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On Tues. Oct. 22, sports lovers packed the fifth level of the Heinz History Center for Game Changers: Women and Sport as guest speakers Teresa Conn, Alfreeda Goff, Suzie McConell Serio, and Caroline Fitzgerald talked about the rise of women’s sports, their experiences, and the future of women’s sports.
The event coincided with The Heinz History Center’s exhibit A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh, which features a section named “More than Title IX” (Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against women in sports).
The exhibit features the evolution of women’s sports, including a uniform of Betsy Jochum of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded during World War II; a statue of Rosie the Riveter; and Swin Cash’s olympic basketball uniform.
Anne Madarasz, the director of the History Center’s Western Pa. sports museum, sees the landscape shifting.
“I think it’s an indication of the change in women’s sports,” Madarasz said. “The attention is starting to gather, and the fact that people in Pittsburgh are supportive of this change. It’s great to have these people here tonight to see the sports museum and to hear these stories. It’s good to keep the past alive, but also to see a greater future.”
Madarasz said the exhibit gives museum-goers an opportunity to better appreciate the city’s rich tradition of femme athletes and connect with pioneers in women’s sports, including Alfreeda Goff, who is a Horizon League Hall of Famer. She was inducted because of her dedication to women’s sports.
Goff coached track and field at East Allegheny School District and the University of Pittsburgh and was also the athletic director at Virginia State University from 1998 to 2002. These accomplishments for a woman who is also a person of color were monumental.
“We couldn’t have things like this when I first got into college athletics, otherwise we’d be called rebels.” Goff said of the discussion. “The number of men and women here and the ages, that’s what surprised me. The young people are sitting out here asking questions and wanting to make things better. I am very excited and very happy and privileged and honored to have been asked to serve in this capacity.”
Goff was surprised to see all of her trainers, and even some of those she coached, show up to the event.
“I didn’t know any of them were coming, so when they showed up, I was like, ‘I did something positive,’” Goff said. “It was love, because our program was built on being a family, loving one another.”
Goff said during the conference that love and having family and friends there for you is what gets you far in anything, not just athletics. One of those who Goff impacted was Dee Cypher, who was an undergraduate trainer, graduate assistant, and eventually full time faculty.
“She was my greatest mentor of all the coaches I worked with,” Cypher said. “I worked a lot of years with Freeda. She would teach life lessons…she taught not just coaching athletics, she taught life lessons, and she was a mentor to hundreds of athletes. She was just a mentor to everybody.”
Another mentor to many is head coach and co-owner of the Pittsburgh Passion Teresa Conn. She said that her faith in God led to her moving to Pittsburgh in the early 2000s. This led to Franco Harris helping out launching the team with Conn.
One topic that reoccurred during the conversation was how athletics builds family and bonds.
“I feel like I’ve been blessed in so many ways,” Conn said. “It’s really one of the missions to keep the girls together. I feel like one of the things that helps us do that is that we go to weddings and funerals, baby showers and everything together. It’s a lot more than football and I think that goodness that we have often overflows from that.”
Speakers said there are many ways women’s athletics can improve but also discussed how far women’s sports have come.
McConnell-Serio talked about the attendance and viewership of women’s basketball and the rise of Caitlin Clark.
She also shared her story when she made the Olympic team in 1988 and 1992 in basketball. McConell-Serio tried out for 4-5 days with 53 of the greatest women’s basketball players in Colorado Springs.
“I’ll never forget it,” McConell-Serio said. “It was Aug. 18, 1988 when Coach K told me I was one of the 12 selected for the Olympic team. It was by far my biggest dream I’ve ever accomplished. To win a gold medal and to represent your country was just unbelievable. To have the U.S.A. on your chest and see the American Flag and the national anthem being played during the Olympics, it’s really what every athlete strives for.”
Caroline Fitzgerald, the founder of GOALS, which is an organization focused on bringing more investment into women’s sports and shows people the economic and social value that comes along with investing in women’s sports.
Fitzgerald said there are a lot of good things on the horizon as they work with the Pittsburgh Riveters, the new women’s soccer team. It’s launching in Pittsburgh. GOALS also networks with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the PWHL.
Fitzgerald mentioned the growing audience of the PWHL and told Pittsburgh City Paper how monumental it was.
“I always had a gut feeling that women’s hockey would do really well here in Pittsburgh, just giving us success to penguins and how many girls we’ve had that play hockey in our region again,” Fitzgerald said. “Nine thousand people came out to a Montreal-Toronto game on a Sunday afternoon. It’s incredible, and I think it just shows that Pittsburgh is ready to embrace women’s choice in a really big way.”
Members of the Passion, including all-time great Lisa Horton, former Penn State point guard Brianne O’Rourke, and Steelers legend Jon Kolb were just a few who were in attendance.
“I am just overwhelmed with gratitude that everybody came around for this discussion about women’s sports. Again I think it speaks to Pittsburgh being a great town for sports, and that includes women’s sports. It’s nice to see this kind of demand for this type of program, but I’m also not surprised.”
Conn wasn’t surprised either. Pittsburgh is more than capable of supporting women’s sports.
“Pittsburgh’s full of great, not only women athletes, but women sports people,” Conn said. “They’re very knowledgeable, and they help support and grow. Pittsburgh’s special like that. I might have been surprised anywhere else, but not here. Love this city.”
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2024.
