UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #491
HUDSON-WINFIELD, GILDA

HUDSON-WINFIELD, Gilda (1955- )
Undergraduate Student; Member of Athletic Board
At UW: 1973-1977; 1993-1997

Interviewed: 1995	
Interviewer: Barry Teicher
Length: 0.5 hour

Arrival at UW; Katherine Saunders-Nordeen; Title IX; Peter Tegen; Track career; Membership on Athletic Board; Gender equity; Non-income sports; UW women’s basketball program.

Interview Session (May 12, 1995):

Tape 1

Time		Keywords
00:00:01	Gilda Hudson-Winfield (GHW), who was from New Orleans, chose to attend UW in 1973 because she wanted to see snow. Women’s sports were in a formative stage at that time.

00:02:30	Initially, Elroy Hirsch was the men’s and women’s athletic director. In the mid-1970s, Kit Saunders-Nordeen became an associate athletic director and worked with the women’s athletic program. Title IX provided more opportunities for women to participate in sports.

00:03:40	GHW discussed the days before Title IX, when money was not readily available for women’s sports. Uniforms and track shoes were exchanged during track meets because they were in such short supply.

00:06:40	Peter Tegen, the women’s track coach, was an excellent coach. GHW attributes much of her success to him.

00:08:45	She discussed her career as a sprinter. She won several Big Ten championships.

00:11:13	GHW went out for track to make friends. Two of her friends were Cindy Bremser and Pam Moore. There was no animosity between the men’s and women’s track teams. Tegen worked well with Dan McClimon, the men’s track coach. GHW does not recall being discriminated against because of her race either in Madison or on the road.

00:15:16	GHW had a close relationship with Saunders-Nordeen. She also had the opportunity to meet Chancellor Donna Shalala. She speculated that they might have been responsible for her nomination to the Athletic Board.

00:16:21	GHW was one of the first women to receive an athletic scholarship at UW. She explained how this came about.

00:17:06	Gender equity was one of the important issues of the 1990s.  It extended beyond the playing field to the campus. Reverse discrimination was also an issue that needed to be addressed.

00:20:23	The term “non-income sports” is a misnomer, because in all likelihood there has been no concerted effort to market those sports. Non-revenue sports offer students an opportunity to participate in athletics.

00:22:31	The women’s basketball program had tremendous success. This was due to a combination of marketing and the new coach, Jane Albright-Dieterle, who had brought enthusiasm to the program. The new arena benefited the women’s basketball program tremendously by doubling the capacity of the old arena.

00:24:55	GHW discussed the 1992 Rose Bowl. The challenge of the future, at UW and nationally, will be to balance gender equity with programs meeting the needs of all its student athletes.

00:28:07	End of tape.

End of Interview #491