Sheryl Szady, an UofM athlete and alumna, advocated throughout these pivotal years for equal rights in wolverine sports. In hopes of the transition from intramural sports to varsity sports, she teamed up with Linda Laird, manager of the women’s basketball club, to prepare a presentation received well by specifically president Robben Fleming in April of 1973.
“We recommended that six sports be supported as varsity sports for women starting that that fall, “ Szady said. By the time July rolled around, Fleming agreed, even appointing a women’s athletic director. “We started six sports very rapidly which was great, because that was my senior year. I got to participate in the first year of varsity athletics.”
Even after the relentless work toward varsity sports, women’s sports still didn’t reach the same treatment and appreciation that men’s sports did. They were hardly featured in the Michigan Daily newspaper, and didn’t even receive varsity letters. The iconic block M, proudly adorned by male Michigan athletes on their varsity jackets, was not available for women. The fight had just begun for Szady. Upon her request for The athletic department sent out a letter signed by football coach Bo Schembechler and basketball coach Johnny Orr.
“[The letter] said, ‘How can you let synchronized swimmers and softball players get the same block m that you sweat and bled on the fields of Michigan for?’” she recalled.
It became a highly contentious topic for the community. Accredited Detroit sportscaster Al Ackerman even threatened to never announce another Michigan score on his broadcast if Michigan doesn’t give women the same block M.
“Oh, this is important,” Szady said. “Radio, TV and newspaper were the main conduit. It was like free advertising of all sorts of intercollegiate athletics at Michigan and you didn’t have to pay for it. Well, if Al Ackerman is saying [he’ll] never announce another score, that’s 1/3 of your marketing horizon is being left.”
The board almost unanimously voted to give women the same block letter. But in the fall, when the current and alumni athletes received their new letters, they failed to meet the expectations built throughout the fight.
“I get my jacket, I get this box, I open it up, and instead of the yellow, rectangular M, [we get] little square orange M’s on our varsity jacket. What is this? You know, we won the battle. We get the equal block M.”
For the next 18 years, women got the wrong letter on their jackets. In 1991, the athletic director at the time, Jack Weidenbach, finally granted female athletes the same varsity letter. And in 2016, the university reissued 900 correct varsity jackets to women from 1973 to 1991.
What’s unique to Szady’s journey is they never relied on Title IX’s laws to make change; it relied Szady’s persistence and initiative.
