WEBVTT - A Team of Their Own

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<v Speaker 1>Little on this next check. It was the sports bra

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<v Speaker 1>seeing round the world. Right after this happened, chaff Stain

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<v Speaker 1>will take it. She missed a penalty kid against China

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<v Speaker 1>and I lost that care Who can forget when Brandy

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<v Speaker 1>chess Stain ripped off her jersey and waved it around

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<v Speaker 1>her head in celebration after hitting the game winning goal

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<v Speaker 1>in the Women's World Cup final against China. Male soccer

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<v Speaker 1>players take off their shirts to celebrate goals all the time,

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<v Speaker 1>but chas Stain's exuberance became the talk of the nation.

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<v Speaker 1>Some found it inappropriate, others had more elaborate theories. I

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<v Speaker 1>was amused at the time by the people saying, oh,

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<v Speaker 1>Nike set that up. I was like, no, I don't

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<v Speaker 1>think China would have agreed to that. And if Nike

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<v Speaker 1>really set that up, I'm sure Brandy Chastain's sports brawl

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<v Speaker 1>would have had a big white swissh on it. Eventually,

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<v Speaker 1>the controversy died down, and chass stains sports braby came

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<v Speaker 1>synonymous with women's soccer, a symbol of triumph. But back

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<v Speaker 1>in almost fifteen years before chess Stain and the ninety

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<v Speaker 1>nine women's team won the World Cup, the very first

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<v Speaker 1>US women's national team. Well, they had an even bigger

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<v Speaker 1>issue with their wardrobe. Let us play, Let us play,

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<v Speaker 1>Let us Play, Let Us Play. Welcome to the Thread,

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<v Speaker 1>a podcast where we unraveled the stories behind some of

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<v Speaker 1>the most important lives and events in history to learn

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<v Speaker 1>more about the surprising connections between them. I'm Sean Braswell.

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<v Speaker 1>This season's Thread started with the ninety nine Ers, the

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<v Speaker 1>U S national team whose triumph in the nine World

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<v Speaker 1>Cup launched women's soccer into the stratosphere. I don't know

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<v Speaker 1>if anything tops that moment still. Caitlin Murray is a

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<v Speaker 1>journalist and author of the National Team, The Inside Story

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<v Speaker 1>of the Women who changed Soccer. For the players who

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<v Speaker 1>were around, who were kids at the time, they all

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<v Speaker 1>talk about remembering World Cup. They remember that changing the

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<v Speaker 1>idea of soccer and what they wanted to do when

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<v Speaker 1>they grew up. But the nine ninners victory would not

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<v Speaker 1>have been possible without another group of women, a team

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<v Speaker 1>who also wore the team USA uniforms, even if they

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<v Speaker 1>were a bit baggy. There wasn't a whole lot of

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<v Speaker 1>need for a US women's national soccer team in the

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<v Speaker 1>mid nineteen eighties. There was no Women's World Cup and

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<v Speaker 1>the sport was not in the Olympics. Yeah, there had

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<v Speaker 1>been paper teams of the national team from nine eight

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<v Speaker 1>two to nineteen eighty four. These were teams where the

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<v Speaker 1>best players in the country were picked and their names

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<v Speaker 1>were on a sheet of paper, and that was that

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<v Speaker 1>they didn't actually play any games. All that changed in

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<v Speaker 1>nine five at the National Sports Festival and Baton Rouge

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<v Speaker 1>louis an event of the U S Olympic Committee. The

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<v Speaker 1>Sports Festival is america centerpiece of amateur athletics, and this

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<v Speaker 1>summer it comes to Louisiana. Women's soccer was featured in

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<v Speaker 1>this event for the first time, and it was sort

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<v Speaker 1>of a many Olympics that they had on non Olympic

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<v Speaker 1>years where athletes from around the country would compete against

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<v Speaker 1>each other. Organizers announced a list of players for the

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<v Speaker 1>women's national team after the tournament concluded. For the players

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<v Speaker 1>whose names were read on that list, it took them

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<v Speaker 1>by surprise. They didn't know anything about it. After the

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<v Speaker 1>Sports Festival happened, they pulled us together and they basically said,

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<v Speaker 1>you're not only a paper team, but we're also going

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<v Speaker 1>to go to Italy in two weeks and we're going

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<v Speaker 1>to go play in this moondi Alito, which then was,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, a mini World Cup. Stacy was a member

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<v Speaker 1>of that national team. It definitely took us all by surprise,

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<v Speaker 1>the immediacy of it. Had a chance to go home

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<v Speaker 1>for a few days after the festival, and then we

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<v Speaker 1>flew to New York and we stayed out on Long

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<v Speaker 1>Island and we trained for a week or so, and

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<v Speaker 1>then we all hopped on a plane and flew over

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<v Speaker 1>to Italy. The hastily assembled national team had a shoestring budget.

