CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Fifty years after Dr. Elinor Crawford blew her whistle to begin the first practice of the UNI Intercollegiate Women's Athletics Program, nearly 200 female student-athletes gathered to learn from pioneers of that era.
UNI's female student-athletes kicked off a year-long celebration on the very same day Panther women were allowed to form and compete in field hockey, which started practice Sept. 10, 1968.
A group of seven women returned to UNI to with stories of struggle and inequality and also of friendships and triumphs.
"There's a lot that has happened before you came to UNI that set the stage and set the foundation to give you an opportunity," David Harris, UNI's director of athletics, told UNI's female student-athletes.