Bra humbug! Puritan dress code lives on

Rowan University and sports bras have not hovered in Tacoma’s line of sight very often, nor have they been conjoined in the news.

Rowan first registered on the local seismograph in 1993, when they lost handily to Pacific Lutheran University in the Division III football championship. Since then, the New Jersey university has flown beneath notice, churning out engineers, teachers and liberal arts major for the Camden and Philadelphia economies.

Sports bras dented our public consciousness for probably the first and last time when soccer star Brandy Chastain scored on a penalty kick to win the 1999 Women’s World Cup for the U.S. She tore off her jersey and dropped to her knees, revealing her very plain and decidedly asexual black sports bra.

Her arms flew up as she did so, an exultant celebration that communicated her joy to tens of millions of viewers. The photo became one of the iconic images in American sports history.

The football and soccer events had nothing in common. Since then, Rowan has pretty much dropped off the radar other than two other losing appearances in the Division III football championships.

Sports bras, serving as approved uniforms for women’s Olympic beach volleyball, have become too common to merit comment. Acceptance by the U.S. Olympic Committee apparently voided whatever salacious content they might have.

It came with parameters for width of the straps, apparently to ensure there was room for sponsors’ logos. Women routinely wear them in long-distance races, American Ninja Warrior competitions, mixed martial arts and power lifting.

A few weeks ago, Rowan and sports bras found an odd conjunction. It merited stories with “all the news that’s fit to print” in the New York Times, as well as mention on many other news sites.

The Rowan men’s football coach noticed the school’s women’s cross-country squad circling the track around the football field in their sports bras. He complained that the heavily breathing, foot-pounding female athletes distracted his gridiron heroes pounding the stuffing out of each other.

He apparently didn’t notice that sports bras vary greatly from the push-up bras from Victoria’s Secret or other scanty lingerie featured in publications ranging from Elle to Cosmopolitan.

They emerged as women sought underwear that would provide comfortable support during exercise while not chafing or binding.

Perhaps the most telling detail about the lack of sex appeal was the supposed origins of the garment. The first sports bra consisted of two jock straps sewn together – stretchy, supportive fabric combining maximum control with the greatest avoidance of discomfort.

Rowan’s athletic administrators, in a courageous stand on behalf of misplaced prudishness, determined that the women would have to don shirts and also move their practices to a nearby high school field.

In response, Gina Capone, a member of Rowan’s women’s cross-country team, complained about the double standard:

“We run in sports bras because we are confident, hard-working student athletes,” Capone wrote on theodysseyonline.com web site. “We do not run in a sports bra as a way to show off our bodies in an effort to attract men.”

Capone continued to say,” As girls, we could look at the football players in their tight pants showing everything and say they’re asking for it, but we don’t.”

It took Rowan’s administration a single day to alter their position in a decision of Solomonic wisdom. They decreed that women could run in sports bras when it was warm, as long as it was on a field beyond view of the football team.

It was heartwarming to be reminded that colleges continue to protect the sensibilities of their charges. When the 21st century runs up against the 20th, it offers reassurance that the mores of the 19th century will prevail.