Rita Rislund helped lay the foundation for women’s competitive sports in high school and college – Detroit Lakes Tribune

PERHAM — Fifty-one years ago, school districts were forced to treat girls and boys equally with Title IX proclamations. Even before the federal government intervened, women like two-time Hall of Famer Rita Rislund were already paving the way for equality in competitive sports.

The Detroit Lakes resident introduced competitive sports for girls to several schools in the area, coaching, officiating, and teaching. During her career in education, Rislund was a founding member of Women in Sports Leadership and served as a representative for the Minnesota High School League (MSHSL). She was inducted into the MSHSL Hall of Fame twice, once as an athletic director and once as an administrator.

Risland spent his childhood in the 1950s. Her mother cared for a family that included 10 children, one of whom died in infancy. Her father supported his family by working as a professional finish carpenter in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

“I was the second to youngest child,” Rislund said, noting that her three older siblings joined the military in 1951, when she was in first grade. “Then they (the siblings) drifted apart, just like adults.”

Lisland spent her summers playing at Little Floyd Lake with children visiting nearby resorts. When school was out, she walked about half a mile to her one-room country school until she reached middle school. At that point, Rislund was enrolled in a city school.

“I’m not a very social person, and I was very introverted in middle school and high school,” she says, adding that the whole atmosphere of city schools, from the long bus rides to the busy halls and multiple classrooms, appealed to her. He said it was scary.

Although Ms. Rislund received a good education in Detroit Lake, she said career opportunities for girls growing up in the 1950s were limited to secretaries, nurses, and teachers. And I didn’t have a chance in track and field.

“Girls were considered too feminine to play sports,” Rislund says. “But PE was fun because I had the opportunity to play within the scope of PE.”

Rislund watched boys play sports and wondered why girls weren’t given the same opportunities to learn about teamwork, dedication and the skill sets each sport offers.

“All the boys could compete and all the girls had was cheerleading, so it felt like there was very little variety,” she said.

Rislund decided to become a teacher in the future, but decided to focus on physical education in order to continue her track and field career. After graduating from Detroit Lakes High School in 1962, Rislund enrolled at Moorhead State University.

“We had some very visionary and proactive women on our faculty,” Rislund said, adding that she and her friends were among the many people involved in starting a women’s competitive sports league at the university. He added that he received support. “Nobody had a program (for competitive women’s sports), but because our instructors talked to other instructors and the university’s recreation association, we were able to move it forward. Ta.”

The conference quickly grew to include participating universities from Valley City, North Dakota, to Bemidji, Minnesota, and from Mankato, Minnesota to Moorhead, Minnesota. Rislund said there were a total of eight colleges in the women’s conference that competed in volleyball, basketball and track and field.

“We didn’t play a long season, but we started 10 years before Title IX,” she said. “People coming out of high school wanted to go to one of those colleges because they had the opportunity to compete. They didn’t have that yet in high school.”

While it was easy to find referees for youth sports, volleyball didn’t have that option. Rislund and several other female players answered that by becoming nationally certified as volleyball referees.

As Rislund enters her final year of university, she had to complete a student teaching assignment. She was sent to Fargo North High School in 1968. As a teacher intern, she began her career giving girls the same sporting opportunities as boys.

“Trucks are my first love,” Rislund said. “I asked if we could start a track and field program (for Fargo North girls). They said yes, but we don’t have the money to buy uniforms or anything like that.”

At that time, earning dues, or fundraising, was part of women’s sports. Rislund said discussions with the men’s track and field coach gave him access to most of the equipment needed for the sport. When the team started, there were over 25 girls on the roster.

“And we didn’t have uniforms, so we wore Fargo North Pep Club shirts,” she recalled. “Those were our uniforms. We grew our team and had a great spring. We had some kids qualify for the state tournament in North Dakota.”

Rislund graduated from Moorhead State University and completed mandatory student teaching at Fargo North before taking a job with the Princeton School District. Princeton, Minnesota is a small community located approximately 30 minutes east of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

“It’s the only school I’ve taught at in my entire teaching career,” she said, noting that she worked for the district for a total of 34 years.

Like her alma mater, Princeton had no athletic program for female students at the time Rislund arrived. But things changed shortly after she pitched the idea of ​​a round-robin competitive basketball conference to school administrators. She quickly found support. Once word got out, several schools in the area filled their rosters with girls eager to play the sport. Soon after, the conference also offered volleyball and track and field for girls.

“All kinds of kids wanted to be on the team,” she said, noting that sports brought rural kids and city kids together on the same team. “Then we started having cheerleaders come in who were actually athletes from the school.”

Still, there was no money. But Rislund and other program leaders took full advantage of what they had. For example, the girls didn’t have official jerseys, but they made one using tape to add numbers to their gym uniforms.

Rislund left after breaking new ground in high school girls sports. The program was gaining momentum and she was confident it would continue in her absence. Rislund said she and her husband, Larry, decided it was the right time to start a family and wanted to stay at home with their children until they were school-age.

During her nearly seven-year hiatus, Title IX was passed in 1972. Fifty-two years ago, equality for women in public schools was achieved. In terms of sports, this meant that women could participate in the same number of track and field events as men and that their programs would be fully funded.

When Rislund returned to teaching, she noticed how advanced the skills of female athletes were. While Title IX was in place, she didn’t rest on her laurels. Instead, Rislund continued to break down barriers representing women at the forefront of her career.

Rislund recalled that during her career, most of her coaches were men and her athletic directors were also men. She decided to work steadily toward the athletic director position, and when the position became available, she applied.

“I found a lot of support,” she said. “When I became athletic director (in 1992), there were maybe 25 (women with that title) in Minnesota. Today, there are well over 100 female athletic directors.”

Rislund retired from Princeton University but continues to serve as a substitute teacher in the Lake Park Audubon School District. She also continues to referee volleyball and track and field.