My esteemed colleague David Cook recently wrote a fascinating column concerning how a women’s rowing team could theoretically do much to solve the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s continuing Title IX woes.
At first glance, it makes perfect sense. It easily could add as many as 30 female athletes to the UTC athletic department’s numbers, an addition that could do much to shrink the gap that currently exists within an athletic department that includes 211 male athletes to just 145 female ones on a campus that’s 55 percent female overall.
Beyond that, as Cook noted, Chattanooga is gaining a national reputation as an outdoor paradise. A river runs through it. Mountains surround it. A competitive crew team seems almost a requirement, especially given the outrageous success of the Head of the Hooch regatta that brings both money and prestige to our city each autumn.
And to top it all off, the school has a club crew team, complete with shells, oars and a boat house. Given such advantages, how could UTC not afford to field a women’s crew team?
“We’d love to,” said UTC athletic director David Blackburn, who’s lost much weight and sleep of late dealing with the backlash from the school’s decision to cut men’s indoor and outdoor track. “But it would cost millions and we don’t have it.”