Other
Deatherage, Dorothy (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This single interview was conducted Deatherage's office in the CSULB Physicial Education Department. The audio quality is good, although the interview was interrupted by a phone call. 2/25/1981
- Date
- 2021-08-30
- Resource Type
- Creator
- Campus
- Keywords
- Handle
- Language
- Notes
- *** File: uhddeatherage1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:36)... Brief introduction Deatherage was born and raised in Long Beach and attended Long Beach elementary and high schools. Her father was an attorney who moved to Long Beach during the Signal Hill oil boom. He was an active community leader and businessman. Following high school, Deatherage attended Mills College for one year and then transferred to UCLA, where she earned a bachelors degree. Later she also earned a masters degree from Stanford University. (2:36-7:53)... At a very early age, Deatherage became interested in teaching physical education. After earning her teaching credential and masters degree at Stanford University, she worked as a teaching assistant at Hayward High School. When her father became ill, she returned to Long Beach, had an interview with the superintendent, and was hired to teach at Stevens Junior High School and then at Wilson High School. In 1949, her father sent her a newspaper article about a new college in Long Beach. At first she wasn't impressed, particularly because an accompanying photo showed the physical education equipment being stored in a bathtub. She was teaching at Wilson, when she met Pat Reid, a women's physical education teacher at the new college who was supervising student teachers at Wilson. Reid convinced her to apply for a position at the new college. Initially, Deatherage was not interested, but when she was offered a position following her interview with P. Victor Peterson and playing golf with the head of the Physical Education department, she accepted and began teaching there in 1955. At that time, the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation consisted of 13 faculty members. (7:53-9:16)... She decided to leave Mills College, an all-girls school, for UCLA because she wanted to go to a coeducational school. She also wanted to join a sorority. She left UCLA because she wanted to finish her education at Stanford University. She eventually earned a doctorate from USC. (9:16-12:45)... When the new college began, many of those teaching Physical Education had began their teaching careers in high schools. The atmosphere in high school was formal. The women wore gloves and hats to public school meetings. When she came to the new college, she discovered that such formality did not exist. Deatherage showed up at her first division meeting wearing gloves and a hat, but removed them when she saw that the other women were much less formally dressed. The only other woman Deatherage noticed wearing a hat and gloves was Gladys Potter, a retired superintendent from the Long Beach Unified School District. (12:45-17:53)... In 1949, Dr. Herman Shwartzkopf was the first faculty member hired in physical education. Jack Montgomery, Pat Reid, and Corinne Crogen were hired in 1951. These 4 organized the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation. The Division offered 9 courses, and, when Deatherage joined them, she taught many of these classes, including health education. As the number of faculty members increased, they could specialize more. In the beginning professors were expected to teach a variety of courses and to teach 12 units a semester. (17:53-20:21)... Although her involvement in faculty-administrative problems was limited, she was among those who supported President Peterson at a faculty meeting when others criticized his administration. Crogen made a statement in favor of Peterson, which Deatherage thought was a courageous act. During the conflict between administration and faculty, Deatherage remained supportive of Peterson and was well acquainted with him and his family. (20:21-23:36)... At Deatherage's first faculty meeting in 1955, Dean David Bryant introduced the new faculty members. She was quite embarrassed because all of the other faculty held doctoral degrees and she only had a masters. Then Bryant introduced her as the teacher who taught his daughter at Wilson High School. She was hired as an "instructor." During a church service preceding graduation that year, professors were introduced according to their ranks, ending with assistant professors and then master candidates. The instructors were completely ignored. (23:36-26:34)... When she arrived on campus in 1955, the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation occupied 4 offices in a building known as "F1," which is no longer on there. Three faculty members occupied each office. Activities were held in the east gymnasium, which later became known as the women's gymnasium. In 1959, the swimming pool, the men's gymnasium, a dance studio, and several offices were constructed to expand their facilities. When there was only one gymnasium, the locker room was partitioned and the men and women shared the facilities. Deatherage believes that , at the time of the interview, the facilities at CSULB had become some of the best in California. Separate gyms for the men and women athletes resulted in a better program. (26:34-36:26)... When the campus opened, it only enrolled juniors and seniors. Soon lower division courses were added and the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation