It took more than Title IX for Cunningham to succeed in sports

Claire Cunningham Schaffer was one of the first products of Title IX, reaching high school just as the landmark legislation took effect.

Girls sports were now a part of the new Bloomington South high school, with North opening its doors for the 1972-73 school year. So there was opportunity so many never had when Cunningham made the leap from ninth grader to high schooler that year.

But girls like Cunningham still needed advocates, to fight for equal treatment, to provide them with a serious level of coaching, even a ride to out of town games. Luckily, she had just that in her parents and a rookie coach named Georgia Tidd.

"She had both the physical skills and the mental skills to play about any sport she wanted," Tidd said. "She was tall, slim and a great athlete. She was a good team player. She carried us to a lot of wins."

Cunningham ended up lettering in three sports volleyball, basketball and track. And when she had earned her eighth, she become the first girl at South to earn a letter jacket. She also gave golf a try as a freshman, and decided to try out for a musical as a senior, pre-empting her senior year in track.

She went on to play basketball at Indiana University and came back to coach at South. That legacy, thanks in part to Title IX, has earned her a spot in the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame.

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"Certainly I've been reflecting on that a lot in preparation for the induction ceremony," Cunningham said. "Being a coach and being the parent of two very successful athlete daughters, it's been very, very rewarding.

"Watching how the programs have expanded and developed and the talent level has exploded in a short period of time. It's certainly something to celebrate."

But in Cunningham's playing days, even getting the attention of the local paper or radio station was tough.

"My mom was called them up all the time, 'Guys, you need to send somebody to cover them,'" Cunningham said. "My mom was a big advocate of sharing sports information with the media. We'd take pictures and run them across the street to the paper.

"Those are the kinds of things people had to do to get us to where we started being recognized and sanctioned."

Steeped in sports

Her father 'Slick' was captain of the Bloomington High School boys' basketball team (who went on to play in college) and her mom (Joan Heatherington) was a varsity cheerleader. She remembers going with them to just about every BHS home basketball and football games and many on the road as well.

As an eighth grader at Binford, she remembers being on the playground one day when the boys were picking teams for a game of basketball and Cunningham got in on it.

"I'd never played basketball," Cunningham said. "I'd just shot around."

When they were done, the boys were asking if Claire could be on the eighth grade team since there was no girls' squad for her to be on.

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As a ninth grader, she and a classmate were invited to join the high school golf team since she had some recreational experience in the sport. But it wasn't for her and she turned to other sports.

Three-sport star

Tidd had been tabbed to coach three of the new girls' teams, (volleyball, basketball and track) had to get up to speed, quickly. In the pre-internet age, that meant seeking out clinics, starting with volleyball and the hot beds of Fort Wayne and Muncie.

"We spent a lot of time with her," Cunningham said. "She was always supportive and an encouraging person. She also held us to high expectations, but in a nurturing way.

"She wanted us to physically invest in ourselves. It was in how hard we worked and dove on the floor. She would hit hard shots at us. There was nothing gentle in the way she wanted us to play."

Meanwhile, Tidd was trying to get the athletics department to provide genuine volleyballs to replace the red gym balls her team was using. She was arranging drivers and cars to take the team to road games and calling schools to see if they had a team as she attempted to put a schedule together.

Through all that, South had quite the run in volleyball with Cunningham as one of the main stars, making the state finals (elite eight) and losing in the semifinals in the tournament's first year (1973) and going back again in 1974 and 1975, losing in the opener both times.

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"She was a hitter and blocker when she rotated to the front row," Tidd said. "She could do it all. She just had a knack for sports."

When it came to basketball, Tidd had been brought up in the six-girl, 3-on-3 half-court days, so again, Cunningham's dad pitched in.

"I got a lot of help and support from him," Tidd said. "He taught me plays and things to use against a man or a zone."

Her father, once he found out there would be a basketball team, would come home at lunchtime and run Claire and her friends through drills.

He coached her ninth grade team and they arranged to play the sophomores at BHS and lost by one. Cunningham's team wanted a rematch and even after the sophomores brought in the starting point guard off the varsity team, still only won by two.

"He was getting us ready," Cunningham said.

Tidd noted her leadership on the floor was as important as any skill she brought.

In track, Cunningham was a high jumper and just happened to have future South track coach Glenn Stidd in her class, and Jim Schaefer as members of the boys' team to emulate. At the time, they were learning the latest high jump sensation, the Fosbury Flop.

A future in sports

Cunningham never had a chance to play in the girls' state basketball tournament, graduating a year before it was sanctioned by the IHSAA. She went on to play at Indiana University and averaged 12 ppg as a sophomore and was the Hoosiers' second leading rebounder.

After graduation she wasn't done with sports.

She got married, had kids and eight years after leaving IU, applied for a teaching position. Tidd helped get her foot in the door in 1988, first with softball at South, then as the girls' basketball coach from 1988-90.

"I had no experience, but she had confidence in me," Cunningham said. "And it was great."

She coached the county’s all-time leading girls’ scorer, Beth Morgan, who held Notre Dame’s all-time scoring record for over 20 years and now is head coach at Missouri State, and other good players.

Then she watched her daughters become athletes as well, following in her footsteps, but in an environment much better thanks to those pioneers. Cunningham is now officially recognized as one of them.

"My first thought was, I know so many really fabulous athletes in Monroe County and so many who were dedicated to athletics who are not in the Hall of Fame," Cunningham said. "I don't know if I should do this.

"But as I got to understand a little bit more about the Hall of Fame and its role and responsibilities to the history of sports in Monroe County, I felt like had something to contribute to that."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: It took more than Title IX for Cunningham to succeed in sports