‘It’s Come So Far’: Arizona State and the Rich History of the Women’s College World Series Before Title IX

While it’s the 40th anniversary of this official version of the WCWS, it’s also the 50th anniversary of a Sun Devils team that won the WCWS in the weeks immediately before the passage of Title IX.

Alonzo Adams/Associated Press

To watch college softball this month has been to get frequent reminders of two milestones: It is the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the federal legislation that opened up the way for women’s sports, and it is the 40th anniversary of the Women’s College World Series.

The former is straightforward. But the latter is a little more complicated. This is indeed the 40th anniversary of the Women’s College World Series as sanctioned by the NCAA—but the tournament has roots beyond that. There was postseason college softball under the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which organized women’s college sports before the NCAA, and there was more even before that. The first tournament to call itself the Women’s College World Series was held in Omaha in the 1960s, and the sport’s first dynasty came from the Patriettes of John F. Kennedy College (Wahoo, Neb.), who won three championships from ’69 to ’71. There is a history here that is deeper and richer than what is formally recognized by the NCAA.

Which means that, yes, it’s the 40th anniversary of this official version of the WCWS. But it’s also the 50th anniversary of a team that won the WCWS in the weeks immediately before the passage of Title IX—Arizona State, which came up just short in 1971 and battled to win it all in ’72, followed by a second championship in ’73.

“It was a fire in our belly,” Arizona State pitcher Paula Miller Noel says now. “It was a passion for the sport. At the time, nothing else seemed to matter—there was nothing more important than being back at the college world series.”

Noel, like many of her teammates, is struck by how much the tournament has changed. Arizona State’s players had to fundraise to pay their own way to Omaha. (The WCWS was originally held there near the home of the men’s College World Series; it moved to its current location of Oklahoma City in 1990.) The Sun Devils raised money through exhibition games and bake sales. While they practiced often, they did so mostly on city fields, because there was no dedicated space for them on campus. When they made their first trip to the WCWS in ’71, they stayed in the basement of a local who offered to put them up and took their postgame showers at a nearby junior high. When they returned in ’72, they were able to get a hotel, which felt like making it to the big time. The scholarships and funding that would come with Title IX were a distant idea to them. But some aspects of the modern tournament still feel deeply familiar: They were fiercely competitive, and all they wanted to do was win.

The core of Arizona State’s team also played for a local club called the Sun City Saints. It was known as one of the strongest teams in the Amateur Softball Association, and when a critical mass of its young roster enrolled at ASU, they decided to focus on the softball program there, too.

“Our success was because a good portion of ASU were on the Sun City Saints,” says shortstop Ginger Kurtz. “I think we had that cohesiveness because we played together.”

It was partially their success with the Saints that made them confident they could triumph at their first WCWS in 1971. They shut out their first two opponents with double-digit victories. But then they ran into reigning champ John F. Kennedy College and lost 7–6. So ASU cruised through the losers’ bracket and prepared for a semifinal rematch with JFK—only to lose again, 5–3. It meant JFK would go on to win its third straight title.

That meant ASU’s return to Omaha in 1972 felt personal. The WCWS may have been a young tournament. But it already had drama, rivalries, tension—so much of all that makes it what it is today.

“What really sticks with me is just that burning desire,” Noel says. “It was everything. And, you know, I watch Oklahoma today, and they appear to be pretty unstoppable—it’s just a look in a young woman’s eyes and the way that she walks on the field. There’s just something about that. And I believe we definitely had that.”

ASU wouldn’t get a rematch with JFK, however: The school had been disqualified from the tournament for the kind of athletic scholarships it offered. (With the AIAW getting off the ground and the NCAA still years away from opening up to women, there was no structure for granting scholarships or other benefits to female athletes.) But the Sun Devils would find a new foe in 1972: Nihon University of Tokyo.

The selection criteria for the WCWS was much looser than it is today. If a team could pay its way to Omaha, demonstrated some baseline competence in the regular season and did not violate any of the rules, it could play. Nihon University had the best softball program in Japan and was planning an exhibition tour across the U.S. for the summer of 1972: What better way to kick it off than by playing in the Women’s College World Series? After all, there was nothing explicitly stating that participating teams had to be from a college in the U.S. So off to Omaha it went.

“Talk about discipline!” Kurtz says, remembering how strong the Japanese team was on fundamentals.

Both teams breezed through the opening rounds. It was obvious that these were the two best programs in the tournament, and when they first met in the semifinals, that was borne out: A pitchers’ duel between Noel and Nihon ace Yruiko Tagashira ended with a 2–1 victory for the Sun Devils. They met again for the championship. The first matchup was another pitching showcase, but this time it went Nihon’s way: 1–0. That left everything up to the final game—and this one was different.

Arizona State 8, Nihon 5, in 11 innings.

“It was just so exciting,” second baseman Lee Ann Easley recalls of the moment the final out was recorded. “We knew we had a really good team.”

ASU would return to Omaha and win again in 1973. But it was this title—their first one—that especially sticks in their minds 50 years later.

“Really, just coming back to Phoenix with the trophy,” says centerfielder Judy Hoke. “Those are the things you always remember.”

Three weeks later, Title IX became law. The ground would soon shift beneath their feet and remake women’s sports. Their history is not in the record books maintained by the NCAA. But it’s college softball history, too.

“It’s come so far,” Noel says. “I’d like to think that my generation—us back in ’72 and ’73—were helping to pave the way.”