Patty Freedson planned to wear her new jacket for a night out with friends and again to a football game on Saturday.

After that, she wasn’t sure. But knowing it’ll be hanging in her closet will be a source of happiness, pride and a lot of good memories.

The new coat is a Michigan letterman’s jacket, a classic, blue with cream colored sleeves and a maize-colored big block M that sits over her heart.

Freedson, 63, a Belchertown resident and UMass professor of kinesiology, earned her M as a Wolverine varsity tennis player in 1974. Back then, not only did women not receive the treasured items, but legendary football coach Bo Schembechler’s opposition to giving the jackets to women belittled all female athletes.

Giving them to women would “minimize the value of the ‘M’ in the eyes of not only our players but the public who place such a high value on it,” he wrote in a letter to then-athletic director Dan Canham in 1975, when giving women the jackets was first proposed. Then-men’s basketball coach John Orr, who had previously coached at UMass, expressed similar sentiments in his own letter.

In the decades that followed, Freedson has been proud to see the opportunities and treatment of women’s athletes improve considerably, at UMass and Michigan.

But she never hoped that the respect would be symbolically back-dated, until a letter arrived last year.

“I got a letter from the athletic director, as did all the female athletes, saying they’re going to right a wrong and they’re going to acknowledge our participation as an intercollegiate athlete at Michigan and give us a block M jacket if we wanted it,” Freedson said. “I thought it was great, and of course I jumped on it.”

Freedson and other athletes from 1973-1991 were eventually invited to return to Ann Arbor to be recognized this weekend. The two days of activities will climax when they’re honored at halftime of Saturday’s Michigan football game against Indiana.

“Never in a million years did this cross my mind,” she said. “That makes it even more special. I was just totally surprised by the act of kindness and righteousness. It was amazing to me.”

Approximately 300 women will make the pilgrimage back to campus this weekend. They’ve filled the Facebook group Michigan Early Women’s Letterwinners with messages of excitement for both the honor and chance to reunite with one another.

Freedson, who earned her bachelors, master’s and doctorate from Michigan, said it wasn’t until she left Ann Arbor that she realized that the treatment had been unfair.

She was encouraged to see the treatment and opportunities for women improve as many athletes took her class at UMass, where she began working in 1981.

“I see everyday how they are treated and respected equally to male athletes in terms of academic support, resources, travel, uniforms, all the things we didn’t have any of back in the 70s,” she said. “I think UMass has done a really good job of equalizing men’s and women’s sports as best as they can. That’s not to say there’s not more to do. But systematically they’ve made significant progress here at UMass.”

Michigan, which has been among the nation’s highest profile athletic departments for decades, lagged behind some schools in embracing women’s athletics. Of the school’s 56 national team champions, only two have been won by women — field hockey in 2001 and softball in 2005.

“They were a powerhouse, a major force in college athletics” in the 70s, Freedson said. “But when I look back it was a slower process than I would have expected from such a high-powered school.”

But this weekend, she’ll be proud of her school for taking a step to recognize the pioneering women.

“I have to say this simple act of recognition is very significant to me and has tremendous meaning,” Freedson said. “I think (seeing us on the field) will be a wonderful symbol for little girls, little boys and the people that are in the audience.”

Freedson is retiring from UMass after this semester and planned to moved to Florida, where the weather is usually too warm for any jacket.

“I’m getting rid of all my winter clothes. But I’m taking the jacket with me,” Freedson said. “I’ll at least hang it in my closet and look at it proudly.”

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage

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