I Had Dreams, They Have Expectations

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

-- From the Preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

Last week we quietly marked the 43rd anniversary of Title IX, the law that barred sex discrimination in schools. I never heard anybody on the news mention it. But it's been in my mind all month watching the incredible national soccer team we take for granted perform in the Women's World Cup.

I hope you'll forgive me a little self-indulgence today. 

You know, it might have been a whole different ball game if Title IX had become law in 1961. For me, anyway.

Quite possibly, I would have been somewhere else now, doing something far removed from writing for an online newspaper.

During high school, athletics defined me. They were my life. With a little enouragement, a very little, I would have pursued a career in professional sports.

I was a decent tennis player and an even better softball player. I played field hockey and basketball -- if only to the center line, according to "girls rules." And once, in 1960 -- at age 17 -- during a regional track meet at Springfield College, I heaved a near-9-pound shot 2.5 inches shy of the college's record.

Back then, real women didn't shot-put. It was an unwritten law.

Prowess in a male-dominated sport was treated as an embarrassment. Had I made the same throw today, I might have seen my name in Sports Illustrated, perhaps even won a ranking as an Olympic hopeful in track and field.

But there were no athletic scholarships for women in the '60s. No offer to sponsor track training for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, or the '64 Games in Tokyo. Women studied to "teach gym," but never begin with athletic competition.

"Be a cheerleader," a high school guidance counselor advised me after a hockey stick broke my nose for the second time. "That way you can travel with the real school team and you won't hurt yourself."

Well, these were things I remembered Tuesday evening as I watched the amazing U.S. women's soccer team roll over Germany, 2-0, in the World Cup semifinals.

Without Title IX there would have been no Women's World Cup. America led the planet in women's soccer for nearly two decades, remember, while American men were/are still trying to prove to the world that they can compete with the elite in the game. 

And Title IX did more for women than give them access to games. It really was -- ultimately, anyway -- my gender's ticket to the playing field of life.

Before 1972 a woman had to be something above and beyond mere mortal to achieve success.

Look at Sally Ride, who on June 18, 1983, became the first woman to fly in space.

She played tennis at Stanford University, but had no scholarship. "I would have appreciated Title IX being earlier," she told reporters during the law's 25th anniversary gala. Ride was a physics professor at the University of California Space Institute until shortly before her death in 2012. Since her NASA flight a growing number of women have applied to, and been accepted in, the space program.

Most women over 50 remember life before Title IX, on and off the playing field.

On the cusp of that age group was 1996 U.S. Olympic Softball Team captain Dot Richardson. She was 10 years old, playing catch in an Orlando park when a man noticed her exceptional arm and asked her if she wanted to play on his Little League team. Richardson was thrilled. "We'll just cut your hair short," said the coach, "and call you Bob."

Former Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 10 years old in 1972, could out-run and out-jump every boy in her high school during the whole of her four years. "I had to wait to get the practice field until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m when the jayvee and freshman teams were finished with it," she was reported as saying. Later, she would win an athletic scholarship to UCLA.

Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, was refused readmission to Georgetown University's School of Nursing after her marriage. In 1966 the school didn't permit married women to be students.

When I think of exciting young women like the University of South Florida's Courtney Williams (basketball), Florida College's Elizabeth Hammontree (soccer), University of Florida's Morgan Frazier (gymnastics) and Florida State's Macey Cheatham (softball) -- and hundreds of other students excelling in all kinds of areas in Florida schools -- I get goosebumps. These young women have brighter futures because of Title IX's success.

Today, more than 120,000 women participate in intercollegiate athletics -- more than a fivefold increase since 1971.

We've made great strides, it's true. But in terms of overall gender equity, there's still a long way to go. As the Washington, D.C.-based Women's College Coalition points out, women continue to be herded into traditionally female occupations of the lowest-paying sort.

Having said that, I am still convinced that without Title IX, young women who achieve today, who use the natural gifts God gave, might still be outside the action, still just traveling as a passenger with the "real" team. 

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith