The Chronicle of Higher Education October 13 2000

The Chronicle of Higher Education October 13, 2000

Duke U. Discriminated Against Female Football Player, Jury Finds

By WELCH SUGGS

A federal jury found Thursday that Duke University illegally discriminated against a female kicker by cutting her from its football team because she was a woman, and the jurors made Duke pay in a big way: with a $2-million damage award.

An all-state placekicker in high school, Heather Sue Mercer tried to join the football team when she arrived at Duke, and even kicked a game-winning field goal in a 1995 intrasquad scrimmage. But the team's coach, Fred Goldsmith, refused to let her even sit on the sidelines the following fall and dismissed her from the team before spring practice began in 1996.

Duke's lawyers argued that she simply wasn't as good as the other kickers on the team, and the university's president, Nannerl O. Keohane, testified that Ms. Mercer was given extra chances to make the team. But Ms. Mercer's lawyers argued that she had been treated differently from other kickers who tried out for the team, violating Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which forbids gender discrimination at institutions that receive federal funds.

Mr. Goldsmith and several former coaches and kickers testified that Ms. Mercer did not have the strength to boot long field goals against major-college competition, but the coach said he admired her effort.

"It was obvious she was trying to do something special," Mr. Goldsmith testified. "It was different, so I admired her for that. I admired her for her spunk. I probably would have been a lot more brutal with a male. I would have said, 'Sorry, son, you just don't have it.'"

But Ms. Mercer said he told her to forget about "boys' games" and that she ought to try out for a local beauty pageant.

Ms. Mercer sued Duke in 1997 under Title IX, but Duke pointed out in court papers that the law's guidelines state that women do not have the right to participate on coeducational teams in contact sports, such as football. Last year, however, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, ruled in the Duke case that under Title IX, universities can choose whether to allow women to try out for contact sports. If a university does permit women to try out, the appeals court said, it must not discriminate against female players once they're on the team.

Duke officials released a one-line statement saying that they were disappointed by the ruling and expected it to be overturned on appeal. Ms. Mercer's lawyers were in transit last night and could not be reached for comment.

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