When Joan Cronan coached volleyball at Charleston College in 1974, the Cougars reached the regionals of the national tournament. If her team, a NAIA program at the time, wanted to compete, Cronan had to transport them more than 700 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, to Martin, Tennessee.
At the time, Cronan was also coaching women’s basketball and tennis, something unheard of on a college level today. She had a limited budget and traveling to regional volleyball tournaments would be difficult.
“I actually rented a yellow school bus and personally took the yellow school bus to Martin, Tennessee,” Cronan said. “These girls had worked so hard and I wanted to take them to regional tournaments.”
Cronan, now honorary director of women’s athletics in Tennessee, noted that today coaches in major university programs will never have to personally transport their teams. In fact, this would be considered a huge responsibility.
Increased budgets and benefits are one of the main impacts of Title IX on college sports. Fifty years ago, 37 words passed into law had an indelible impact on women’s sports in the United States. In just one sentence, Title IX created opportunities for girls and women at every level in athletics.
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Today, women’s athletics in college is leaps and bounds from where it was in 1972 in terms of resources. Although not perfect, the world of women’s sports in 2022 is in many ways a direct result of these 37 words.
The law does not require schools to provide the same amount of funding for all men’s and women’s sports. A sport like football, with lists of more than 100 players and millions in revenue, should not receive the same amount of funding as a women’s golf team.
What the law requires, however, is that the institutions provide equal athletic opportunities for members of both sexes. treatment This includes elements such as the provision of equipment and supplies, travel expenses, compensation of coaches and more.
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This “laundry list” means that coaches no longer have to pinch pennies and rent school buses to get to competitions, as Cronan did in the 1970s.
“I don’t like to say that schools should have been forced to do the right thing, but somehow it had to happen,” said Bev Lewis, a former women’s athletics director in Arkansas. “That’s why there had to be laws with justice. I don’t think we would be where we are without Title IX. “
Progress has been slow and steady
But passing Title IX does not trigger the light switch. In fact, its effects on athletics were unforeseen in the early days of the law, and athletic administrators insisted on exceptions. Progress has been slow and steady.
Like Cronan, Lewis started as a coach. She led the women’s athletics program for eight years, beginning in 1981.
Prior to Title IX, Lewis said women’s athletics opportunities in Arkansas were mostly limited to part-time archery, bowling, golf, gymnastics, swimming and tennis. Arkansas established its women’s athletics department in 1972 with a budget of $ 5,000, making the former club sport a more legitimate athletics department.
By the time Lewis arrived nine years later, the women’s athletics program was five years old. Lewis still had to teach lessons, serve as a strength coach, academic advisor, and, like Cronan, drive the bus. It wasn’t until Arkansas, along with many other major programs, joined the NCAA in the early 1980s that women’s programs began to have resources for coaches to simply train.
Helen Grant was a senior female administrator at Southern Miss in the 1990s and now works as a consultant, helping athletics departments determine their compliance with Title IX. She sees the transition from the Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics Association to the NCAA as a major part of the progress that women’s college sports have made. The NCAA was able to provide financial support that the AIAW did not have.
“I will always say that if we had stayed on this course,” Grant said, “I don’t think we would be anywhere near where we are with what is meant for women’s sport.”
More opportunities, scholarships, participation
Fifty years after the passage of Title IX, women’s sports in college has come a long way since the days of Cronan’s yellow school bus. The share of women in NCAA athletics has nearly tripled since before Title IX, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Schools also have more women’s sports and more scholarships for women athletes. Arkansas, for example, now has 10 university women’s sports, up from five in 1972.
There is still progress on equity in sport. NCAA’s new rules on names, images and similarities come with questions about compliance with Title IX. Recent years have raised concerns about discrepancies between men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, especially basketball.
But Cronan believes that Title IX works.
“I don’t even have to do research,” Cronan said. “All I have to do is, say, get on a plane and introduce myself as an honorary director of women’s sports at the University of Tennessee. I sit next to a couple and they immediately say, “Oh, I have a daughter, or I have a granddaughter who …” and explain the athletic abilities of their daughter or granddaughter.
“Title IX works when mothers, fathers, grandparents want the same experience for their daughters as their sons. And I think that’s what happened.