When Joan Birkland notes that “I’m not a sit-arounder,” you can take her at her word.
The lifelong Coloradan, now a spry 83 years old, is one of the more accomplished all-round athletes in the state’s history, and little slows down the woman who was appropriately born in the Roaring Twenties.
This week, she’s particularly focused on the annual awards banquet for the Sportswomen of Colorado, an organization for which she’s served as executive director for almost 38 years. About 500 people are expected for this year’s banquet, which is set for Sunday (March 11) at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center.
About 45 women will be honored on Sunday night, including several for what they’ve done in the sport of golf: Elena King, Dani Urman, Somin Lee and Laurie Steenrod.
For a person who has accomplished so much in sports, it seems only appropriate that Birkland’s avocation these last several decades has been sports-related.
“Sports have been a huge part of my life,” said Birkland (pictured above with former LPGA standouts Patty Sheehan, left, and Hollis Stacy, center). “I don’t have children, so I had a lot of time to play. You make such good friends in athletics. You learn to compete and you learn how to win and how to lose.”
It’s also appropriate that Birkland would oversee a women’s sports organization. After all, she was among the pioneers as far as Colorado women athletes go, having competed not only in golf and tennis, but basketball. For a time, during her athletic peak, she played on a traveling AAU basketball team called the Denver Viners.
She laughs when she thinks about how far things have come for women athletes during her lifetime.
When Birkland was young, “We were told it was bad for you to compete,” she said. “They said not to run more than 100 yards. You tell people that now and they say, ‘What?'”
Indeed, that’s one of the reasons for Sportswomen of Colorado’s existence — to promote equal opportunity in sports for women. So, in addition to honoring female athletes of all ages, Sportswomen does things like it’s planning at this year’s banquet — paying tribute to Title IX and promoting the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four that’s being held in Denver this year.
Personally, Birkland competed at a very high level athletically for many years — high enough to be the only person inducted into both the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame. And, not surprisingly, she’s also been enshrined in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Suffice it to say Birkland isn’t lacking for trophies.
In golf, she won seven major CWGA championships during the 1960s — the most of anyone during that decade. She “three-peated” as champion of both the Match Play (1960, ’61 and ’62, in addition to ’64) and the Stroke Play (1964, ’65 and ’66). Twice — in 1962 and ’66 — she won state golf and state tennis titles in the same year. Including her women’s open singles crowns at the Colorado State Open in 1962 and ’66, Birkland claimed 21 major championships in Colorado and the mountain region — six in singles and 15 in doubles.
“Today it would be difficult to compete in both sports because they’re at the same time of the year (in high school) and if kids want to earn a scholarship they’re told to concentrate on one sport,” said Birkland, who attended the University of Colorado. “But I had a pretty good record.”
One of Birkland’s favorite memories from her days as a peak performer was facing Althea Gibson, the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title in tennis. They met in the first round of the Colorado State Open during the 1950s, just after Gibson scored her breakthrough internationally.
“Because of the altitude, about every forehand she hit early in the match landed about a foot out,” Birkland recalled. “I was up 5-3 (in the first set), and you could see the (tournament officials) squirming. They had paid her probably $1,000 or $2,000 and she was their draw for the week. They were thinking, ‘What if Joanie wins?’ But she got her feet under her, and I think I lost something like 7-5, 6-2. They laughed about that for years.”
Though Birkland said she won more state titles in golf than tennis — because nationally ranked players such as Gibson would compete in the state tennis open — she noted she was “probably a more natural tennis player.”
Birkland has been a member at Denver Country Club almost her entire life, but she played most of her tennis as a youngster at Denver’s City Park. She didn’t take up golf until her 20s, and then split most of her rounds among DCC, Willis Case and City Park.
“When I got married I decided to play golf, and I loved it,” she said. “It’s such a different sport because you play yourself. It became a challenge. In tennis you play your opponent.”
Birkland still plays both golf and tennis in her 80s, but she no longer competes in tennis tournaments, and only in team matches in golf. Appropriately, one of the golf tournaments she still plays is named after her — “The J.B.”, an annual event at DCC. Though Birkland’s handicap took a pretty big jump last year, she owns a 14 handicap. When she was in her prime, she was a 4 or 5, though she notes, “I didn’t hit the ball as far as some.”
Birkland has also played an active volunteer role in golf, including once serving as chairperson of the USGA Women’s Committee.
Nowadays, as has been the case for decades now, Birkland gets a kick out of advocating for other women in sports through her role as executive director of Sportswomen in Colorado.
“It’s fun,” she said. “It keeps me out having fun with people. I’m not a sit-arounder. And these kids (receiving awards) are phenomenal.”
The idea for Sportswomen of Colorado came about when the YWCA of Metropolitan Denver asked Birkland and some others to fundraise for post-mastectomy women, involving top female athletes in the process. After 10 years, a group including Birkland “decided we should break off from the ‘Y’ and have it be statewide.”
Decades later, the Sportswomen of Colorado — and Birkland — are still going strong.
“I’m sure I’ll have to” slow down at some point, she said. “But I’m still knocking on wood.”
This year, the featured speaker at the awards banquet will be former Colorado-based basketball standout Abby Waner, who starred at Duke and now works for ESPN.
Some tickets for the banquet are still available. Those interested should call Birkland at 303-331-0376.