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<v Speaker 1>They were given uniforms commonly called kits, but they were

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<v Speaker 1>not women's soccer uniforms. Journalist Caitlin Murray. They didn't have

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<v Speaker 1>names or any information that would make it seem like

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<v Speaker 1>they were designed for the players who were about to

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<v Speaker 1>wear them and for the women who got these kids.

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<v Speaker 1>They really didn't look like they were designed for the

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<v Speaker 1>team at all, and they didn't fit very well. It

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<v Speaker 1>was apparent they were men's kids because they did not

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<v Speaker 1>fit them at all. They were huge, They you know,

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<v Speaker 1>came around their ankles. So the night before the team

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<v Speaker 1>went to Italy, they were up late with their trainers.

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<v Speaker 1>They had you know, threads and needles, and they were

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<v Speaker 1>cutting and sewing their outfits to make sure they actually

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<v Speaker 1>fit them properly. The players made it work. Stacy Enos again,

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we looked the part like I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know if people recognize that we were a soccer club,

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<v Speaker 1>but you felt proud to step on it with your

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<v Speaker 1>teammates and get on the plane and share with people

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<v Speaker 1>that you were the U S women's national team. The

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<v Speaker 1>team arrived in Milan, Italy, then took a five hour

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<v Speaker 1>bus ride to a small resort town near Finnis, where

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<v Speaker 1>the soccer tournament was to take place. Emily Pickering Hardner

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<v Speaker 1>was also a member of that first national team. It

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<v Speaker 1>was a beautiful beach town. The pasta was awesome, the

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<v Speaker 1>food was great. I mean, the whole thing was incredible.

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<v Speaker 1>We're on a beach resort. It was vacation. Bruce Spreensteen

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<v Speaker 1>had just come out with this big album I'm Born

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<v Speaker 1>in the USA, and everybody in Italy loved it. So

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<v Speaker 1>when we walk out on the field, they usually played

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<v Speaker 1>this song Born in the USA, which we would kind

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<v Speaker 1>of look at each other out on the field and

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<v Speaker 1>just start laughing. It was the first time that women

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<v Speaker 1>had represented the US in an official international soccer match,

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<v Speaker 1>and they were playing against other national teams like Italy, England,

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<v Speaker 1>and Denmark with much more experience. Stacy Enos, it was

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<v Speaker 1>definitely eye opening, just brilliant, high level soccer. We had

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<v Speaker 1>to fight for every moment and every opportunity in a match,

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<v Speaker 1>and it was definitely harder than anyone could have ever anticipated.

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<v Speaker 1>The Americans also dealt with more than the tough competition

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<v Speaker 1>on the field. Just getting to the field was a challenge.

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<v Speaker 1>Before their match against England, Emily Pickering Harner, our boss

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<v Speaker 1>got lost. We were traveling and driving in the bus

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<v Speaker 1>for an hour and we barely got there in time

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<v Speaker 1>for game time. I think we were flat going into it,

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<v Speaker 1>and boom they scored, Boom they scored, and boom they scored.

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<v Speaker 1>The team lost to England and would go on to

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<v Speaker 1>lose three games and draw one. At the tournament, journalist

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<v Speaker 1>Caitlin Murray, the US looked like they were playing in

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<v Speaker 1>their first ever games, and that's how the results went.

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<v Speaker 1>The US did not look prepared for facing the teams

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<v Speaker 1>that they met at this tournament in Italy, but the

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<v Speaker 1>U S team did win over many of the local

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<v Speaker 1>Italian fans who attended Stacy. We always thought they were

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<v Speaker 1>booing us because they were going Oosa USA. And so

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<v Speaker 1>eventually when we stopped to look at the fans and

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<v Speaker 1>they want your autographs and they were cheering you, they

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<v Speaker 1>were all saying USA for USA. Going to Italy was

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<v Speaker 1>a formative experience for the young team. I felt like

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<v Speaker 1>we had a strong presence and we made ourselves known

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<v Speaker 1>and uh, we learned a lot. It was invaluable. Then

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<v Speaker 1>we we kind of knew the landscape, we knew our competition,

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<v Speaker 1>and we knew what we had to do for the moment.

