DARE TO COMPETE: THE STRUGGLE OF WOMEN IN SPORTS (TV)
Summary
This "Sports of the 20th Century" HBO documentary is about the obstacles women have faced in their struggle toward attaining a significant place in the sporting world. It opens with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton discussing her own history as a woman playing sports. The program then details the Victorian rules of 19th century American society which prevented women from participating in such activities as bicycle-riding, carriage-pushing and, of course, exercise. Then, the program focuses on the first women's college baseball team, the Vassar Resolutes, as well as the early days and odd rules of women's basketball. Women's "play days" -- a time set aside for girls to play sports with other girls -- is also examined. Next, the program details the world's first female sports superstar, tennis player Suzanne Lenglen. Another early female sports superstar discussed is Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
Then, the program addresses how female track and field events were finally allowed into the 1928 Olympic Games after years of being banned due to their less than "ladylike" nature -- and how erroneous coverage of the 800-meter event at that year's games set back women's sports for decades. Next, the program looks at the first female Olympic star, Babe Didrikson Zaharias. It examines the many sports that "the Babe" excelled at and how her eventual dominance of women's golf led to the rise in prominence of the L.P.G.A. tour. Also examined is how Zaharias's sexuality was questioned as she became a greater athlete, as well as why she may be the greatest female athlete of all time. Next, the program examines "glamorous" sporting women, those that combined sporting achievement with femininity, such as: swimmer Annette Kellerman; tennis player Helen Wills; swimmer Esther Williams; and figure skater Sonja Henie. Then, the program looks at "bloomer girl" baseball teams, as well as women used as publicity stunts on men's teams. Next, the program discusses Philip Wrigley's All-American Girls Baseball League, glorified in the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own," as well as female baseball player, Toni Stone, second baseman for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues.
Other females "stunt" athletes detailed include wrestler Mildred Burke and roller derby girl Joan Weston. Next, the program shows how "powerful" Russian women dominated the 1952 Olympics, changing the sporting landscape. African-American women eventually stepped up to challenge them. The program examines the significance of the black, female athlete, heralded early on by the Tennessee State Tigerbelles track team and led by the legendary Wilma Rudolph. Next, the program looks at the importance of the Amateur Athletic Union (A.A.U.) to women's athletics, focusing on the Wayland Baptist College Flying Queens basketball team's dominance in the 1950s and early-1960s. This leads into the liberal-thinking late-1960s and1970s and the changing times when women finally began to attempt to run marathons. Bobbi Gibb and Syracuse University cross-country runner Kathrine Switzer are profiled as the first women to "run" the Boston Marathon. Next, the program examines legendary tennis star and feminist activist Billie Jean King, who fought against inequality amongst the genders, culminating in her famous 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" match against Bobby Riggs. Next, the program details Congress's 1972 passing of the Title IX law, which paved the way for gender equality in high school and college sports as women finally began to receive scholarships for college athletics.
Next, the program examines the press-generated tennis rivalry between the conventionally pretty Chris Evert and the less-feminine Martina Navratilova, who -- as a lesbian -- would take issue with those who badgered her about her sexuality. The program also discusses how the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics saw the marathon finally made an official event for women, won by Joan Benoit. That leads to a discussion of the dominance American women would show in team sports at the 1996 and 1998 Olympics, as well as the creation of women's professional basketball leagues in America and countless endorsement opportunities for women athletes. Those interviewed include: historian Christine Lunardini; Donna Lopiano, executive director, Women's Sports Foundation; Gai Ingham Berlage, women's baseball historian; Patsy Neal, women's basketball historian; former tennis professional Mary Carillo; sports historian Lynne Emery; Anita DeFrantz, vice president of the International Olympic Committee; Babe Didrikson biographer Nancy Williamson; 1932 Olympic gold medalist Eleanor Holm-Whelan; former New York Bloomer Girl Billie Taylor Rota; female baseball player Gig Smith; former Indianapolis Clowns Hank Aaron and Mamie "Peanut" Johnson Goodman; Christine Grant, University of Iowa women's athletic director; Tennessee State Tigerbelles track coach Ed Temple; Carole Oglesby, former president, Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women; two-time Olympic gold medalist Donna de Varona; Betty Friedan, National Organization for Women founder; Title IX lawyer Margot Polivy; University of Tennessee women's head basketball coach Pat Summitt; and women's professional basketball player Lynette Woodard.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: March 8, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:21:22
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:61419
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries; Sports
- SUBJECT HEADING: She Made It Collection (Mary Carillo); Sports; African-American Collection - Sports; Women's Collection - Sports
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1999
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ross Greenburg … Executive Producer
- Kendall Bridges Reid … Senior Producer
- Julie Anderson … Co-Producer
- Melanie Williams … Associate Producer
- Mary Carillo … Writer
- Frank Deford … Writer
- Brian Keane … Music by
- Lauren Hutton … Narrator
- Maya Angelou … Narrator
- Hank Aaron
- Joan Benoit
- Gai Ingham Berlage
- Mildred Burke
- Mary Carillo
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Anita DeFrantz
- Donna de Varona
- Gertrude Ederle
- Lynne Emery
- Chris Evert
- Betty Friedan
- Bobbi Gibb
- Goodman, Mamie "Peanut" Johnson
- Christine Grant
- Sonja Henie
- Eleanor Holm-Whelan
- Annette Kellerman
- Billie Jean King
- Suzanne Lenglen
- Donna Lopiano
- Christine Lunardini
- Martina Navratilova
- Patsy Neal
- Carole Oglesby
- Margot Polivy
- Bobby Riggs
- Billie Taylor Rota
- Wilma Rudolph
- Gig Smith
- Toni Stone
- Pat Summitt
- Kathrine Switzer
- Ed Temple
- Joan Weston
- Esther Williams
- Nancy Williamson
- Helen Wills
- Lynette Woodard
- Philip Wrigley
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias