Benefits for Women
Specifically, Calgaard made a commitment to the women’s athletics teams. He funded each sport equally for men and women, with the exception of football. He also invested in full time women’s coaches. Fruit of this decision appeared early; the Trinity women’s soccer team played its first season as a varsity team in 1981. A Mirage spread dedicated to women’s soccer boasts a 6-2 record and claims soccer as the largest women’s sport at Trinity. Aside from gaining recognition, the transition to varsity positively impacted team spirit and meant more money for uniforms and travel (1981). The photographs in the spread feature a few team shots and many more action shots, including a headbutt. The decision to include pictures of women being aggressive, instead of posing with the ball or running with it, suggests that the students not in athletics supported the decision to move to varsity as well. They supported the idea of assertive women and were ready to support the Lady Tigers.
Calgaard also fought for women’s inclusion in the College Athletic Conference. The Trinity women’s coaches wrote a letter to Calgaard in regards to the confusion about whether or not Trinity women’s athletics would be permitted to join the CAC (Jenkins, J. B., Machu, T., & Anderson, S., 1990). Their decision to ask for clarification, rather than a direct ask to be included, shows the state of women in collegiate athletics at the time. It seems they did not feel like they had enough power to ask for what they wanted directly. It would have been easier for him to simply report back whatever the CAC decided, but instead Calgaard promised to fight for their inclusion (Calgaard, 1990). He made joining the conference contingent on whether or not the women could play (“Parker Jenkins Interview”, 2019). This shows that his dedication to women’s athletics is not out of convenience or necessity, but out of his firm belief that equality in sports would make Trinity a better place.
But the move to join the CAC was not beneficial exclusively to the Trinity women. Ultimately, men’s and women’s athletics joined the CAC and both reaped the benefits. Calgaard chose that conference because of the schools involved in it. Institutions such as the University of the South and Rhodes College shared his vision for excellence in athletics that did not come at a cost to academics or other areas of student life. As there were no other Division 3 schools in Texas at the time, playing against these schools meant travelling all around the country. Athletes valued the ability to see different places and meet new people. Similarly to study abroad experiences for the general student body, travelling was exciting for athletes and helped them to become more well rounded. Membership in the CAC served as a recruiting tool for coaches and a source of opportunity for students. According to Coach Jenkins, winning a conference leads to a guaranteed spot in the NCAA tournament. Landing a spot as an independent school is much harder; Trinity was not competing in any of these tournaments. After joining the CAC, Trinity athletics teams had an easier time participating in the NCAA tournament (“Parker Jenkins Interview”, 2019).