Karen (Blair) Troianello
In 1979, standout 800-meter runner Karen (Blair) Troianello joined a group of women student-athletes and coaches in a lawsuit against Washington State University (WSU), suing over inadequate funding and support for women’s athletics under Washington’s Equal Rights Amendment. By the luck of the alphabet, she ended up being named the plaintiff. Blair vs. Washington State University went to the state Supreme Court, which—in 1987—ruled in favor of Blair, changing college athletics in the state of Washington and nationally.
“I didn't do it because it was political. I did it because it was, you know it was in my bones, I mean. I really was somebody who just had to be out there doing something and I could run down the road,” said Troianello, “If you look at it in hindsight there's always some amount of making a political statement. I didn't do it to make a statement, but I was making a statement.”
Her relationship with running started early with beating boys in races around the field at recess. Her freshman year of high school, Title IX was enacted. At the time, she didn’t notice a big shift.
“My freshman year was the first year we had a coach, Leslie Stockton, who was actually a girl's coach, and previously the team had been coached by the wrestling coach. She was a great coach. She'd run in college. She just knew stuff,” said Troianello, “God, I loved it! That's the thing. I just loved it, you know.”
She started as a sprinter but eventually worked her way up to being a 400-meter runner in high school and making it to the Washington high school state track and field meet all four years. She received one recruitment letter from Seattle University but could not afford it.
“I went off to WSU, thinking: Well, this will be interesting because I won't be Karen Blair, the runner, which is what I was in high school” she said.
She found a sign-up sheet on a bulletin board her first semester and signed up for WSU’s Track and Field team. Soon, she was part of a small team of women athletes competing for WSU. “We were solid; you know we weren't outstanding, but we were solid,” she said, “We actually had a little group, starting sophomore year, we called ourselves the hard-work runners, and we'd go out and run in the morning.”
Two of the hard-work runners, Kathy and Jean Peckham, came back from a summer cross-country camp and soon they started an unofficial cross-country team. After a year of competing, the team was officially added to WSU athletics. There were other differences besides competing in cross country from high school to university; practices were harder and weight training was added to their routine.
WSU track team
Troianello moved up to racing the 800 meters, setting the school record in 1979 at regionals in Eugene, Oregon. She barely made the finals of regionals after falling in the semi-finals and sprinting for the last spot. “We cut in, I always say I’m so polite that three of us tried to put our foot down in the same spot, and I said, Oh, well, I better not put my foot down, and I didn't, and I fell, and I hit the side of it (the railing). I jumped up and thought, ‘My God!’ she said. “It was like the weirdest experience. I've never fallen down in a race in my life.”
Her time at regionals qualified for the AIAW Track and Field Nationals in Lansing, Michigan. She traveled with her teammate, Jean Eggart. Hotel accommodations were lacking but having the experience of competing against the best in the country was worth it. She did not make it past the semifinals. “I wish I represented WSU better at the time. I ran pretty respectable” she said.
It was not just hotel or travel where she started to notice the inequalities. “I think that from the beginning you knew that there was a difference. John Chaplin was able to recruit from all over the world (for the men’s team). We were pretty local,” she said.
A letter-writing campaign began to get the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) to notice the inequalities between the men’s and women’s athletics that soon turned to a decision to sue WSU. There was little hesitation to join the lawsuit. Soon, the lawsuit became a part of her life her senior year between running, classes, and meetings. “In some ways it was not a big thing. It was a big thing, but it was a part, it was just one of the things that was going on in my life,” she said.
Jean Eggart and Blair
The initial ruling was issued in 1982. It declared that discrimination at WSU had continued “an unreasonable length of time” and that money be allocated equally for men’s and women’s athletics commensurate with the proportion of female undergraduate students. But it excluded football from the tally to determine scholarships and funding. The group of women athletes and coaches decided to go for more and have football included in the tally and appealed to the Supreme Court of Washington.
In August 1987, the state Supreme Court ruled that football had to be included in the financial calculations. Troianello was working as a reporter for the Yakima Herald and came back to a note on her desk that said her friend had called and that they had won. “I still was very happy and thankful that they did see it our way,” she said.
At the time, she did not realize how historic it was. “In my early twenties I don't know if I had a sense of the scope. And as the years went on, you know, and I'd be at some event or another with somebody, I think well, I guess it really was something” she further explains “I don't think I had the ability to see as far beyond, and that's one nice thing about getting older is that you do see the arc of things and I know what's changed.”
Note about the author: Cara Hawkins-Jedlicka is a longtime supporter of women’s running and is part of the leadership team for Starting Line 1928. She is currently an assistant scholarly professor at Washington State University in the Murrow College of Communication. You can follow her (for now) on Twitter @carabyrd.
