Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Chapter 6 —Just…Just Not Smart

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Benjamin Franklin

To preface this section, please understand I have nothing but warm, respectful feelings for the University of Kansas Athletics and the story I’ll share is merely a reflection of where many organizations were at that point in history. It wasn’t right, but I’ll share later in this chapter that significant improvements have been made since the early 1990s when this incident occurred. I traveled with the women’s basketball team and over time, I found it more difficult to overlook the blatant inequities between how the men’s and women’s teams were treated. The only colors I recall at that time in the women’s locker room were very old orange tiles on the walls and drab beige metal lockers. There was nothing about it that identified it as a KU locker room, and it certainly wasn’t inspiring or uplifting. Not that it should have had any bearing on appropriate facilities, but they were very strong teams during these years (1991-1994). The teams went to the NCAA Tournament all three years I traveled with them, finishing with overall records of 25-6, 21-9 and 22-6 and winning the Big Eight Championship in 1991. I mentioned that the locker room should be painted with crimson and blue colors and was told it had been requested several times already. I was told the most recent response was that instead of paint, higher wattage light bulbs would be installed to brighten it up. The men’s locker room had nice, large wooden lockers with the players’ names, and it was very clear by the décor when you walked in that it was a KU locker room. At that time, it wasn’t even that I thought the women’s space should be as nice or necessarily equal, but when I heard light bulbs were the best that could be done, it struck a nerve and then movi ng forward made me more aware of situations and comments I hadn’t noticed or thought about before.

The women’s team was coached by Marian Washington , who finished her coaching career there in 2004 after more than 30 years. She earned membership in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, receiving the Black Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Her memoir Fierce: My Fight for Nothing Less was released in August 2024. This photo was taken on a women ’ s basketball road trip during dinner. I lined up interviews for the players and tried to take standout freshmen players under my wing, helping them understand how to give a good interview and how to ensure what they said would enhance their relationships with their teammates, not alienate them. We traveled a lot on buses, and I’ll never miss that form of transportation , but it provided an

opportunity to get to know the players and coaches as people, not just colleagues and athletes. Just last summer I found two sympathy cards, one from the team and one from an individual player after my paternal grandmother passed away unexpectedly during the season. What the player had written inside the card was so thoughtful it still touched my heart after 30 years (thank you again, Angela). They were serious athletes on the court, but a fun group off the court as this photo illustrates.

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