The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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During the 1964-65 academic year, Diane Ramsey, a Raleigh native who was an early member of NC State's all-fe- male cheer team, was invited to join the all-male fencing squad. Ramsey had shown an aptitude for fencing during an introductory physical education course taught by the team's coach, Ron Weaver, an accomplished international competitor from Ohio who wanted to grow the sport in the South and used his teaching position at NC State to promote it. Ramsey won both local and state competitions in her first year, compet- ing in a sport that was not sponsored by the ACC. In the fall of 1965, both Alma Wil- liams of Covington, Va., and Pam Lias of High Point, N.C., earned spots on the Wolfpack rifle team, turning the squad into a co-educational varsity sport that was also not sponsored by the ACC. It remains that way today. By 1967, NC State had female ath- letes training in three sports. Karen Costarisan and Cathey Jehle joined t h e fe n c i n g sq u a d , a n d n a t i o n a l ly recognized swimmer Susie Resseguie trained with — but could not compete for — coach Willis Casey's champi- onship swimming program. They were all featured in a local newspa- per story. "Coaches are calling it a useful proj- ect," wrote the Raleigh News & Ob- server, " because, for one thing, 'it makes the boys try harder.'" Ramsey, now 77 and retired in An- napolis, Md., fondly recalls her time as NC State's first female athlete. "I knew some of the men on the team from high school," Ramsey said. "We trained together and worked together with the men's team. I don't feel like I experienced any particular discrimina- tion. There just weren't many of us who were on the varsity teams. "I loved my time on the team, being able to get out and be with my peers." The Introduction Of Team Sports Team sports, however, didn't arrive until the 1974-75 academic year. They were approved by the university's ath- letics council just a few weeks after the Wolfpack men's basketball squad won the school's first NCAA team champi- onship. Casey, who became athletics direc- tor in 1969 and was a member of the powerful NCAA men's basketball com- mittee, was proactive in beginning NC S ta te 's co m - p l i a n c e w i t h t h e n e w l y pa sse d T i t l e I X . He to o k early steps by upgrading the five-year-old club basketball team to varsity status to com- ply when other s c h o o l s w e r e dragging their feet in the hope that the law would be struck d ow n o r re p ea l e d before implementa- tion was mandatory in 1976. Late senior associate athletics director Frank Weedon, Casey's right-hand man in many instances, always explained that Casey knew he had no choice but to add women's sports and was too competi- tive not to demand a successful pro- gram. "Willis wanted to get a head start, and he wanted it to be done right," said Nora Lynn Finch, who was the women's bas- ketball coach at Peace College when NC State began team sports and eventually became a Wolfpack assistant coach. "He wanted more than club sports." Casey knew that basketball would become the flagship for women's ath- letics, and as a notorious spendthrift, he knew he wouldn't have to spend Betty Springs became the first female athlete ever to win an NCAA title when she claimed the cross country crown in 1981. Before that, women's sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 ■ 41