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Michigan's Most Vital Prep Sports Moment
April 30, 2018
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Did you ever hear the one about an Ypsilanti lawyer, two girls from Ann Arbor – one 18 and one 17 – and a judge from Detroit?
I didn’t think so.
Well, pull up a chair. You might never look at a tennis ball, a pair of track cleats, or a softball in the same manner after this one.
Now this story goes back a bit. We’re talking 45, um, make that 46 years ago. It was handed down to me, so now I’m handing it down to you.
The girls, Cindy and Emily, had met at a tennis club when they were 11 or 12. Both were pretty good players who had done well at tennis tournaments before heading off to Huron High School. But there was concern that the girls wouldn’t have the chance to play truly competitive tennis while in high school. You see, like most public schools of the time, Huron had only one varsity tennis team, and that was filled with boys.
Contact was made with a friend and fellow tennis player to help guide things along when it came time to talk to the school board about the girls joining that team.
The conversation between that tennis friend – Larry the Lawyer – and the school board went pretty well. The board decided to let the girls play on the boys tennis team provided they could pass the tryouts. Well, as you’ve probably surmised, the girls did all right. With the blessing of Coach Jerry, it was decided Cindy and Emily would play No. 2 doubles for the River Rats.
But as we all know, such decisions aren’t always met with cupcakes being served and happiness. People don’t always like change.
And that was pretty much the case here.
State officials didn’t much care for the idea. You see, when it came to interscholastic athletics, according to state rules established in 1967, girls couldn’t play on boys teams. Still, the Huron tennis team made the 60-mile trip up to Lansing on a Wednesday in April for a match with Lansing Harry Hill High School. Coach Jerry met with Hill’s coach, they shook hands, then Coach Jerry turned in his line-up card, to make things orderly and official.
Since there were girls names on the lineup card, not a single ball was served that day. Folks figured this was going to be the case. So the players and the bus turned around and headed back to Ann Arbor. Hill claimed a forfeited match because of that rule.
That set wheels in motion. Larry the Lawyer declared that this was a clear case of discrimination and a violation of Cindy and Emily’s right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment. With that, a lawsuit quickly was filed.
Now, they say that this was one of the first, if not the first lawsuits about such things. And you must remember this all happened back in early 1972, before the arrival of Title IX.
Turns out, Larry and the girls won their case. In Federal District Court, Judge Keith listened to what was said and issued a preliminary injunction allowing the girls to play. A little later in the week, Emily and Cindy won their first varsity doubles match hosted in Battle Creek, much to the dismay of their male opponents.
The next month, the Michigan Legislature adopted a bill allowing girls to compete on male teams, but only in non-contact sports. In late May, the doubles team of Emily and Cindy defeated a doubles team from Harry Hill, 6-3, 6-1.
Of course, as with many of these rulings, there was an appeal. And, as these things usually do, it took a while to move this along. But come January 1973, the U.S. Circuit Court down in Cincinnati agreed with Judge Keith and upheld the preliminary injunction. They, too, thought that girls should be able to participate in varsity interscholastic sports. The Circuit Court did narrow Judge Keith’s decision a bit, inserting the word “NON-CONTACT” into the ruling. Suddenly, it was officially OK for girls to play alongside the boys in sports like tennis, swimming, archery, golf, bowling, fencing, badminton, gymnastics, skiing, and track and field.
Now just because there’s a law, it doesn’t mean everyone’s abiding by it. It would take several more years and the threat or the filing of additional lawsuits against school districts and organizations to truly see things change.
Today, we don’t think twice when we take a seat at a girls softball game, track meet or tennis match. But a short time ago, such things simply did not exist for our daughters. The actions of two girls from Ann Arbor, an Ypsilanti lawyer and a judge from Detroit altered the athletic world – for the better.
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Judge Damon Keith had been appointed to the bench of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in 1967. It was some four and a half years later that the Morris-Barrett complaint landed on his docket. A graduate of Detroit Northwestern High School, he is the father of three daughters. Keith would later be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. In 1995, he became the Senior Judge of that court. His amazing story was later told in a documentary “Walk With Me: The Trials of Damon J. Keith.”
According to media reports, Coach Jerry Shull had been trying to get girls eligible for the previous two seasons, but felt the ultimate solution was to have high schools around the state form all-girls varsity teams. He again served as varsity tennis coach in 1973 (of a team that featured 10 females) before stepping aside in 1974.
Emily Barrett was a multi-sport athlete at Huron High School, competing with the Girls Athletic Club in swimming, field hockey and volleyball as well as tennis during this era of transition. During her senior year, the courts finalized their decision and she again played tennis for Huron. She’d move on to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, after graduation, where she played tennis and field hockey.
