Celebrating Women's History Month: Q&A with Kathy Taft

Kathy Taft was a member of the Anteaters' women's basketball team in the 1970s. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UC Irvine and spent most of her professional career working in the UCI School of Medicine.

As a student-athlete, Kathy saw a big difference from her freshman to sophomore season after the passage of Title IX. The team got uniforms, shoes and more games added to their schedule which included travel. Kathy, who comes back to one or two games a year, recently took some time to talk about her experience, the direct impact she saw from Title IX and the progress that still needs to be made in the latest edition of UC Irvine Athletics’ Q&A series. 

Without much opportunity for girls and women in sports growing up, when did you start playing basketball?
I started playing probably when I was in fourth grade. I played in grade school and high school, and I loved it. There was no doubt about it. It was all that mattered. During high school my parents started saying I needed to stop spending so much time practicing. "You can’t do that; you’re not going to be able to make a living playing basketball." Now I understand why they felt that way, but it was so frustrating then.

What brought you to UC Irvine?
I knew I wanted to go to a UC. UC Irvine was relatively new when I was here. We lived in Santa Ana so it was an easy commute and the tuition, because it was pretty much state-funded, was relatively inexpensive. I was also working so I needed to be able to commute back-and-forth. AND, I could play basketball.

What are some of your fondest memories from your playing days at UC Irvine?
I would say the first year we made it to the AIAW Tournament. That whole year felt so much more like "college ball."  And although they cleaned our clock, we played against UCLA when Ann Meyers was there. It meant I was getting to play at the college level against some really, really good players. And it also happened to be my 21st birthday. Just to even be there, playing at UCLA was amazing because we were "just" UC Irvine, a small little new school. 

What were some of the impacts you saw directly from the passage of Title IX?
I was a freshman, and our coach was  Doreen Irish, who was the tennis coach. I remember thinking this isn’t fair; to us or to her. She did her best to make it a good experience, but I came to play college basketball, not tennis. Then Title IX passed and the next year Dorene Cowart was hired and there was a marked difference. She had a degree in Athletics, played basketball at the college level, and the UC actually paid her a full salary. It literally changed overnight. I learned so much more about the game. We got shoes, we got uniforms and we got to play a lot more games. We started traveling which was so nice. We’d play a game and go to dinner together which we didn’t get to do before. Now we felt more like a team and more like it mattered. I remember thinking women's sports was finally coming along and wondering what it would be like in 20 years. 

Over the years, participation and coverage of women’s sports has grown but where do you feel we still need to make the most progress?
When Title IX first passed, there was a real sense of "let’s make this happen, let’s make this good." But at the same time it was only coming from all the people already involved. It didn’t seem that folks outside women's sports were taking it too seriously.

We had money thrown at us - we got the shoes and uniforms - but the things not so visible didn’t change. For example, back then we didn’t have a second facility. The Bren Events Center didn’t exist and because the one gym was reserved by men’s basketball, JV basketball, volleyball and even the local high school that needed a place to practice, we were last on the list. Our 5 a.m. practice time didn’t change. So, the changes were slow in coming and although I thought we were on the right track, it’s now 50 years later and there still aren’t really enough places for women’s basketball players to make a good living. Yes, there are more places for them to play, coach and get jobs, but not like it should be; not like I thought it would be by now. I watch players at UCI who are really good and I think about how their last game is going to be so sad because there’s nowhere else to go. To be honest, I actually feel like men coaching women’s basketball are taking some of the precious, few opportunities for women. I just don’t think we have come far enough in 50 years. And we certainly could use much more TV coverage.

What was your career path after graduating from UC Irvine?
I earned a B.S. in Social Sciences and a Masters in Higher Education and Business from UC Irvine. I had been working almost seven years as a student programmer to pay for school. I was working in the registrar’s office when a job came up in the School of Medicine, which was brand new, and had no computers for administration at the time. I spent 17 years there and ended up as the Director of Information Systems. I was recruited away to a small startup in Healthcare and after 10 years in the private industry, I returned to UCI Health Sciences as the Director of Decision Support. I was able to take that computing passion, which turned out to be equally as important to me as basketball, and follow a great career path. Seven years later, I retired from UCI.

Do you stay connected with the UC Irvine women’s basketball program?
We live in South County and travel quite a bit so we’re not home enough to get more involved. However, friends visit from Cincinnati every year and we always try to see a game or two. It’s always a treat for us to sit courtside. And truth be told, for me it’s a little sad to watch because it reminds me how much I loved playing. I didn’t get to continue basketball for as long as I wanted to. Having said that, if I really had been born 10 years later, I probably would have never gotten the chance to play at all.  Five-foot-one doesn’t really work in today's game. I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to play that I did.