'm going to do it again this year. And I'm always sure to tell them about the history they don't even understand that I didn't have a chance to do what they're doing. They just figure it's always been there. And so it's really important for them to understand the history and to recognize, like other things, it wasn't always an opportunity that they had. So to appreciate it, take advantage of it and, you know, and to make sure that they continue the support, you know, when they get in a position to do, came to SOU, I just was really, really happy about the female professors we had in the health and physical education and athletic department at the time. As I said, we supported each other. And it wasn't an easy time for the college at time. They were making lots of changes. Matter of fact, they totally revamped the, you know, the physical education program at the school. And we used to supervise our own student teachers and stuff. And they, you know, they revamped everything. And some people had to leave because their jobs were being dropped and stuff. But, you know, through that tough time, the women always, we always understood how important it was for us to stick together and how important it was for us to fight for, you know, for equity for women, because it was going to, you know, we knew, actually, we were sort of part of the history of the changing times from the Old Boys Club. And that's what really athletics was, I think, when all of us got in it. And I remember when I was in coaching in high school, our school district actually went on strike. The I got paid as a coach to coach a girl's team exact same schedule as the boys. The boys' coaches were paid $3,000 and the girls' coaches were paid $300. And when our school district went on strike, and this was right when they were enacting Title IX, all of all of the female coaches or the coaches coaching female sports, retroactively, where I thought it was like my first year on a full-time job. And I just thought I'd won the lottery going from I'd coach three, you know, three sports that year. And I went from getting, you know, $900 to 9,000. And that was huge. And that was part of Title IX. Yeah. So, yeah. And Title IX has had its ups and downs. There's some unintended consequences. And one of those was after a few years of being Girls Athletic Director, the school district says, well, you know what? We don't need a boys' athletic director and a girls' athletic director anymore because we don't have boys and girls sports. It's all sports. So, what happened was in every single case, the person who'd been their longest was the male. So all the females lost their jobs as athletic directors. And it became one director. And then another thing that happened, unintended, was the coaching, the coaches of boys' sports going, why am I working with, you know, this boys' basketball team, which is so much pressure, and I can go coach the girls' team now, no pressure on me at all, and make the same amount of money. So, if you looked around, you started seeing that it used to be all the girls' sports were coached by women. And now, I would say, you know, more than half of some of those sports are coached by men. And so, you know, and I know there's good women out there. And I think the parody is starting to happen. And I think some of the things that are showing that we have women coaches now in the NBA and now at least one coach and an intern in the NFL that are women. And women have started officiating men's basketball games. And so it's coming around, but it starts in the grass roots and looks way up to the higher levels. What I can tell you is the people, the men who supported us, the women's athletic movement, the females who are fighting for equity, one I can count on one hand. And those are the people I absolutely remember because they were not the majority. I mean, I still have a letter that one of the professors from SOU sent to me when I was fighting for women's athletics here and was really in a tight spot. And he sent me a letter encouraging me. He has since, you know, died, but I kept that letter and I still have that letter. That's how important it was to me. And I remember, you know, those people who didn't have to but said, Gail, you're doing the right thing or, you know, I'm behind you. So, yeah, and the others it was just in, I think it's like they weren't mean or malevolent people. They were just, that's how everybody grew up. It's like, well, boy sports rule and girls, you know, you should be, you should be cooking, you know, and that's the, the type of thing. So, I mean, it just, it takes a, it takes a while. But yeah, I'm, I'm happy. The progress we've made, we got a, we got a whole lot more of it. And, you know, it, it goes from, you know, women's athletics, gay rights, whatever it is, you know, you see that next group of people who are marginalized or whatever, you know, one, one sheds, sheds light on the other. And I just think it, it all makes all of us a better, you know, a better family of people. You know, and can I be brave enough to do it, knowing that I might lose my job? And so I've had to make those decisions and thank goodness, later in life, I haven't had to make those decisions. I was confident enough and comfortable enough and knew my worth that if I didn't have a job in a particular place, I was, I would, I would be fine that I felt strong enough to, to be vocal, to fight. And I remember my mom, I would use my mom as a sounding board a lot. You know, my mom goes, Kale, don't do anything to get yourself fired. I go, mom, that's a whole point. It doesn't matter. I, I get to do this now because if I get fired, I will be fine. And I have to do it so that the people who, if they got fired, aren't going to be fine, that, you know, that I'm paving the way. And so, yeah, but it, it's been, it definitely has been a conscious fight. I know that when I was working there from 1985 to 1990, there was a suit brought. Um, they were looking in to the, the fact that SOU was not in compliance with Title IX. And I know there were people from the NCAA and other programs who came and talked with us coaches and, and things like that. And so, um, later on in, gosh, I think it was 1996 that SOU brought in three more women's sports because they weren't in compliance with Title IX. They brought back women's tennis. They brought back women's softball. And they brought back, or they brought women's soccer, which I don't think had ever been, um, a sport at SOU. And