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<v Speaker 1>There was no prospect of going to a World Cup

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<v Speaker 1>or to the Olympics. It was just the beginning of

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<v Speaker 1>a journey. This group of pioneers was just learning how

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<v Speaker 1>to play together and overcome adversity. It was the start

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<v Speaker 1>of a team culture that would endure countless challenges in

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<v Speaker 1>the upcoming years and eventually conquer the world. If there

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<v Speaker 1>was no glamor in US women's soccer in the nineteen eighties,

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<v Speaker 1>there was also certainly no money again, Caitlin Murray, the

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<v Speaker 1>players on the early national teams were not doing it

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<v Speaker 1>to be famous or get rich or be on TV

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<v Speaker 1>because those things were even possibilities. Yet, the players were

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<v Speaker 1>getting ten dollars per diem when they played in the US,

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<v Speaker 1>they got fifteen dollars when they traveled abroad, and the

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<v Speaker 1>first national teams received little attention from either the public

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<v Speaker 1>or the press. You know, we look at where the

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<v Speaker 1>team is today, the endorsement deals they get, the salaries

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<v Speaker 1>that they make. That was not even I think a

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<v Speaker 1>remote possibility in the players minds at the time. It

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<v Speaker 1>was purely for the love of the game, purely to

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<v Speaker 1>represent the country. The lack of compensation and resources only

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<v Speaker 1>further motivated the players. Tim Nash is the author of

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<v Speaker 1>It's Not the Glory and has covered the women's national

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<v Speaker 1>team for decades. What really helped the team develop and

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<v Speaker 1>become what they are is the attitude that, well, we're

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<v Speaker 1>not getting any money, so how do we go out

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<v Speaker 1>and win? So they would do whatever they could. They

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<v Speaker 1>would get very creative. Take for instance, midfield or Michelle Acres,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the team's best players. She sometimes worked out

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<v Speaker 1>on racquetball courts. She didn't need anybody to pass the

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<v Speaker 1>ball to or shoot at when she had four walls

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<v Speaker 1>around her, so she'd just going there and bash them

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<v Speaker 1>off the wall and work on striking the ball and

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<v Speaker 1>work on receiving the ball all at once. The players

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<v Speaker 1>were largely responsible for maintaining their own fitness during the

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<v Speaker 1>long periods of time in which there were no games.

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<v Speaker 1>Stacy Enos, I had already graduated, so I needed to

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<v Speaker 1>jump in any scrimmage game or any pickup game I

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<v Speaker 1>could find. I used the weight room a lot and

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<v Speaker 1>just ran on my own. So it was a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of just self discipline. Basically, the discipline extended into all

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<v Speaker 1>parts of their lives, including what jobs the players could take.

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<v Speaker 1>Caitlin Murray, and you have a player like Karen Jennings,

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<v Speaker 1>she was the best player on the team at the time.

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<v Speaker 1>She also was working in a marketing job, and she

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<v Speaker 1>had to keep quitting her jobs so she could keep

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<v Speaker 1>playing soccer, because she would go to her employer and say, hey,

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<v Speaker 1>can I have a couple of weeks off to go

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<v Speaker 1>to camp with the national team and train, And of

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<v Speaker 1>course the employer was like, no, you can't just keep

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<v Speaker 1>leaving your job to go play soccer. So she would

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<v Speaker 1>quit the job that she had compete with the national team,

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<v Speaker 1>and then I have to get a new job. And

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<v Speaker 1>she did that multiple times to the point where it

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<v Speaker 1>was a running joke within the team, like, oh, Karen

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<v Speaker 1>quit another job today, And there was certainly no career

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<v Speaker 1>to be had in playing soccer, so it wasn't like

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<v Speaker 1>you're paying dividends towards something that's going to materialize. Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Gregg was the assistant coach of the nine that we

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<v Speaker 1>heard from an episode one. She was also a player

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<v Speaker 1>on the early women's national teams. There was no promise

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<v Speaker 1>of anything more than what was right in front of you,

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<v Speaker 1>which was very little from the outside, but for those

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<v Speaker 1>of us in it, it was everything. Greg slept on

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<v Speaker 1>the floor if someone else's apartment so she didn't have

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<v Speaker 1>to pay rent. It was very difficult to have, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>full time job and train at the level you needed

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<v Speaker 1>to and then be able to up and leave um

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<v Speaker 1>for you know, a couple of weeks at a time,

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<v Speaker 1>and people weren't so forgiving as they are now because

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<v Speaker 1>it's so popular now. Back then, it was like we

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<v Speaker 1>were doing all this in an abyss. Early on, the

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<v Speaker 1>team only played about five to eight games a year.

