When Donnis Thompson returned to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa as part of its Health and Physical Education department in the late 1960s, the women's track and field team she had founded years earlier was gone. But she didn't try to revive the program.

"That was the last thing I wanted to do," Thompson, 74, said by phone from her California home. "I wanted to do research, teach my classes — what people do at the university."

That didn't last long. One day, a female student showed up at Thompson's office door in tears. She had just been thrown out of the UH pool for wearing a swimsuit that exposed her navel.

"I said to myself, 'This is definitely segregation here against women, and there is no reason for it,' " she said.

Thompson, who went on to become the state's first black schools superintendent, faced vocal opponents to women's sports.

"Over and over and over again, there was a lot of resentment about what we were doing, but we made it through," Thompson said.

Thompson, believing women should have the right to play sports, wrangled $5,000 from the athletic department to fund Wahine track and volleyball in 1972.

The Wahine volleyball team won its first national title in 1979.

"Every university that has women's athletics had a pioneer — a person who stepped forward to start women's athletics. She was ours," said Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, who played on the first volleyball team and is now senior women's administrator of UH-Manoa athletics.

Over the years, and with Title IX on her side, the women's program grew to 12 sports with a budget of $4 million and athletic scholarships of $1.5 million.

Thompson's most triumphant moment was in 1976, when the Wahine volleyball team faced UCLA in front of a sold-out crowd of 7,800 people at the Blaisdell Center.

"Everybody thought I was nuts. They kept telling me, 'No one is going to pay to watch women's volleyball,' " Thompson said.

"We went in Blaisdell with not one free seat. It was beautiful."

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.