When Della Durant worked at Penn State in the early 1960s, female athletes played on a whole different level than they do today.

Durant, a former director of extramural competition for women at Penn State, said female athletes first got their start by competing on the club level.

To give female students the chance to participate in sports, the University used to sponsor "sports days" and "play days."

On play days, teams were made up of women from different schools in a less competitive atmosphere, while on sports days, women played against teams from other schools, Durant said.

"(Women) students weren't used to anything else," she said. "They knew nothing else."

Back in the early '60s, the athletic competition for women at Penn State was sponsored by the Women's Recreation Association through the Student Activities Office.

"It was more of a sociable occasion," said Martha Adams, former chair of Penn State's women's physical education program. "But our students wanted more competition."

That desire led to the establishment of the University's women's sports program. Adams brought the idea to former Athletic Director Ernest McCoy and former University President Eric Walker. The result was the creation of a women's athletic program in 1963.

"At that time, the students were asking for more organized competition," Durant said.

The women wanted the same kind of things provided for male athletes, such as game officials and scholarships, she added.

Athletic Director Tim Curley said Penn State was among the first universities to start providing women's athletic programs. The Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women sponsored the programs for 14 years before many sports joined the NCAA in 1982.

"It really did occur just overnight," Durant said. At that time, there was a growth is women's sports, and Penn State tried to meet that need earlier than some other schools, she added.

The first women's varsity game at Penn State was a field hockey game against Bloomsburg on Oct. 3, 1964. That year, Penn State offered nine varsity sports for women: basketball, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, riflery, softball and tennis.

Later, other sports were added: swimming and diving (1970); cross-country and track and field (1975); women's volleyball (1976); women's soccer (1994).

In 1974, the University started to offer scholarships to women athletes.

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Currently, 40.5 percent of the varsity athletes at Penn State are women, said Associate Athletic Director Ellen Perry. Also, out of 14 female and 15 male teams, the percentages of University athletic scholarships is an exact 60/40 male/female ratio, she added.

Perry said the University has worked to create a balance in male and female athletics since the initiation of Title IX in 1972, a law which prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs or activities receiving federal funding.

"I think Penn State's plan is to do things not because it's required by law," said Susan Delaney-Scheetz, assistant athletic director, "but because it's right."

Junior Gyll Turteltaub, a member of the women's soccer team, said she has noticed an increase in what female athletes receive at Penn State -- especially since last fall, when the soccer team played on the varsity level for the first time.

"I appreciate everything that we get," she added. "Some of the players don't realize what we get."