added classes and expanded into newly constructed facilities. General education requirements mandated that all students take physical education classes. As a result, classes were overloaded with students. Later the legislature eliminated this requirement. At that time, she was told to expect that 60 percent of the students would still enroll in Physical Education classes. Class sizes shrunk for a while, but students soon returned and class sizes stabilized at a comfortable level. Their Division also offered upper division classes for Physical Education majors, but at first there were no special lower division classes for them. Then faculty members found the majors in upper division classes without adequate preparation, so they started offering special lower division classes for them. The lower division courses for non majors included instruction in "individual sports." The upper division courses concentrated on specific skills and teaching techniques. The emphasis in physical education was on preparing students for teaching careers. After 1975, more jobs in the fields of physical education and health resulted in many Physical Education majors finding jobs other than teaching. (36:26-42:29)... When she arrived on campus there was a loosely organized intramural sports program for women. In the early 1960s, schools in the area began organizing teams to compete in volleyball and basketball tournaments, but the Long Beach faculty was undecided about participating. Some faculty members did not want women to compete. After discussing the issue, the faculty chose Dorothy Fornia to manage the inter mural program and Bonnie Purdy to manage the extra mural one. When Purdy left, Deatherage managed the extra mural program from 1964 to 1973. Then the program was changed into a coeducational intercollegiate sports program. And in 1973, Deatherage became the chair of the Women's Physical Education Department and served until 1978. When the School of Applied Arts and Sciences integrated the men's and women's departments, there was a national search for a chair and Dr. Marguerite Clifton was hired to fill the position. Deatherage took sabbatical leave from 1978 to 1979 and, when she returned, she became coordinator of the graduate program. (42:29-46:13)... The first activity in the extra mural sports program was a tennis tournament in Ojai. Competition in volleyball and basketball soon followed. Universities also organized "play days," in which students in the intramural program went to other campuses and participated in sports. The purpose of "play days" was not competition between schools; teams were chose to include students from different schools . Students and faculty worked together to organize the extra mural program. End of tape *** File: uhddeatherage2.mp3 (0:00-3:15)... Tape begins abruptly with a continued discussion on the extra mural sports program. Faculty and students in the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation developed procedures and policies for their extra mural sports program. Competition was based on the player's level of skill and and many schools entered more than one team. Competition was regulated and no school or team dominated. Colleges that participated ranged from small private institutions to large public ones, and included approximately 22 colleges in the southern California area. Deatherage recalls that many people believed that women's sports was at its best during this period. There were no scholarships and recruitment was not an issue. Students attended college for the academic programs and played sports for their personal enjoyment. (3:15-6:07)... There is an interruption in this segment when a telephone rings. Various coeducational and team sports were played in the intramural and extra mural programs. The terminology switched from extra mural sports to women's intercollegiate sports and then to women's athletics. Deatherage preferred the use of women's intercollegiate sports because it differentiated it from men's athletics. Men's athletics is usually characterized by recruiting athletes and offering scholarships to the best athletes in order to create winning teams. (6:07-9:03)... When Deatherage became the coordinator of the women's extra mural sports program in 1964, the budget was $400. She spent much of her time preparing budgets and asking for funds from the Associated Students' Board of Control. At the time, there was no Title IX to force the school to fund of women's sports. College officials seemed to believe that women's sports was not important enough to have a stable budget. The budget for the program grew each year, however, and when the men's and women's physical education programs joined, the campus had one of the best-funded women's and coeducational sports programs in the area. (9:03-14:37)... Compared to other campuses in the area, the campus had one of the more active men's athletic programs. Many of the male coaches had doctoral degrees. There was an emphasis on expanding the men's sports program even though there was an equal number of men and women on campus. When Pat Reid was hired in 1951, she tried to convince the administration that the physical education program would be stronger if there were equal numbers of women and men on the faculty. Sometimes Reid suggested that a woman be hired in a specific specialty only to see a male hired instead. When there were separate men's and women's departments, many women were hired and they had expertise in various sports, dance, and