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<v Speaker 1>When they traveled for tournaments, their trip expenses were paid,

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<v Speaker 1>but it was not exactly luxury travel. The players tease

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<v Speaker 1>today about wanting to have you know, like a jet service,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, and not fly commercial, and we're like, are

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<v Speaker 1>you kidding me? Like back then, it was like from

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<v Speaker 1>row thirty back was smoking, and you know, twenty nine

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<v Speaker 1>above was non smoking, and so obviously the entire plane was,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, a smoking plane or you know, so we'd

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<v Speaker 1>just literally be like covering ourselves in blankets. The team

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<v Speaker 1>wrote on low flying propeller planes in China. They played

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<v Speaker 1>on dirt fields in Sardinia, Tim Nash. They rode on

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<v Speaker 1>a coal train through Bulgaria. Their faces were just black

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<v Speaker 1>with coal set. The restroom was a hole in the floor.

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<v Speaker 1>At one hotel they stayed in Haiti, they got one

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<v Speaker 1>hour each day of running water and electricity, so they

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<v Speaker 1>would be jumping in and out of shower trying to

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<v Speaker 1>get and then the ones who couldn't do that just

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<v Speaker 1>bathed in the pool. And I said it was pretty

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<v Speaker 1>nasty by the time they left. But in such environments

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<v Speaker 1>the team really had time to get to know one another.

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<v Speaker 1>They did not complain about how they were treated. They

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<v Speaker 1>just worked harder. Again, Lauren greg we never felt deprived,

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<v Speaker 1>and I felt very lucky to have the opportunity. Uh,

0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.200
<v Speaker 1>and we grew tremendously from that, and that foundation of

0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.760
<v Speaker 1>training when no one's watching became sort of the foundation

0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.120
<v Speaker 1>for the success I think of the team over the

0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:20.400
<v Speaker 1>next decade. The drive and the resilience of this group

0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.680
<v Speaker 1>of women would shape a national team that has won

0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:29.920
<v Speaker 1>gold medals in four Olympics and three World Cup Championships.

0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.280
<v Speaker 1>Here's how three national team players express what those early

0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.400
<v Speaker 1>days meant to them. You look back and you think,

0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.320
<v Speaker 1>to me, is some of the happiest days of my life.

0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.840
<v Speaker 1>Still to this day cry at the national anthem because

0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.199
<v Speaker 1>I was the best of the best of the best,

0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:50.760
<v Speaker 1>you know it was. It's a cool feeling. There's also, um,

0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.679
<v Speaker 1>just a great sense of pride that knowing that we

0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.000
<v Speaker 1>were one of the foundations and one of the building

0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.439
<v Speaker 1>blocks were the start of the history of the women's

0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.480
<v Speaker 1>national team. I'm proud to be on the team. It

0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:08.160
<v Speaker 1>opened doors and um yeah, I carry it. I carry

0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:16.240
<v Speaker 1>it with a full heart. It was no accident that

0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.680
<v Speaker 1>the team players got the chance to be pioneers and

0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.440
<v Speaker 1>women's soccer. They were part of a generation of women

0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.120
<v Speaker 1>that played on the front lines of history. Thanks to

0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:30.080
<v Speaker 1>a controversial new law that's up next. Things really started

0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.320
<v Speaker 1>to change for women's sports in nineteen seventy two. That's

0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.640
<v Speaker 1>when Title nine, a law banning sex discrimination and federally

0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.520
<v Speaker 1>funded education programs, was passed by Congress and signed into

0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.000
<v Speaker 1>law by President Richard Nixon. Nixon signed the bill on

0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.280
<v Speaker 1>June twenty, nineteen seventy two. It did not get a

0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.960
<v Speaker 1>lot of attention. Six days earlier, something even more momentous

0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.520
<v Speaker 1>happened in the news. What do you think we have

0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.480
<v Speaker 1>a mystery story out of Washington. Five people have been

0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.640
<v Speaker 1>arrested and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the

0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.040
<v Speaker 1>Democrat a National Committee in the middle of the night.

