50 Iowa moments since Title IX: Field hockey wins first official Big Ten title

Editor’s note: This is 10th in a series counting down the Top 50 moments in Iowa Hawkeyes women’s athletics history in the 50 days leading up to the 50th anniversary of Title IX in June.

Former Iowa field hockey player Ellen (Egan) Regn remembers getting ready in the notoriously “Pepto Bismol pink” visiting locker rooms at Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 17, 1981.

She remembers having “a lot of people in the stands” for the game against Purdue.

Most importantly, she remembers the result. The Hawkeyes downed the Boilermakers, 1-0, for their first official Big Ten title in program history.

“It was really cool,” Regn said.

Cool is a fitting word, literally and figuratively.

“It downpoured that day,” Regn said of the game on a Saturday in October. “I actually have a picture of us all soaking wet at the end of the game.”

Iowa outshot Purdue, 25-2, but Wendy (DeWane) Watro’s goal after a penalty corner was the lone score.

“The ball doesn’t go very fast in water,” former player Diane Monkiewicz said.

While the weather dampened the offense, it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm.

“You were soaking wet to your underwear, and you didn't even care,” Regn said. “We just were so excited that we won, and we won it in Iowa City.”

While 1981 was officially the Hawkeyes’ first Big Ten title, the winning feeling was not new. They went 3-0 in the 1980 Big Ten tournament, but there wasn’t an official Big Ten champion that year.

“It’s not on the record books, but emotionally it is (a title) because we went and we won it,” Regn said.

That unofficial title didn’t take away from the first official title, though.

“It feels twice as good as the first one,” head coach Judith Davidson told the Daily Iowan at the time.

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