{"id":610,"date":"2011-02-18T01:02:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T01:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=610"},"modified":"2012-02-15T18:43:09","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T18:43:09","slug":"one-woman-golfer-and-the-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/610\/one-woman-golfer-and-the-hall-of-fame","title":{"rendered":"One Woman Golfer and the Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Janina Parrott Jacobs - Wayne State University Athletic Hall of Fame - Class of 2000<\/p><\/div>\n

The invitation arrives in January and I always look forward to checking the ‘Yes, I will attend’ box.<\/p>\n

As a member of the Wayne State University Athletic Hall of Fame, I’m perennially invited to the induction of new athletes into the Hall. \u00a0 Though it has been 11 years since entering the hallowed Club, I still get goosebumps every time I set foot into St. Andrews Church where the awards are given.\u00a0 After the prerequisite chicken luncheon – which is quite good, by the way –\u00a0 the camaraderie at the Alumni tables, the speeches, and the new inductees’ remarks, we head across I-94 to the Matthaei Athletic Building where the Hall of Fame is housed.\u00a0\u00a0 There, the new plaques are unveiled and everyone then heads into the gym to witness the mighty Warriors basketball team hopefully defeat their opponents.\u00a0 We were Tartars back in the 70’s and I still can’t get used to the new moniker.\u00a0 I normally can’t stay for the game but do take the time to gaze at the wall where the Class of 2000 hangs.\u00a0\u00a0 I look at the woman on the plaque, the same picture used here though taken many years after graduation, and can’t believe more than three decades have passed since those college days.<\/p>\n

And I am eternally amazed they put me in the Hall of Fame for doing something that was so much fun.\u00a0 It didn’t seem very groundbreaking at the time.<\/p>\n

As one of the first women to play men\u2019s golf in college after the passage of Title IX in 1972, there was a lot to prove. \u00a0 For those who don’t know, Title IX was monumental legislation in that it allowed women to compete on men’s non-contact sports teams when there were no women’s teams to join. \u00a0\u00a0 My older brother Chris had already been on the Wayne State University Men\u2019s Golf Team for two years and all eyes were upon him to see if he would provide any special sibling consideration.\u00a0\u00a0 I’d never ask – the guys would have chided him mercilessly.\u00a0\u00a0 Actually, the guys were wonderful:\u00a0 there was Harry the High Ball, Mark ‘The Titan’\u00a0 Thomas, Dean Monty ‘The Windmill’ Monterosso, ‘Mister’ O’Connor, The Loper, and others.\u00a0 I don’t know if I had a name, other than ‘The One Woman Golfer’, which was indicated on lodging sheets for overnight accommodations.<\/p>\n

To say that our team operated at a disadvantage \u2013 compared to today\u2019s programs \u2013 is an understatement.\u00a0 In 1974, we had no home course, no equipment, and no practice range.\u00a0 Our coach was former Green Bay Packer Joel Mason, and the best he could secure for us was shag practice on the football field south of the Matthaei Building beginning at 6am and ending when we were shooed off as students began to arrive around 8am.\u00a0 Other times we trekked over to the aptly named Old Main (it was really old), where hissing radiators in the second floor gym accompanied the swishes of our swings as we whacked golf balls into nets dropped from the ceiling.\u00a0\u00a0 On game days, however, we did get food, sometimes, though Coach was not happy if we ordered pancakes and would bellow, \u201cThey are like EATING LEAD!!!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 To this day, I refuse to eat pancakes before playing golf.<\/p>\n

Membership on the Men\u2019s Team meant playing it down from the blues in March in Michigan.\u00a0 And don’t think for a moment there was an option to play from the Ladies Tee, which was what they were still labeled back then.\u00a0 Frigid temperatures, iced lakes, muddy and frozen ground and wet golf shoes were the norm.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t yet learned two pairs of spikes were a must for road trips so one pair could dry from the previous day\u2019s muck and mire.\u00a0 Gore-tex?\u00a0 We had bear grease.\u00a0 We also had The Rule of Three:\u00a0 rain, wind, and cold.\u00a0 You could take any two, but if the Trio made an appearance you were doomed.\u00a0 One time it happened when we were playing near Bay City, in Michigan\u2019s thumb, and many players walked in.\u00a0\u00a0 Clutching a big mug of coffee, Coach Mason fought the elements as he strolled along with my match \u2013 the only coach out there with his \u2018men\u2019.\u00a0 All the other coaches were also drinking big mugs of coffee\u2026. inside<\/em> the clubhouse.\u00a0 As the \u2018one woman golfer\u2019, he knew I\u2019d never give up.\u00a0 No one on our team would quit either. How could they?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t recall the particulars of too many matches but do know this:\u00a0 several men I played against in those days are now professionals, Directors of Golf, or top players in Michigan and while I don\u2019t remember the outcome, they <\/em>certainly do.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leaving the Hall of Fame festivities each year, I often wonder if………born 30 years later…….would I record would compare with Paula Creamer\u00a0bio<\/a> or Michelle Wie’s or Natalie Gulbis’?\u00a0\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 But to ask if I’d ever trade my days of trailblazing through gender obstacles to make things easier for other women?\u00a0\u00a0 Never.\u00a0\u00a0 I think Mom and Dad timed my arrival just right:\u00a0 I sorta like making a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Treasured days of college golf, immortalized…….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[4114,5075,5142],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-lifestyle","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-wayne-state-university","tag-woman-golfer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/02\/BW001.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2088,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/2088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}