| Summary |
The purpose of this thesis was to present a history of the women's intercollegiate athletic program at East Carolina University from 1969 to 1996. The absence of complete information on the development of women's athletics at ECU dictated the need for this study. Data was collected through the use of newspaper articles, interviews and information provided by the Sports Information Office at East Carolina University. The thesis contains background information on women's athletics and chapters on all women's sports at the school. It also presents findings of the study and comments on the future of women's athletics at East Carolina. The main findings and conclusions of the study were: 1. A lack of money during the early years of women's intercollegiate athletics at East Carolina hurt the overall development of the women's program, including the retention of quality coaches. 2. A lack of money for scholarships and recruiting in the first 20 years of the women's program affected the quality of athletes recruited to ECU, which resulted in decreased competitiveness and mediocre performances by many of the school's teams. 3. A lack of interest and administrative support for women's sports during their initial years of development prevented the rapid growth and success of the program. 4. The lack of interest and administrative support during the early years also prevented accurate record-keeping in women's athletics, and as a result, many current and past sports do not have complete historical records of their development. 5. A new commitment to gender equity and an adopted 10-year plan for women's athletics should improve the overall development and success of the program by 2015. 6. More work is needed to create better, accurate records on the history of women's athletics at East Carolina University. The research encompassed in this volume is a start, but additional detailed research, including complete rosters, year-by-year results and interviews with team members, is needed in order to track where the program has been in the past and where it is going in the future. |
