Ruth Crowe’s controversial ending to her nine-year tenure as Iowa State’s softball coach – which included objecting to a pregame prayer at Baylor and branding Texas A&M fans “dumb farmers” – is on trial.

She is now fighting for back pay and damages for wrongful dismissal.

Crowe testified Wednesday that her firing on June 1, 2005, came without warning from former athletic director Bruce Van De Velde, who asked her to resign, then terminated her with one year left on her contract.

“I believe it lacked integrity and it lacked common decency,” Crowe said at a trial before Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg and a five-woman, two-man jury. “I also thought it lacked the loyalty that someone who had coached for nine years at Iowa State deserved.”

Crowe is seeking back pay of about $125,000 and an undisclosed amount in compensatory damages. If Crowe wins, she could also be reinstated to her job.

But lawyers representing Iowa State made it clear in cross-examination they intend to paint the dismissal as justified based on Crowe’s 166-244 record and complaints from former players that she was unable to control her emotions, cursed frequently and was verbally abusive.

Other members of Crowe-coached teams, including Ashley Kileen Bails and Solon High School star and two-time Canadian Olympian Erin Woods White, disputed that contention.

Also expected to testify this week are Callie Sanders, Iowa State’s senior women’s athletic administrator; former Iowa State assistant athletic director Elaine Hieber; and possibly Jamie Pollard, the school’s current athletic director.

Van De Velde, whose deposition was taken and is expected to be read into the record, is not expected to testify.

The trial is also putting Iowa State’s commitment to gender equity under the federal Title IX law under a microscope.

Crowe claims in her lawsuit that Van De Velde dismissed her not because of problems within the program, but because she raised questions about the school’s lack of commitment to Title IX, particularly concerning what she characterized as substantially lower salaries for coaches of women’s teams and a 3-to-1 difference in money spent on recruiting male athletes.

Crowe said she met in 2004 with Paula Morrow, Iowa State’s faculty athletic representative, as well as members of the influential University Committee on Women raising concerns that the athletic department had failed to maintain comparable treatment of women’s coaches in salaries.

“After I had seen some of the numbers about the inequality, I just said that enough was enough,” Crowe said. “This was an issue about student welfare and I had become increasingly concerned.”

Morrow, a business professor, and Ann Thompson, a professor and then-president of the women’s committee, each acknowledged in testimony that they had met with Crowe about her concerns.

Morrow said she knew nothing of Van De Velde’s decision to fire Crowe until after it took place and that she had not heard any player complaints about Crowe before her dismissal.

Crowe’s lawyers also introduced e-mails from Sanders to Crowe and Van De Velde in which Sanders expressed concern about a growing inequality in salaries, particularly among assistant coaches.

Other e-mails introduced into evidence indicated that Van De Velde had initiated a review of Crowe’s program a month before her dismissal but failed to inform her that her job might be in jeopardy.

“I didn’t know such an evaluation was going on,” Crowe said.

Crowe acknowledged that she had been reprimanded by the school and the Big 12 for her behavior in a game at Texas A&M. Iowa State officials received complaints from fans claiming Crowe called them “dumb farmers.”

Crowe said she didn’t remember saying that directly to fans, but “I may have muttered it under my breath.”