Top 100 momentsNo. 4
Title IX becomes law
A U.S. education amendment bans sex discrimination in school programs. Girls’ and women’s sports get gyms, scholarships, and a future that had been optional.
Title IX is 37 words in an education law. It does not mention basketball. It does not mention scholarships. It says no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from any education program that gets federal money.
Schools that had poured money into boys’ teams now have to explain the other locker room. Athletic departments fight it, delay it, and then, slowly, comply. Girls who had been told to be cheerleaders get varsity letters. Universities that had one women’s team get a department.
The U.S. women who fill World Cups and Olympic rosters are Title IX’s grandchildren. The law did not invent talent. It stopped institutions from wasting it.