40 years since Title IX, where are we now?

Beacon File Photo

Ruben Palacios/ Contributing Writer

This past June marked the 40th anniversary of equality in sports.

In June 1972, Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The act states that no one on the basis of gender should be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination while participating in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding.

“It improved women’s sports. It gave them an opportunity to receive athletic scholarship,” said Cindy Russo, head coach of women’s basketball at FIU.

Russo recalls how when she coached in Old Dominion, it was male-dominated. The longtime head coach noted how Old Dominion had to incorporate women sports, as opposed to FIU that began with both women and men’s sports.

Forty years after Title IX, the NCAA allots more scholarships to women than they do to men in many sports.

Men’s Division I baseball is allowed 11.7 scholarships per year, compared to softball which is allowed 12 scholarships per year. Men’s basketball gets 13 scholarships a year, while women’s basketball is allowed 15 yearly scholarships. Men’s soccer receives about 10 scholarships per year, while women’s soccer receives 14 scholarships per year.

In men’s volleyball only 4.5 scholarships are allowed per year, though on the women’s side, the NCAA allows 12 scholarships per year.

FIU, decades after the inauguration of Title IX, now offers more sports to women than it does to men. Women’s sports include basketball, cross country/track, and soccer similar to their male counterparts. FIU women’s sports also include golf, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor volleyball, and recently added sand volleyball — all sports, excluding softball, that men can participate in, but is not available at FIU. Men have their dominant sports, which are baseball and football.

Rita Buck-Crockett, director of volleyball operations and soon-to-be head coach of sand volleyball, had first-hand experience with Title IX. She was hired at the University of Iowa by Title IX activist Christine Grant. Grant helped draft the Title IX implementation guidelines with the Office for Civil Rights.

“I was the volleyball coach, but she was the senior woman administrator at the University of Iowa, and her heart was so into making sure things were equal and things were good that I’ve always been in a good place with the Title IX,” Buck-Crockett said.

Buck-Crockett also feels that it is a direct result of the endeavors of Title IX that FIU became one of only 18 schools nationwide to add sand volleyball as a sport for women.

“That is Title IX in the making,” Buck-Crockett said. “It’s brought opportunity for a completely different type of athlete to now have a chance to go to school and be a member of an NCAA division I institute.”

Though more sports are being offered to women athletes, a new problem arises: who coaches the women in these sports. Women’s collegiate sports are seeing the number of women coaches decrease and those in male coaches increase. At FIU alone, many of the women sports are coached by men. The women’s golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, indoor volleyball, and track and field are all coached by men.

Russo has been coaching at FIU for more than 30 years and is one of the only two active female coaches in FIU. As opposed to Buck-Crockett, who says she doesn’t see any problem with the amount of women’s coaches, Russo thinks the opposite.

“If you look at it overall, it’s just a little bit disturbing, the numbers. I don’t think that anything was done purposely to hire men and exclude women,” Russo said. “But the bottom line is the bottom line and [the ratio of men’s to women’s coaches] is not a pretty picture, it’s not a good picture, it’s not sending a really good message.”

Forty years later, Title IX is still producing new opportunities for female athletes at the collegiate level, despite the number of women coaches that have steadily declined over the years.

Russo believes that to help the diminishing field of women’s coaches, qualified female coaches should be a priority when hiring for vacant positions.

“I think if you have a good quality women’s coach that they should be chosen first, because we do not get a chance to coach men’s sports. Do you know any men’s sport that has a head coach for a woman, or any assistant coach really?”