professional activities; most other state colleges didn't have this range of expertise among women physical education faculty. Reid's work strengthened the department because she fought to prevent men's sports from taking over women's facilities. She also worked to make sure that scheduling of athletic events did not interfere with students' academic classes. (14:37-20:24)... Although women taught coeducational courses in Physical Education, most of those courses were taught by men. Women were generally hired to teach courses with an all-female enrollment. Men, however, also taught courses in the Women's Physical Education Department. (20:24-25:36)... There is an interruption in this segment when Deatherage answers the telephone. Members of the Western Society for Physical Education for College Women and women in the campus Women's Physical Education Department studied an organizational structure in which men's and women's physical education programs were organized separately. These studies analyzed the disadvantages of integrated programs at other universities to justify the existence of separate programs on campus. In addition to the California Association of Health, Physical Education, and Dance (which consisted of both men and women), the National Association for Physical Education for College Women is a support organization for women in higher education. The National Association for Physical Education for College Women and the National College Physical Education Association for Men later merged and became the National Association for Physical Education in Higher Education. Deatherage occupied leadership positions in these professional organizations, including president of the Western Society for Physical Education for College Women, as well as treasurer for National Association for Physical Education for College Women. The purpose of these organizations is to promote good standards for girls' and women's sports. (25:36-32:35)... Women's physical education organizations developed both academic and athletic standards including eligibility guidelines. When women's intercollegiate sports began, there was a movement to organize women's sports so that men did not control them. To this end, the Commission of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was established and ultimately became the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which operates on a local, national, and regional level. This group then had to deal with legislation such as Title IX. This changed the climate in women's sports. Many people in women's physical education are opposed to athletic scholarships and recruiting the best athletes because it may lead to many of the problems that plague men's sports. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was sued for upholding their no scholarship rule and ultimately voted to continue the standard. On a national level, however, schools awarded scholarships to women. Deatherage fears that women's collegiate sports will become professionalized just as male sports have. (32:35-36:50)... Deatherage believes that leaders in the women's movement place too much emphasis on establishing parity between and women's and men's sports. They argue that equal funding should be granted to both women and men; this argument, however, does not challenge the male model but copies it. One alternative is for women to take their share of scholarship money and allocate it in a different way, but women failed to demonstrated that this might be successful. In the past women's athletics had small budgets to train many students in several sports. Now there are larger budgets, but they are used to train fewer students. A more ethical approach would be to use the funds to train more students. Many interested groups, such as alumni associations, are more interested in fielding winning teams than in taking an ethical approach to sports. (36:50-38:33)... The placement of the Student Services and Administration Building on campus helped to bridge the gap between lower and upper campus. At one time, it was a long and time consuming trek to the upper campus from the lower campus, and placement of the Student Services and Administration Building, the Student Union and the student cafeteria in the center of the campus, helped to bring together students whose classes tend to be concentrated on separate parts of the campus. (38:33-43:37)... Deatherage supported P. Victor Peterson's and opposed his detractors. She did not sign a petition, circulated by some faculty members, calling for Peterson's removal. Although it is difficult for her to compare faculty politics on our campus with that at other universities, she believes that the Academic Senate played a more significant role on our campus than on others. When Carl McIntosh became president in 1959, the organizational structure of the campus was being changed. In 1959, the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation was organized into 2 departments, Men's Physical Education and Women's Physical Education. In the early 1960s, the physical education departments joined the School of Applied Arts and Sciences. Deatherage participated in meetings to plan the reorganization and there were discussions about whether or not to merge the men's and women's departments. The two departments were consolidated in 1978. (43:37-46:16)... When the Physical Education program was reorganized and joined the School of Applied Arts and Sciences, most faculty believed it was a positive change. One advantage