The impact of the shift was not lost on opposing coaches, and soon more teams began to imitate Kleinfelder’s tactics. But after almost a decade, a rule change was implemented which removed the defensive advantage of her strategy. The rule, called the restraining line, limits the number of players in the defensive zone and effectively promotes a more open, attacking style of play. Still a part of women’s lacrosse rules today, the restraining line was a response to an ingenious strategy of an inventive coach, and it may remain the most widely known (on a national scale) of Kleinfelder’s contributions to the sport of lacrosse.
Fighting for Women’s Opportunities at Home
Three years after the ribbon solidarity in the NCAA playoffs, Kleinfelder found herself mired in another controversy surrounding women’s sports, this time of her own making and in her own backyard.
Examining the Harvard Athletic Department’s budget in 1993, Kleinfelder found a difference in the funding between men’s and women’s sports to the tune of one million dollars. Upset at the injustice of the situation (which would be a violation of Title IX provisions), Kleinfelder spoke out.
“She was a firm believer that you had to make sacrifices to support women’s sports,” Drury said.
Her speech was a sacrifice in and of itself, and it wasn’t well received in the Cambridge community.
Her tires were slashed. Her team’s Earth Day tree was cut down.
Despite recalling those incidents as scary and “totally threatening,” Kleinfelder did not hold her tongue. Again in 1994, she was the lone voice to speak up against Harvard’s Title IX violation.
She eventually found support in University Hall, and a radical policy change was not far behind. After her initiative, men’s and women’s sports at Harvard now receive equal funding, and the women’s sports programs have continued to prosper.
“Carole has always been a very strong advocate of women’s rights and pointing out injustices,” Sailer said. “She never settled for the status quo. It’s made a real difference for women’s sports in general, and Harvard in particular.”
Happy Trails
Her decision to leave has been brewing for some time now. Kleinfelder recalls a conversation with Athletic Director Bob Scalise in October when she mentioned her intention to retire at season’s end. But after hearing her complaints about the hectic 12-month schedules and the troubles of recruiting, one would wonder if the decision had been on her mind longer.
Other things have been on her mind as well—seeing family, maybe writing a book and designing and building her own house in Maine. But her commitment to women’s sports is not something that is going to go away, even as she settles into her life after lacrosse.
“I want to continue to support women in sports in anyway I can,” she said.
Such is not a sentiment that surprises those who know her best.
“Carole is a leader in the women’s lacrosse field,” Leary said. “She set a high bar and she’s continually pushing forward for women’s sports.”
—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.