Sally Jones coached the team for two years from 1996 till 98, and then she retired. And then I coached the women's tennis team from 1998 till 2008 when I retired. And, um, two years after that, they dropped the tennis program again at SOU. And unfortunately that was more because so many of the schools that we played had dropped out of our conference. And there were four schools in our entire region, um, two in, in, um, Idaho, College of Idaho and Lewis Clark State and Lewiston, Idaho. And then, um, Calgary, in, um, Calgary, Canada, and it was University of Alberta and Southern Oregon. And so we played an NEI schedule, but it was mainly in California. Sometimes we have to go to Southern California or we go to a tournament in Arizona, played all the, the private schools in Oregon that used to be in our conference. So as sad as I was that they, they dropped tennis, at least I understood that, that was not a Title IX issue. So, but the other two sports are flourishing, you know, and I think tennis would have, we had done well. And I think, you know, it would have continued and, uh, you know, always coaching at SOU, you know, we say, you know, one of our biggest setbacks, um, is our location. And, you know, we love it where we are, but as far as, you know, sometimes recruiting and sometimes getting schools to come or whatever, it's, you know, it's an issue. So, um, yeah, so I, I think SOU has made, made, uh, wonderful strides. And I know the administration really supports, um, the women and it wasn't always that way. And I know, um, you know, at one point, way back in the 80s, I felt threatened when I actually went to the administration and said, you know, I don't think this is equitable for, um, you know, for, for the women that we're not giving, you know, even, even on meal money, sometimes we weren't given the same amount of meal money on, on trips and things like that. And so, um, it was, it made it, it made it hard. And it, uh, it was a little bit tough because sometimes decisions I made as a coach, it was because I was a little fearful of retribution and that's, that's not the way to coach. And, um, you know, when I came back in tennis, I didn't feel that at all and I was a better coach because of it. And, and so I was really, I was really, that I, I came back in coach because I had a much, um, much happier feeling about, um, what, what I was, um, providing for students and, um, how I felt about how I was coaching. So, so that was good. I was really, really happy for my, my second chance though. I mean, I love being at SOU. I love living here and, um, when I left SOU, I, I stayed in the Valley because I loved it so much and worked at tennis clubs and I'm still doing it. I have, um, been one of many, um, directors of the Big Al's Tennis Tournament and I directed it last three years and last year was the 44th annual Big Al's Tournament and, uh, Big Al Carver who, um, started the tournament way back when or he sponsored it when it was part of the recreation department, um, tournament. Just, uh, just died this, this past, um, fall and, um, you know, the tennis community as well represented at his celebration of life. But, um, luckily I've handed over to our new director of tennis for this year. I'm sure I will be on the courts and helping and stuff. But, uh, uh, yeah, you know, having an indoor court, um, or an indoor tennis club in a town the size of Ashland is pretty unusual and we've had a, a tennis club in Medford with six indoor courts and three outdoor courts just, um, disappear a year and a half ago, you know, which is always sad. We don't want to see any tennis loss. But, um, you know, the support we have for tennis in this community is really pretty amazing. And then when we get people coming in, especially from Northern and Southern California, they said, well, we picked Ashland because it had an indoor, you know, club so we can play year round. So it is important in a lot of people's lives. And so, yeah. And, um, I think with all sports, um, you know, I always try to, to give back, you know, so I tried to give back to girls and women in sports when I was dealing with that. And definitely, I think as tennis pros, um, through the U.S. Professional Tennis Association, one of, you know, our ideals is to give back to the sport. And I think those of us who work here, I think we do a good job of giving back. And, um, you know, whether it's working with the recreation department to give junior lessons or I done adult lessons in the summer at, at Hunter Park, you know, for many years is just to keep tennis growing and keep the opportunity for for girls and women and everybody. You know, so I know as a, as a coach and as an athletic director when I was the athletic director at the high school in Sacramento for a while, I fought, you know, I fought for those, those things that I thought were inequitable, whether it be making the girls play in the small gym where when we took a basketball out, we had to put our foot against the wall because that was out of bounds, as opposed to the regular gym that had the full size basketball court and the bleachers so people could come watch, you know, those types of things. So and, um, I continue to do that. The National Tennis Association is called the U.S. Tennis Association and they have leagues and, um, you know, I'm always taking a look at like, okay, is this is this right? It may not be gender related. Now that I'm getting older, um, they, they have national championships for different ages. And last week, I was in Florida playing in the national 65 team event. And it used to be part of the, the national organization where, um, there are 17 sections in the United States and Oregon, Washington, Alaskan, part of Idaho is a particular section and we had a team going to play other sections in the nation. And they used to have a national tournament for the 65s. And then they just said, oh, we're not doing it. And we said, why? And they said, well, we changed it down to the 55 age. And so we fought for that. And we got a national tournament for the 65 age group. But now they call it an invitational so they don't have to pay for it. But we went and played and we won our national title last week. So, but yeah, so I'm, you know, whether whatever the inequities are, but I think that my fight for, prior to title nine, my, my fight for all of women's athletics and opportunities in that regard, um, has made me feel like I can be a spokesperson for other things like age or whatever it might be.