[FEB. 23, 2006]
BLOOMINGTON -- Ola Marie Bundy, the first
lady of interscholastic athletics for girls in Illinois, died
Saturday in Bloomington at the age of 70. A memorial service is
planned for March 5, from 1 to 3 p.m., in the auditorium at
Bloomington High School.
During her 29-year career
as an Illinois High School Association administrator, Ola Bundy
shepherded female athletics programs from the early days of GAA and
postal tournaments to a full-scale, 12-sport interscholastic state
tournament lineup that was every bit the equivalent of the programs
for boys. Today's female athlete owes a tremendous debt of gratitude
to Miss Bundy, because many times it was only by the sheer force of
her personality that she was able to persuade high school
administrators to give the programs for girls a fair shake. For her
unceasing efforts she received many honors, capped by her induction
into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
Bundy
was born at Allerton and attended Champaign High School, where she
graduated in 1953. In high school she was involved in various GAA
activities, sang in the chorus, served as vice president of the
senior class and was editor of the school yearbook. At the
University of Illinois she majored in physical education, and she
later did postgraduate work there and at Northern Illinois
University.
After college, she taught high school for 8 ½ years, at Grant
Park, Thornton Fractional South and her alma mater in Champaign. At
each stop she was deeply involved in GAA activities and during this
period served several times as counselor and director at GAA camps
in northern Illinois.
In 1967 she joined the Illinois High School Association as an
assistant executive director in charge of athletics for girls. She
soon found that she was a department unto herself and in later years
would recall that while the male administrators all had secretaries,
she was expected to do her own typing and filing. So she did, with
gusto, throwing all her efforts into running GAA programs and at the
same time building the case for female interscholastic competition,
which had been banned by the IHSA since 1907.
After Title IX was passed in 1972, the IHSA finally moved
forward, establishing several state tournaments for girls, starting
with tennis and track. Bundy was in charge of them all until Cindy
Adams Butkovich was hired in 1975 to share the load. By that time
Bundy also had a secretary.
From then until her retirement in 1996, she continued to provide
uncompromising leadership for athletics programs for high school
girls in Illinois and across the nation. She wrote the IHSA's
affirmative action policy for girls playing in state series. She
helped write the Illinois State Board of Education's sex equity
rules, which served as the model for many other states. In 1993 she
testified at a congressional hearing on athletic participation by
girls.
Along the way, she received numerous awards from the many groups
that benefited from her work. Among the highlights, in 1987 she was
the first person inducted into the Illinois Girls Coaches
Association Hall of Fame. In 1990 she received a special award from
the Illinois State Board of Education for her contributions toward
achieving sex equity in Illinois schools.
In 1996, on her last day as an IHSA employee, she was enshrined
in the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony at
Tarpon Springs, Fla. It was a fitting tribute to a woman who had
dedicated her life to fighting for equitable treatment for all
students, boys and girls, who wished to participate in high
school sports and activities.
The board of directors and staff of the Illinois High School
Association extend their deepest sympathies to her family and the
thousands of people who were touched by her warmth, kindness and
friendship through the years.
