MERCER COUNTY — Title IX opened the door for girls in Pennsylvania high school sports and the Sharpsville Blue Darlings were one of the first female teams from Mercer County to walk through.

Make that dribble through!

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), in following the federal legislation mandating equal rights for women in sports and education,  started a statewide playoff in girls basketball during the 1972-73 season.

And little Sharpsville High School  set a precedent for all others to follow by reaching that first-ever state championship game.

“We really didn’t understand what Title IX was at that time,” said Margie (Schneider) Bougher, one of the junior stars of the Blue Darlings, reflecting on the law which celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday.

“We were caught up in the wave of it. We were just happy to be able to play for something.”

“Actually we were just happy to finally get uniforms,” said former teammate Debbie Jones with a laugh. Jones, nicknamed “Big Red” for her flaming hair color, teamed with Bougher to produce one of the top athletic duos in Mercer County history.

“It was an exciting time for us,” said Bougher, explaining that before Title IX allowed practices in the school gym, the girls of Sharpsville and other parts of Mercer County had to participate in a league at the Julia F. Buhl Girls Club, a local recreation center. “We were lucky to be part of it. Girls who came before us didn’t have the same opportunities.”

In fact, girls basketball had just begun to make strides at that time. Only a couple of years prior to Title IX passage, females in this area were forced to play by the old “girls rules” with six players for each team on the floor, but some not allowed to cross mid-court. And they were allowed only two dribbles before having to pass.

“I guess they thought we were too fragile to play boys rules,” said Bougher sarcastically.

Even though they weren’t a school team prior to that 1972-73 season, the Sharpsville girls were well prepared for that first year after working with the late Coach Glenna Harris for a few years.



“She treated us just like boys coaches would,” said Jones. “She was rough on us at practice. But we were excited about practice, being organized and playing other teams. It let us see where we are as a team.”



While the boys teams at Sharpsville were nicknamed the Blue Devils, it didn’t seem appropriate for the girls at the time. So they were labeled the Blue Darlings by The Sharon Herald newspaper, now part of the Community Newspaper Holding Inc. chain.

“The girls liked that name; it feminized the whole team,” said Bougher, pointing out that while hundreds or maybe thousands of teams have a Blue Devils mascot, Sharpsville may be the only Blue Darlings in the country.

Bougher and Jones were only juniors on that team, but they were the big guns for scoring and rebounding. “We had a great overall team,” said Bougher. “Rosette Chamberlain was the only senior starter and she was our leader.”



Other starters on that team were junior Sherryl Giles and freshman Carol DelFratte. First players off the bench were sophomores Paul Diurba, Vicki Costello and Debbie Vasconi.



Among some other members of that squad were Colleen Cardwell, Vicki Smith, Rhonda Chamberlain, Linda Ewing, Val Herrmann, Karole Hurl and Val Weber (manager).

But Title IX wasn’t close to bringing equality just yet. While a girls state tourney was initiated, there was only one class for girls teams, while the boys playoffs were broken in to three divisions by school size. And the girls played their season during the fall because of a lack of gym facilities, while having to come back in the late winter to go to the state playoffs.



That state run in 1972-73 saw the Blue Darlings go undefeated in winning the Mercer County League and the District 10 championship. They advanced through the state playoffs to reach the inaugural state title game. However, in the Harrisburg Farm Show Arena they came up against a much larger school, Allentown Central Catholic, and lost by a 65-38 margin.



“Looking back, it was a wonderful experience just to be there,” said Bougher. “There was only one class for girls teams when the state playoff started and we beat some much bigger schools before Allentown. That was a great team and many of them had been playing basketball since they were very young.”

While Sharpsville is known for reaching that first state championship game, many forget that the Blue Darlings — again led by Jones and Bougher — went undefeated the following year all the way to the state semifinals game, again in Harrisburg, where they lost a heart-breaking, 66-65 overtime decision to again a much bigger school, Baldwin.

Still, while the run for the state playoffs was made possible by Title IX, it also made a big difference in the lives of several of the Blue Darlings.

Upon graduation, Jones and Bougher were both offered athletic scholarships at the University of Pittsburgh. But because schools were penny-pinching for girls sports, their financial awards were joint scholarships for basketball and volleyball.

“Even though we never played volleyball, except in gym class, I guess they figured if we were basketball players were could play volleyball too,” said Bougher. “But I was just happy to get the money to go to college.

“I was one of 13 in my family. And while it was OK for the boys to go to college then, my dad was thinking like a lot of other fathers at that time: ‘You don’t have to go to college because you’ll marry some man and he’ll take care of you for the rest of your life.’ ”

The scholarships opened the door for the dynamic duo, but they each left Pitt after two years. Jones went on to play basketball at the University of Maryland while Bougher transferred to Slippery Rock University where she concentrated on getting her degree in health and education, while working her way through college.

Jones played with the Lady Terps in the American Intercollegiate Association for Women (AIWA - predecessor for women’s sports in the NCAA) tournament and later played for the United States team in the Pan-Am Games. She was invited to the Olympic team tryouts in 1980, but that year the United States boycotted the Games. Today she lives outside of Pittsburgh and is manager with Market District, a high-end part of Giant Eagle Inc. supermarket chain.

“Women have come a long way thanks to Title IX,” said Jones, “But I think we still have to work it out a bit (before reaching true equality). We are getting there.”

After gradating from Slippery Rock, Bougher went on to  study radiology at the Sharon Region Health System and today is manager of mammography department at the SRHS Diagnostic Center. She also previously coached girls basketball at her alma mater.

Jones and Bougher, as well as Coach Harris, were all inducted into the Mercer County Hall of Fame, believed to be the oldest local Hall of Fame in the world. In fact, the trio joins only 16 other women among the 501 members enshrined since 1947. But because of Title IX, many more women will be joining those ranks in future years and Bougher now serves on the Hall board of directors, along with former girls coaching legend Sally Ward.

Others from that Blue Darlings team also moved on to successes in life thanks to Title IX. For example, Ronda (Chamberlain) Baker, a freshman on that state team, today serves as athletic director of Sharpsville High where the Blue Darlings still roam, a role once sacrosanct for males.

“It was a wonderful experience,” summarized Bougher about her high school days as she leafed through a scrapbook of former Herald stories and photos. “We were given opportunities we never would have had without Title IX.”

Happy Anniversary, Title IX!