Washington State University legends Sue Durrant, former women’s basketball and volleyball coach and educator, and Joanne “Jo” Washburn, former educator and women’s athletics director, were tireless advocates for equity in women’s athletics. The two longtime friends not only teamed up to fight for equal rights for women athletes but also to create an endowed scholarship supporting WSU students, men and women, seeking opportunities in Sport Management.
Long before establishing their gift, Durrant and Washburn worked together, beginning with their jobs at WSU in the 1960s. Both dedicated their lives to helping students find opportunities and careers in sport-related fields.
Today, they are best known for championing gender equity in athletics, a cause they took up well before Congress passed the federal civil rights law known as Title IX in 1972, requiring gender equity in all institutions that received federal financial aid. As it happened, later that same year, the state of Washington passed its own Equal Rights Amendment (Amendment 61). And so at the time, Durrant recalled, “All of us in women’s sports thought change would finally come.”
However, nothing changed for years. Then, in 1979, 39 WSU female student-athletes and many of the coaches of women’s sports took the fight to the courts with a lawsuit for the history books, Blair v. Washington State University, named for track athlete Karen Blair, as her surname appeared first alphabetically among the plaintiffs. In 1987, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in their favor, bringing equity to women in sports across the country—an event WSU now celebrates.
A lifelong collaboration with purpose and heart
Sue Durrant, born and raised in Salt Lake City, earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Utah, then her master’s from WSU, and joined the WSU faculty in 1962. She later earned a PhD from The Ohio State University. For years, Durrant coached the women’s volleyball and basketball teams, as well as the WSU Women’s “Fish Fans” synchronized swimming club.
Durrant also helped found the Northwest College Women’s Sports Association (NCWSA), which became part of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). She served as NCWSA president in 1970-71. Because of her dedication to coaching and teaching, her tireless work toward gender equity in sports, and for creating opportunities for many WSU student-athletes, Durrant was inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.
Jo Washburn, born in Lyndon, Vermont, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and came to WSU to earn her master’s degree, after which she taught at Big Bend Community College (Moses Lake, WA) for two years before beginning her teaching career at WSU in the physical education department. During her 39-year career at WSU, she served as the WSU Director of Women’s Athletics (1965-1982) as well as coaching the women’s ski team. In 1984, she established the WSU Sport Management Program. Like Durrant, Washburn also served as a NCWSA president.
For overseeing the exponential growth of WSU’s women’s athletics program from a $2,000 annual budget to more than $1 million, expanding the program to eight varsity sports, and establishing the Sport Management Program, Washburn was inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.
For both women, the Sport Management Program focused on educating students to understand how sport, including athletics, strengthen communities and society. As an educator, Durrant believed: “It’s not enough to identify and discuss problems—you need to develop solutions to make things better.”
They were also passionate about placing students in internships that required them to roll up their sleeves and work in sports organizations that provided valuable experience, personal development, and a deeper understanding of the important role sport plays in our society.
A gift helping to make futures
During their careers, the two women worked with more than 1,000 WSU student interns, helping many secure internships and valuable professional experience. However, Durrant and Washburn were unhappy that many of the internships were unpaid, despite requiring significant time and valuable contributions from students. They wanted to change that.
Remembering how former students and colleagues of her parents had established scholarships in their names to the University of Utah, Durrant began thinking about leaving an estate gift to WSU. She also discussed it with Washburn. After the two longtime friends retired and consulted WSU Foundation Gift Planning, they decided to establish the Sue M. Durrant and Joanne R. Washburn Endowed Internship in Cougar Athletics to support WSU sport-management interns. Now, thanks to the sale of Washburn’s home, their endowed fund will allow students to receive assistance in the upcoming semester—several student applications for financial support for athletic internships are presently under review.
“Ultimately, the gift has allowed us to help students after the house sold—it’s what both Jo and I wanted,” said Sue.
Together, Durrant and Washburn’s gift carries their work and their vision forward for Cougs who seek to make a future in one of the many aspects of Sport Management.
Real Estate: a powerful charitable gift
The gift of real estate, whether a personal residence, vacation property, farmland, commercial property, or other real property, can be a powerful way to support scholarships, programs, or activities at WSU that are important to you. In addition to making a lasting impact, a gift of real estate may provide significant tax advantages and can eliminate the responsibilities associated with owning and maintaining a property.
If you would like to explore making a gift of real estate to support Washington State University or have questions about the process, please contact Theresa Boyer, Senior Director of Gift Planning, at the WSU Foundation at theresa.boyer@wsu.edu or 509-358-7584.