of reorganization was equal status with other departments and equal representation in the President's Advisory Council. In terms of budgeting, there was no more squabbling over funding at the division level; budget decisions were made at the School level. Although the reasons for keeping the men's and women's physical education departments separate were persuasive, Deatherage believed, at the time of the interview, that one department was a better model. End of tape *** File: uhddeatherage3.mp3 (0:00-5:53)... Brief introduction. Interview begins abruptly with a continued discussion on campus reorganization. Under the Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation, it was important to have separate men's and women's physical education departments because of the difficulty of sharing facilities and equipment. There was a strong feeling of unity in the Women's Physical Education Department and a commitment to creating a good program for the students. When the idea of merging the departments came up, women were opposed because they did not want to lose representation or funds for their program. Faculty in the women's department met frequently and discussed departmental matters while faculty in the men's met and conferred less frequently. Even though some faculty members argued against integration, the Dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences wanted to follow the trend on most other campuses and merge the departments. When the departments merged, the faculty made the best of the situation. (5:53-12:20)... When Steve Horn became president after Carl McIntosh, Deatherage was Chair of the Women's Physical Education Department. She worked closely with Horn on issues related Title IX and the budget. Many in the administration believed that unless Men's and Women's Physical Education Departments and sports programs joined together, it would be difficult to get funding for any of them. After a year of negotiating, it was decided that women's intercollegiate sports would join the men's program and form the Department of Sports, Athletics, and Recreation. Horn helped facilitate a smooth transition. (12:20-14:38)... When the Women's Studies Department was proposed, she had mixed emotions about the idea. Although she supported women participating in college life, she was afraid that a concentration in this area would not provide an academic background useful in the job market. This had the same concern when the Black Studies Department and other ethnic studies programs were organized. (14:38-19:09)... Outside of her academic career, she was also, at the time of the interview, active in various community and professional organizations including the Soroptmist International. She was also a member of the First Congregational Church in Long Beach where her main objective was encouraging young people to participate in the church. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Dorothy Deatherage participated in organizing the campus physical education and sports programs. She was involved in the decision to consolidate the men's and women's programs and implement Title IX reforms. In this single interview, Deatherage talks about growing up and going to school in Long Beach before going away to college. Her father was a prominent attorney. She returned to teach in Long Beach public schools before accepting a position at Long Beach State College in 1955. While she was teaching, she earned her Ph.D. from USC. Along with curriculum development, Deatherage was involved in developing campus sports facilities and programs, and was active in local community organizations. This interview was part of a project to document the history of California State University, Long Beach. TOPICS - family background; education; Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation; Women's Physical Education Department; women's sports; Pat Reid; teaching; P; Victor Peterson; governance politics; Corinne Crogen; campus development; physical education facilities; curriculum; and intramural and extramural sports programs;intramural and extramural sports programs; women's sports; gender issues; P; Victor Peterson; Carl McIntosh; Stephen Horn; Division of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation; Women's Department of Physical Education; "play days;" women's intercollegiate and coeducational sports; Pat Reid; governance politics; and campus buildings; School of Applied Arts and Sciences; gender issues; consolidation of men's and women's physical education departments; Title IX; Stephen Horn; Women's Studies and ethnic studies; and community activities;
- Rights Note
- This repository item may be used for classroom presentations, unpublished papers, and other educational, research, or scholarly use. Other uses, especially publication in any form, such as in dissertations, theses, articles, or web pages are not permitted without the express written permission of the individual collection's copyright holder(s). Please contact the CSULB Library Administration should you require permission to publish or distribute any content from this collection or if you need additional information or assistance in using these materials: https://www.csulb.edu/university-library/form/questionssuggestions-the-digital-repository-group
Items
| Thumbnail | File information | Actions |
|---|---|---|
|
9308348585614958-uhddeatherage1.mp3 Public
|
Download |
|
|
0273969449280224-uhddeatherage2.mp3 Public
|
Download |
|
9711099355278238-uhddeatherage3.mp3 Public
|
Download |