Like many kids, Lois Manin had no clear idea what she wanted to do as an adult.
She did have a dream, briefly.
“I was all over the place, but at one time I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” she said. “But back then they weren’t allowing women in combat.”
Back then was the 1970s and ’80s, and the world was a different place, especially for girls with nontraditional ambitions.
Title IX became law when Manin was 4. When she was 9 and started playing organized sports, she’d still never heard of the federal law requiring gender equity in educational opportunities, including athletics.
She now knows it has played a big part in her career in sports administration.
“Title IX had something to do with me getting my first job (at the University of Hawaii),” said Manin, who is UH’s associate athletic director in charge of student services and senior woman administrator. She is also athletic director David Matlin’s chief of staff.
“In my job now, I kind of touch everything. Scholarships, student services, compliance office,” said Manin, who also chairs the Big West’s COVID-19 response meetings and is liasion for the conference.
Manin is working on three events celebrating the 50th anniversary of UH women’s sports, which coincides with that of Title IX. A day of giving is set for Sept. 1 prior to the home opener for Rainbow Wahine volleyball, a field day feting all UH women’s sports at the Ching Complex is slated for Sept. 10, and a dinner gala is on for Oct. 14. The volleyball day of giving will be annual, she said.
“The idea is to connect our teams, our student-athletes, to the community, and expose the community more to women’s sports,” Manin said.
Much of Manin’s career has been about exposure for all UH sports. She capped nearly two decades in media relations at Manoa in 2007 by organizing a Heisman Trophy campaign for Warriors quarterback Colt Brennan.
“Without Lois’ work I’d never be a Heisman finalist,” Brennan said in New York that December, where it was announced he was third in the voting.
After setting up the campaign, but before that highly anticipated season, Manin left UH to be deputy manager at Aloha Stadium.
“They were going to have a historical season with or without me,” she said. “What it came down to was professional development. Take out all the emotion and stuff, and it was an opportunity to grow professionally that Scott (Chan, the stadium manager) gave me.”
Right after college graduation, her job options were much different — between working at grocery and sporting goods stores. She did both before her mother alerted her to a newspaper ad.
It was for a position at what was then called the sports information department at UH. With a rabid interest in athletics and a journalism degree and sports information internship from Colorado State, Manin was qualified and hired.
“I was kind of lucky, coming in I had (sportswriters) Ann (Miller) and Cindy (Luis) to kind of usher and mentor me,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much at the time, but reflecting back, that was big. Working with two female sports writers helped. It was always tough being in the sports world that was dominated by men.”
In 1995, Manin became one of the first women to direct a Division I university’s sports information (or as most are now called, media relations) department. That position includes handling informaton for the football program.
“Lois was a pioneer, and early on was one of only two woman football communication professionals in Division I,” said Derek Inouchi, her successor as UH sports media relations director. “She was my mentor and taught me a lot of what I know today. … After all these years I still look up to her and even more so today.”
After a nine-year stint at Aloha Stadium, Manin returned to UH as director of operations for the football program when Nick Rolovich was head coach.
Competing as an interscholastic athlete instilled her with the confidence to take on jobs few women had before.
“When you’re a young girl growing up, going through high school trying to figure out who you are socially, emotionally, participation in sports helps,” she said. “Being part of a team makes you accountable, helps you socially, and that’s all super-important for molding your self-confidence. It helps you decide, do you want to be a leader? A follower? The only place I felt comfortable and confident was on the softball field.”
Manin was a home run hitter at Kaiser High School.
“In tennis,” she said with a laugh. “I wasn’t very good, I hit it over the fence a lot.”
She was good enough to letter in it. Manin also ran on Kaiser’s 4×100 track and field relay team and started at point guard in basketball.
But softball was her best sport by far, and she was an All-State center fielder as a junior for one of the best teams in the state in 1985.
Travel ball didn’t exist then, and a lot of college sports recruiting — especially for Hawaii, and especially for women — was by recommendation.
“Moana Bader from Punahou was probably the first one, and then Shari Yamashiro from Lab School (University High),” Manin said. “They said, ‘Hey, we’ve got some more players in Hawaii.’”
That’s how Heather Love (Kamehameha), Kathy Sai (University) and Manin ended up at Colorado State.
Manin batted .271 as a freshman, but her average climbed to .476 the next season — after coach Jo Evans convinced her to convert to batting left-handed. She set a school single-season record for hits while making the all-region team.
As a junior, Manin set another school single-season record, for sacrifice hits. That May the Rams got a first-hand taste of gender inequity — they finished a school-best 37-14, ranked 13th in the nation. And then … nothing. In 1989, the women’s NCAA softball tournament started with 20 teams, and CSU was not among them. The men’s baseball tournament included 48 teams.
“All I remember is Coach calling us and telling us we didn’t make it,” Manin said.
Today, both tournaments start with 64 teams.
From the way her boss speaks of her, Manin’s adaptability in college to move to the other side of the plate and all those sacrifice bunts were indicators of her future workplace character.
“Lois is a great example of Patsy Mink’s legacy,” Matlin said. “She was a scholarship student-athlete. That educational and athletic opportunity changed her trajectory to be the leader she is today. She is the most versatile administrator that I have ever worked with and is the ultimate team player. She makes everyone around her better.”
And Title IX gave her the chance — to play and work.
“One hundred percent,” she said. “Without that legislation I don’t know what I’d be doing now.”
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Lois Manin
Occupation: University of Hawaii associate athletic director in charge of student services, senior woman administrator and chief of staff
Previous positions: UH football director of operations, Aloha Stadium deputy manager, UH sports information director
Education: Colorado State, bachelor’s in technical journalism
Athletics: Three-year starting center fielder at CSU and all-region in 1988; lettered in four sports at Kaiser High School.
Family: Son Noah, 7.
Other interests: Played clarinet and saxophone. “When I got to high school I had to choose between band and sports.”
On Title IX: “The goal is to have compliance because it is the right thing to do and not just because it is required by law.”