A year older than Barrett, Cindy Morris had graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School by the time the case was finalized. She headed off to the University of Michigan and then transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she played No 1. singles and doubles and twice participated in the National Collegiate Women’s Tournament. She later earned her Master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. As Cindy Morris, a sports journalist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, she recalled the words of Judge Keith for an article she was writing in late summer of 1978.
“Indeed, no male could have matched (the) soprano cries of joy when Judge Keith said, yes, go out and run and play and win and lose and laugh and cry and feel that special pride of playing for your school that boys in Michigan have always felt but you haven’t.”
The article was about a lawsuit originating in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where a girl was fighting to be allowed to compete in contact sports against boys.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) The first high school match in 1972 for Ann Arbor Huron's Emily Barrett, left, and Cindy Morris was reported on for the Battle Creek Enquirer. (Top middle) The 1972 Ann Arbor Huron varsity tennis team, including Morris and Barrett. (Middle) The Ann Arbor Huron lineup card shows Barrett and Morris' names for a match against Lansing Harry Hill that was not played. (Below) A Lansing State Journal clipping tells of Hill electing to not play the match.
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PH Northern Hits Winning Number
June 1, 2013
By Scott Keyes
Special for Second Half
MIDLAND – For the Port Huron Northern girls tennis team, winning the Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship at the Midland Community Tennis Center was all about redemption.
Last year, the Huskies tied Clarkston for second place with 25 points as Grosse Pointe South walked away with the title after tallying one more.
Northern came into the tournament believing that this year's magic number was 24.
"I knew if we hit the 24-point mark we would have a shot at winning the state championship," said Northern coach Char Sweeney.
Little did Sweeney know before the tournament got underway Friday that 24 would be the winning number and that her team would be on the winning end of things after the final matches were over Saturday afternoon.
Northern scored 24 points to top Farmington Hills Mercy, which finished second with 22. Grosse Pointe South and Clarkston tied for third with 20. Rounding out the top five was Northville with 14 points.
"We came so close to winning the whole thing a year ago, and we were a determined group coming into the season," Sweeney said. "I would have loved to have won a state championship last season and shared the experience with my older daughter, but to be able to share this with my daughter (Allie) this year along with the rest of the team is pretty special."
The win capped Northern's first championship run since 2002.
Farmington Hills Mercy coach Joe Stafford was all smiles after his team's second-place finish.
"This was probably our highest finish in the last 15 years," Stafford said. "I told the girls even before the tournament started that we play together. We win together. We lose together. Whatever happens after that is up to us. The girls rose to the challenge in the tournament and played their hearts out. I couldn't be prouder of what they accomplished here today."
With five freshmen, three sophomores and only two seniors, Stafford's team should contend for the top spot in the tournament for years to come.
Meanwhile, it was Northern that walked away with a Finals championship, also with a young team that will continue to surge in coming seasons.
Northern won two individual flight titles against Clarkston as Lizzie Brozovich defeated top-seeded Isabella Spindler, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 2 singles, and Fran Basha and Alexis Wirtz defeated top-seeded Paige Olsen and Alex Whall, 6-1, 6-0, in No. 1 doubles.
Brozovich was the only singles winner that wasn't a No. 1 seed in her flight. Mary Hanna of Saline won at No. 1 singles; at No. 3 singles Dana Olsen (Clarkston) defeated Maggie Sweeney (Grosse Pointe South) 6-0, 6-4, and at No. 4 singles Madie Flournoy upended Jessie Guindi, 6-3, 0-6 and 6-2.
Brozovich's win was a game-changer for the Huskies.
"When Lizzie won we knew we could have a shot at winning the whole thing," Sweeney said. "Lizzie was so close to winning a year ago, she came into the tournament knowing what to expect this year. She was so poised an in control.
“This isn't a three-month passion for them. It's a year's worth of hard work and sacrifice. It's a long process to be able to accomplish what the girls did today."
In other doubles matches, Mercy's Anna Hinrichs and Mackenzie Zierau defeated Northern's Jenna Brettschneider and Maddie Neaton, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, at No. 2; Evie VanDewege and Alyssa Roopas of Ann Arbor Pioneer handed Northern's Amy Tseng and Maggie Bacheller their first loss of the season, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, at No. 3; and Northville's Shannon Williams and Libby Quinn bested Mercy's Julie Flanagan and Sarah Hinrichs, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 4.
The No. 2 doubles match lasted more than three hours. Tseng and Bacheller already knew the team had locked up the title after the second set, but still would have liked to have won an individual championship.
"That was by far the longest match we have been in all season," Tseng said. "We would have liked to have won a state championship, but we did it as a team and I couldn't be prouder of what we were able to accomplish as a group."
PHOTO: Port Huron Northern’s Amy Tseng and Maggie Bacheller play a No. 3 doubles match; they finished runners-up in their flight. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)