0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.640
<v Speaker 1>The Democratic National Committee is located in the Watergate Office building.

0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.080
<v Speaker 1>For the next two years, while President Nixon and the

0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.840
<v Speaker 1>American public were distracted by the Watergate scandal, Title nine

0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.120
<v Speaker 1>was slowly remaking the sports landscape. The law meant that

0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.240
<v Speaker 1>young women everywhere, at least in theory, had access to

0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.360
<v Speaker 1>competitive sports. Sports programs for girls exploded in the decades

0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.760
<v Speaker 1>that followed. In nineteen seventy four, for example, there were

0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.280
<v Speaker 1>only about one hundred thousand girls across the country that

0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.120
<v Speaker 1>were registered with the US Youth Soccer Association. Now that

0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.160
<v Speaker 1>number is in the millions. The women of those first

0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.440
<v Speaker 1>national soccer teams were among the earliest beneficiaries of Title nine.

0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.800
<v Speaker 1>Karen Blumenthal's a journalist and author of Let Me Play,

0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.920
<v Speaker 1>The Story of Title nine, The Law that changed the

0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.840
<v Speaker 1>future of girls in America. The women athletes of the

0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.760
<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventies were sometimes called Title nine babies. For girls

0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:58.040
<v Speaker 1>born in the nineteen seventies, the opportunities were vastly different

0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.800
<v Speaker 1>than for girls born before that. There were sports teams

0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.800
<v Speaker 1>from an early age, and so there were soccer leagues

0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:06.840
<v Speaker 1>and soccer teams for three year old girls, just like

0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.120
<v Speaker 1>there were for three year old boys. There were gymnastics

0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:13.200
<v Speaker 1>opportunities for younger kids. There were um volleyball teams in

0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:17.320
<v Speaker 1>elementary school. National team player Emily Pickering Harner again. As

0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.600
<v Speaker 1>a girl growing up in the seventies, sixties and seventies,

0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.600
<v Speaker 1>I was involved in all kinds of sports and wanted

0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.200
<v Speaker 1>to play them all. And as soon as I was

0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.120
<v Speaker 1>allowed to play Little League baseball due to Title nine,

0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.760
<v Speaker 1>I played Little League baseball and so Title nine was

0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.200
<v Speaker 1>big and huge for me. I knew about it at

0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.600
<v Speaker 1>a very early age, but it was still hard to

0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.320
<v Speaker 1>be a female athlete. In my high school, we did

0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.280
<v Speaker 1>not have girls soccer. Three of us decided to try

0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.200
<v Speaker 1>out for the boys team. Well, they put an obstacle

0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.880
<v Speaker 1>in our way that we were required to ron do

0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.600
<v Speaker 1>sit ups, do push ups, and things like that. Suffice

0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:00.840
<v Speaker 1>it to say none of us be prepared for it

0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.920
<v Speaker 1>past the test, so we didn't get to play on

0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.280
<v Speaker 1>the boys team. Stacy Enos had a similar experience. Sophomore

0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.960
<v Speaker 1>year of high school. We finally got um a girls

0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.960
<v Speaker 1>soccer team. There was a point where my family had

0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.480
<v Speaker 1>considered moving or I was maybe going to go live

0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.439
<v Speaker 1>with an aunt and uncle, just in order to play

0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.440
<v Speaker 1>high school soccer. Even with Title nine in effect, it

0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.400
<v Speaker 1>took many colleges even longer to get with the program.

0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.720
<v Speaker 1>Soccer analyst Jin Cooper, we all know Title nine passed

0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.560
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen two, but it's not like a light switch

0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.439
<v Speaker 1>was flipped on and suddenly everybody's playing collegiate sports. You know,

0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.439
<v Speaker 1>it took a while for conferences to get organized, schools,

0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.959
<v Speaker 1>to get organized facilities, recruiting all that stuff. It's like

0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.040
<v Speaker 1>slowly taking hold. If US colleges wanted to offer scholarships

0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.480
<v Speaker 1>to male athletes, they had to offer them to women

0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.879
<v Speaker 1>now as well, Susan Ware as a historian and author

0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.480
<v Speaker 1>of Game, Set and Match, Billy Jane King and the

0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.040
<v Speaker 1>Revolue in women's sports. And then as more and more

