A group of physical education majors went to the Wichita State bookstore in the fall of 1969 to buy uniform shirts for the volleyball team.
 
Also for basketball, field hockey and softball. Same shirt. A shirt for all seasons. 
 
"We couldn't afford to do anything else," said Janet Hoskins. 
 
Memories differ as to whether the students ironed on the numbers themselves or if the Campus Activities Center bookstore employees did it. Alana Pharis still has her uniform (No. 27) from that ground-breaking season and there is no doubt that gold shirt with "WSU" emblazoned on it demonstrates the journey of women's athletics.
 
"We had to buy our own shorts and shoes," Pharis said. "We had a great time because we just played for fun. No pressure. No weight program. We just got to play."
 
While Wichita State dabbled in women's athletics in previous years, the programs didn't take on institutional permanence until the fall of 1969. Physical education professors Natasha Fife, Sue Bair and Yvonne Slingerland started the programs and coached, while continuing to teach. Most of that group of PE majors played on all the teams, no experience necessary.
 
"They just came up to the PE majors room and said 'Anyone want to play volleyball?'" Pharis said. "We all said yes."
 
That first volleyball team will be recognized at tonight's Wichita State volleyball match against SMU (7 p.m.) as part of the university's celebration of the 50^thseason of women's intercollegiate athletics.
 
The 1969 volleyball team played sets to 15 points in the side-out era. Fife coached. Pharis and Debbie Jones played setter. 
 
"The rest of us were considered spikers," said Marcia Alterman. "We didn't have any clue about running anything in the middle (for attacks)."
 
The schedule consisted of games against schools such as Emporia State, Washburn, Marymount, Southwestern, Kansas and Kansas State. Schools generally met at one site on a Saturday and played several matches. Wichita State's records don't exist from those early seasons. They start in 1974 when the university hired Fife as women's athletic director and joined the AIAW. 
 
"None of us got scholarships back then," Beverly Funk said. "That was unheard of. You loved the game."
 
The team played and practiced in Henrion Gymnasium. Some, such as Alterman, had no volleyball experience. 
 
They drove to matches in cars and paid for their own meals. The members of the team remember little about wins and losses, mostly that they often won against smaller schools and looked forward to matches against Kansas and Kansas State.
 
"We played anybody," Alterman said. "Eight women in a station wagon. Coaches made up the schedule on the fly."
 
They consider themselves pioneers for women's athletics, especially when they see how far sports have come. Full scholarships. TV. Far-flung conferences with air travel. Plenty of uniforms and highly paid coaches.
 
The members of Wichita State's first teams hope the current generation doesn't take things for granted. Some of them have spoken to current women's teams and they ask them to appreciate the current state of women's athletics.
 
"It was not a job for us," Hoskins said. "It becomes a job. And the kids don't enjoy it. We were at Wichita State to get an education, not necessarily to play athletics. That was icing on the cake."
 
The women remember their circumstances slowly changing with the adoption of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding, in 1972. 
 
Requests to practice at Levitt Arena were rebuffed. Most important, Alterman remembers, no one was willing to put holes in the basketball court for the volleyball nets. After Title IX, she said the university began supplying meal money and she remembers getting an envelope with six quarters in it for one allowance. 
 
"We constantly fought for things," Alterman said. "It was very difficult for people to wrap their heads around equality at that time. Socially, it was just a new concept that women's athletics should be supported and funded."
 
Wichita State's first steps into volleyball started Alterman on the way to her career. She took an officiating class at Wichita State and after graduation started officiating in high schools and progressed to NCAA Division I matches. She is coordinator of officials for six NCAA Division I conferences, including the American Athletic Conference and the Big 10.
 
Many of the women live in the Wichita area and they consider themselves close, often meeting for lunch or golf. 
 
"It was absolutely a bonding experience," she said. "You played in bad gyms, bad situations. You weren't supported. You relied on each other to make it fun."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.