Pioneer for women's athletics at Poly dies at 84

Mary Lou White, an important figure in the formation of Cal Poly’s women’s athletics programs and a longtime advocate for women’s athletics equity before the passing of Title IX, died April 9 after a brief illness. She was 84.

Without White, Cal Poly athletics would look markedly different today.

“If it wasn’t for her, women’s athletics wouldn’t be where it is today. She was instrumental in working for athletics on Cal Poly’s campus,” said Evie Pellaton, a former women’s physical education professor and associate athletics director, who worked with White during the 1960s and ’70s.

Pellaton described her friend of more than 50 years as smart, fair, compassionate, understanding and concerned – “she was just all those good things.”

These traits are reflected in White’s accomplishments.

In 1990, White was inducted into the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fall as “the individual most responsible for the development of women’s athletics at Cal Poly,” according to a press release. She was the first woman administrator or coach to be granted the honor.

White came to Cal Poly from Oregon in 1961, just after the university re-admitted women.

Until she retired in 1979, White remained active in various posts throughout the athletics department, including coaching volleyball, basketball, men’s and women’s fencing, softball and track. She also served as department chair for women’s physical education and as women’s athletics director.

At the time of her retirement, she held the position of associate dean of the now-renamed School of Human Development and Education.

Throughout her career, she advocated equal rights and athletic opportunities for women.

“She was a participant in sports,” Pellaton said. “She went through the whole thing of not getting funding or transportation, so she knew how important it was.”

With that mindset, White – herself a competitive fencer and softball player – sought to change the system and to provide better opportunities for women athletes in the future.

“Women’s athletics (before White’s time) were organized loosely and were not well-funded,” Cal Poly athletics director Alison Cone said. “They didn’t really have equipment or uniforms. They didn’t really get what today’s athletes do.”

But all that changed with the passing of Title IX.

When the law passed in 1972, White attended meetings and worked with students to help put the federal law into place. Title IX states that men and women must have equal access to educational programs and athletics that are funded by the government.

Today, thanks to the effort of White, Pellaton and others, things are different.

“People know who (women athletes) are now,” Pellaton said. “People are beginning to say, ‘hey, these girls are really good!’ It has really opened up. People are beginning to recognize the importance of women’s athletics. Look at women’s basketball today, for instance. Before, women would have never had these opportunities.”

White’s early efforts were a precursor to the direction women’s athletics are heading today. Nationally, women athletes are being recognized, Pellaton said. And the same can be said of student-athletes at Cal Poly.

“I’m benefiting from her early efforts,” Cone said. “In this day and age, I am able to be a woman director for both men’s and women’s sports. I’m a direct beneficiary, as are all of our student-athletes.”

Her impact is one that extends beyond Cal Poly, though, Cone said. White was also influential in the formation of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which was founded in 1971, before the NCAA took over women’s athletics. The AIAW’s primary goal was to help women play women on other college campuses.

Despite her illness, Pellaton said that White was active to the end, continuing to drive her car, shop at the grocery store and even go to her gym in Morro Bay.