OSU's first All-American found courage playing sports as a girl

Suzie Byrd ran hurdles when no one watched.

Shot baskets when no one cared.

Played sports when few girls did.

Those days seem so distance, so foreign today on the 35th anniversary of Title IX. Now, female athletes transcend sport and shed surnames. Annika. Serena. Danica.

Now, the women sell out the Final Four just like the men. Now, almost 3 million girls nationwide play high school sports.

The federal legislation prohibiting gender-based discrimination in academics and athletics sparked amazing change.

Suzie Byrd graduated from Hennessey High and enrolled at Oklahoma State the same year Title IX went on the books.

The law changed.

The world didn't.

"Sometimes, I worry about the young girls forgetting how far that we've come,” said the woman who became OSU's first All-American. "We can't lose the history of how this all started.”

To understand the history, the struggle, the importance, you must know why Suzie ran.

The boys always wanted to beat Suzie.

They'd dare her to races at recess; she's run faster. They'd taunt her to throw the football; she's chuck it farther.

Born Suzie Winningham, the little gal with the blond hair had a gift. Not music. Not arts. Sports.

"It wasn't an easy talent or interest to have in life back then,” she said.

Despite folks who just couldn't understand a girl liking sports, Suzie started running competitively in AAU meets when she was about 12 years old.

She had no coach, but she won state several times and qualified once for nationals in Knoxville, Tenn.

Yet, basketball became her sport. A speedy guard, she could dribble and shoot and run. And run. And run.

Her sophomore year at Hennessey when the new basketball coach said everyone had to run track, Suzie won the hurdles everywhere, including the first girls state track meet in 1972.

When she enrolled at OSU later that year, she gravitated toward the Colvin Center, home of the Phys Ed department. It was the only place on campus where women were playing sports.

The focus: participation.

No doubt Suzie wanted to participate, but she also wanted to win. Badly. Playing basketball as a freshman on one of the Colvin Center's teams, Suzie was called out by one of the coaches.

"Look, we're not going to have any of this competitive stuff,” she remembers being told. "We're not going to have any of that. We're going to have a good time.”

Suzie's heart told her to go all out, to fight like crazy, to play as if it mattered, but everyone around her said otherwise. She found herself in a tense environment, struggling not only with basketball but also with her classes.

She finished the season but decided she'd had enough. No track. No basketball. Suzie wanted no part of it.

Still, for the better part of the next year, one of the men's track assistants worked to persuade her to run. Women's events had started being run during men's meets. Even though the number of events was limited, the women were included for the first time.

"Look, I know your history,” the assistant would tell Suzie. "I know you were a really good runner. I know about your times.”

He cajoled.

"You never really trained in high school the way you need to train. I think I can make you a really great runner.”

He pleaded.

"I want you to come out.”

Finally, she relented.

Twice, Suzie won the Big Eight conference crown in the 100-meter hurdles. Her second season, her time qualified her for the national meet in Corvallis, Ore. The NCAA had yet to begin sponsoring women's national championships, so the meet was held under the umbrella of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

Suzie and two other runners drove 15 hours a day for three days.

Their transportation: "One of those OSU cars with the stickers.”

Suzie qualified for the finals, where she remembers being the only runner who was white and shorter than 5-foot-10.

"Some of the muscles in their legs,” she said, "were bigger than me, it seemed like.”

She finished fourth and became OSU's first All-American. A history maker. A trail blazer.

Thing is, she was already a pioneer.

Shin splints sidelined Suzie Byrd after that glorious season.

She never ran again.

Byrd eventually married and moved to Enid, where she owned and operated many businesses. Now living in Florida, she is on business No. 15, a healthy living magazine. There have been uncertain times, scary times even, but she has always persevered.

She credits lessons learned on the courts of competition.

"Athletics is the basis for my character,” she said. "It gave me a lot more confidence than what I would have had.”

It's the reason Suzie played then.

It's the reason girls play now.

"Even though ... I didn't get to run or play in front of thousands of people,” Byrd said, "the thing that I did get from it was the courage to go out and do anything I wanted to do.”

Jenni Carlson: 475-3314, jcarlson@oklahoman.com;

Jenni Carlson can be heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on KEBC-AM 1340.