IMPACT OF TITLE IX ON ATHLETICS
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There have been many important people throughout the history of Title IX. These people helped women become star athletes in America. Billie Jean King was a professional tennis player who famously beat Bobby Riggs in the “battle of the sexes.” Since then she has been an advocate for women’s rights. Birch Bayh was nicknamed the “father” of Title IX because of his role in seeing that Title IX was passed in the Senate. Richard Nixon was the president who signed Title IX and made discrimination based on sex illegal. Ann Meyers was the first woman to sign a four-year athletic scholarship with UCLA in 1976. She made history once again when she signed an NBA contract with the Indiana Pacers, which made her the first woman to sign an NBA contract. Finally, Val Ackerman was the founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association. She was also the first female president of USA Basketball. She has been vocal about Title IX and the impact it has had on athletics. All of these people have had an impact on Title IX in some way, and we should be very grateful for that. These people allowed women the opportunity to play sports every day. These people impacted women’s athletics forever (“The Most”).
2017 was the 45th anniversary of Title IX. On the 90th anniversary, the year will be 2062. It seems so far away, but many changes to the world will have happened. When the 90th anniversary of Title IX rolls around, it is possible that women have been president for so long that men are begging for a chance to be in office again. It's possible there will be 60 women in the U.S. Senate and 250 in the House of Representatives. In 2062, it is very possible that the roles of women and men will be reversed. Many women are lawyers and doctors, it may even be unlikely for men to be hired as lawyers and doctors in the year 2062. This will be because women were allowed to play sports in high school and college. For much of the 20th century, the nation made a gigantic mistake. It didn’t allow women to play sports. It denied these women access to learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, physical fitness, confidence, and winning and losing at a young age. Boys were allowed to play sports, while women generally were not. This happened for many years until Title IX was enacted in 1972. It took around 20 years for Title IX to really take off, but when it did millions of women and girls flooded athletic facilities and sports fields ready for their chance to shine. Before Title IX was enacted into law, the only girls that you would see on athletic fields would be girls telling their brothers that it was time to come home for dinner. In 2021 Title IX is only 49 years old but the impact that it has had will last a lifetime (Brennan).
During the Coronavirus pandemic and all the unknowns, Nancy Hogshead-Makar feared that colleges would start cutting women’s sports programs across the United States. Hogshead-Makar and researchers that she hired for this project found that when they looked at reports from 2,000 schools across the United States, they found that 90% of them were not following the Title IX law. In Florida, the statistics show that for every 100 female athletes there are 2.9 opportunities to play sports and for men, there are 4.4 opportunities for every 100 male students. Hogshead, the woman who did the study on colleges and how closely they follow Title IX, was an Olympian who had the opportunity to play sports in college. She said, “I was one of the best athletes in the world, and none of that would have mattered if it wasn’t for Title IX.” She also said, “If it wasn’t for Title IX, I would never have been able to get a college scholarship and I would not have gone on to win gold in 1984.” If it wasn’t for Title IX, she would have never been able to go to the Olympics and win two gold medals in swimming for the United States (Martinez).
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