Back when women's administrators sold popcorn at games and Dave Shoji pulled out the bleachers at Klum Gym, University of Hawai'i women's athletic director Donnis Thompson had what was then an earth-shaking idea. Why not charge people to watch Rainbow Wahine volleyball?

Before Hawai'i's four-time national champions take on Louisiana Tech today, Thompson's vision and tenacity will be honored when a commemorative sculpture of her is unveiled on the concourse level of Stan Sheriff Center. It captures her in her late 30s, standing with a volleyball under her arm and wearing a stop watch. In her other hand, she is holding a book symbolizing her career as an educator, with Title IX noted on the outside cover of the book.

Jan-Michelle Sawyer, who used to teach at UH, sculptured Thompson "looking strong and confident into the future, as if visioning a positive future for all athletes at the University of Hawai'i."

"As the sculptor, it is rewarding for me to realize that everyday, young athletes — men and women — will walk by this commemorative sculpture of Dr. Thompson at the Stan Sheriff Center and learn about her and the women's athletic program for many years and decades to come," Sawyer said. "I believe portrait sculpture is an invitation for the viewer to learn something about the subject and to probe further in understanding the individual and what they did in their life to be honored."

Thompson's impact on Manoa was immense in the 1970s and '80's. She moved here from Chicago in 1961 to lecture in Health and Physical Education, and start a track and field team. She became the first women's athletic director in 1972, the same year Hawai'i congresswoman Patsy Mink oversaw passage of Title IX, legislation she co-authored that made it illegal for any education program receiving federal assistance to discriminate on the basis of gender.

CONSTANT BATTLES

Mink was originally inspired to write the legislation because 12 medical schools denied her application. She had a natural affinity for the Rainbow Wahine, according to Thompson. The two became allies, with Thompson and a volleyball program as successful as it was popular providing a peek at what was possible for Mink, and her legislation — renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act after her death — providing a foundation for fairness.

To this day, the 74-year-old Thompson can't remember a moment at UH when there was not a battle.

"It was a constant fight because everything was new, everything I suggested doing was new," Thompson recalled. "People hadn't heard of it. We hadn't even charged for volleyball, or any women's sports."

She hired Dave Shoji in 1975. It was a part-time position that paid $2,000. Shoji held two other jobs and was ordered by Thompson to book his teams into Motel 6 — then $6 a night — on the road. Four years later, he won the school's first national championship. He is still the coach of the only revenue-producing women's volleyball program in the country. The team that had to fight to charge admission has made as much as $500,000 for the athletic department in a season.

BRUIN BREAKTHROUGH

Two years after that 1979 AIAW title, about the time Thompson would leave UH to become superintendent of schools, she finally got Shoji a fulltime position. She calls that one of her greatest achievements, along with getting the scholarships needed to transform what started with a $5,000 budget into a $480,000 program, with seven sports, when she left. Today, more than 200 women compete in 12 sports at UH.

There was also that massive battle to bring UCLA here in 1976 to play in Blaisdell Center, and charge admission. Somehow, and Thompson is still not quite sure how, the Rainbow Wahine drew a sellout crowd of 7,813. Admission has been charged ever since.

"They couldn't understand that," Thompson said of those above her. "We weren't even charging for volleyball. After UCLA played here people saw how competitive we were and how outstanding it was when we played an outstanding team."

CHALLENGING PEOPLE

There would be many more battles — "Every other day I tired of it," Thompson admits — but she would do it all again.

"Everything had to be done and oh yes I'd do it again, little fisticuffs or what have you," said Thompson, who moved back to Hawai'i in March. "We had to do it so women had equity. One of the major things that happened was, it brought Patsy Mink to games to see women's volleyball. She started calling me and asking specific things. It was an outgrowth of Title IX."

There was a Title IX complaint filed back then, as there is now, against UH. Thompson was glad it happened, though it threatened her career, and is still grateful to State Rep. Faith Evans for having the "courage" to do it.

"People had to be challenged. People running things didn't believe anything we were saying," Thompson said. "They felt we would hurt the men's program. We were talking about student-athletes, not men or women — how to provide resources for them. To put it on the basis of male or female is ridiculous, but that was the way of thinking."

Sawyer, the sculptor, said her greatest challenge was to show Thompson in all the different lights of her life. She wants students from the '60s, Title IX benefactors from the '70s and those who worked with Thompson in the '80s to recognize each phase of her remarkable life.

And remember.

"When it comes to a person's face or time in history we all have different and very specific remembrances," said Sawyer, who first met Thompson in 1984. "The challenge for a portrait sculptor is to realize that and somehow get it translated into the sculpture, so that essence of the person is there."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.