0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:08.320
<v Speaker 1>women are getting these athletic scholarships, it increases the talent pool,

0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:13.320
<v Speaker 1>it increases the depth and skill of the teams that

0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.840
<v Speaker 1>they're being recruited on. And then you really see that

0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:21.199
<v Speaker 1>playing out over the next couple of decades, so you

0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.399
<v Speaker 1>begin to see how these scholarships are so important in

0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:30.639
<v Speaker 1>the athletic training of our future heroes. And those heroes

0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.359
<v Speaker 1>include the women who played on the first national soccer

0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.600
<v Speaker 1>teams Caitlin Murray. The national team was kind of built

0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.960
<v Speaker 1>on Title nine because so many of those players who

0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.800
<v Speaker 1>went on to have long, important careers with the national

0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:50.840
<v Speaker 1>team were identified in college as college players. So you

0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.520
<v Speaker 1>have to think, if there's no Title nine, if none

0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.800
<v Speaker 1>of these women are competing in college, who was going

0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.080
<v Speaker 1>to be on the national team. Some of these women

0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.280
<v Speaker 1>found themselves for repeatedly at ground zero for a changing

0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.120
<v Speaker 1>sports world. Stacy Enos I consider myself a pioneer by

0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.840
<v Speaker 1>all standards. I mean, I've definitely have been on a

0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.600
<v Speaker 1>lot of first you know, I've been on my first

0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:18.240
<v Speaker 1>high school team, the college's first and C double a team,

0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.480
<v Speaker 1>and then also had the opportunity to be on the

0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.760
<v Speaker 1>first US women's national team. The women on that first

0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.680
<v Speaker 1>national team were true pioneers. But there was another earlier

0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.120
<v Speaker 1>team that really moved things forward, one in an entirely

0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:34.440
<v Speaker 1>different sport, A group of women who are not just pioneers,

0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.320
<v Speaker 1>they were revolutionaries. They were members of the Yale women's

0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:43.600
<v Speaker 1>crew team. They get on an unheeded bus, they drive

0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:48.359
<v Speaker 1>thirty minutes to the Hausa Tonic. They'd compete, and they'd

0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.399
<v Speaker 1>train in the wind and the rain and the snow,

0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.360
<v Speaker 1>and then they had to wait on an unheeded bus

0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.120
<v Speaker 1>while every last Yale member of the men's rowing team

0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.960
<v Speaker 1>would shower. I mean, we're at Yale Universe City. We

0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.600
<v Speaker 1>are incredibly bright women, and if we were to say

0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:09.080
<v Speaker 1>it's okay for us to be treated this way, what

0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.760
<v Speaker 1>kind of message would that be for us to send

0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.480
<v Speaker 1>out into the universe. And so the women decided to

0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.919
<v Speaker 1>make a statement. We needed to speak our truth and

0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.639
<v Speaker 1>and we wanted our voice to be heard. And I

0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:29.639
<v Speaker 1>can imagine that in other athletic departments athletic directors all

0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.360
<v Speaker 1>of a sudden said, oh my god, did you hear

0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.480
<v Speaker 1>what those those women at Yale did? And maybe they

0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.840
<v Speaker 1>started to think could that happen here? In the next

0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.919
<v Speaker 1>episode of The Thread, the story of the Yale nine Team,

0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:45.679
<v Speaker 1>a group of women who paved the way for the

0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.440
<v Speaker 1>women's national soccer teams and whose bold active defiance since

0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.199
<v Speaker 1>shock waves through college campuses across the nation and changed

0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.680
<v Speaker 1>what it meant to be a female athlete in America.

0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:03.320
<v Speaker 1>Let Us, let us Right. The Thread is produced by

0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.880
<v Speaker 1>Robert Coulos, Shannon Williamson, and me Sean Braswell. Evan Roberts

0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.440
<v Speaker 1>engineered our show. This episode features the song let us Play,

0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.239
<v Speaker 1>written and performed by teacup Gin. You can hear more

0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.480
<v Speaker 1>of their songs at teacup gin dot com. To learn

0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.080
<v Speaker 1>more about The Thread, visit Aussie dot com, slash the

0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.159
<v Speaker 1>Threat all one word, and make sure to subscribe to

0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.080
<v Speaker 1>The Thread on Apple Podcasts, follow us on I Heart Radio,

0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:28.240
<v Speaker 1>or listen wherever you get your podcast