Welcome: A Guide to the Virtual Exhibition
Title IX and Penn State Women’s Athletics: Success and Struggle for Equality is a digital exhibition that celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX regarding Penn State women’s athletics. This exhibition documents the accomplishments of Penn State’s women’s teams and struggles of administrators and coaches to keep athletics as part of that legislation, along with a brief history of women’s sports and physical education prior to the passing of Title IX. Penn State was one of the first universities to elevate women’s teams to “extramural athletics” status as the field hockey took the field in the first varsity match in 1964 and added numerous teams throughout the late 1960s, long before the Title IX enactment.
On June 23, 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The legislation states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation, in be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” While the law is broad to cover all aspects of gender discrimination, it is mostly known for giving equal opportunities for women in sports. This led to the growth of women’s and girl’s athletic teams and greater participation in physical education classes for all ages. However, there was pushback from organizations and institutions such as the NCAA, along with colleges and universities which fought to eliminate sports from the legislation. As late as 1983, in the landmark Supreme Court case, Grove City College v. Bell, the court ruled that the Title IX law only applied to specific programs within the school that received direct funding and not the entire institution, which presented problems on how to enforce Title IX statutes. However, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, over a veto by President Ronald Reagan that overturned Grove City College v. Bell and made it clear that if any part of a school accepts federal aid, every part of the school is subject to Title IX regulations.
This exhibit is organized into different categories documenting the triumphs and struggles through the years.
- Women’s early sports history–Highlights the history of women’s involvement in sports and physical education beginning in the late 19th century and leading up to the passage of Title IX, along with the advent of women’s intercollegiate competition in the 1960s
- National championships-Displays team photos of collegiate championship teams from the 1970s to the present
- Prominent athletes and coaches–Displays images of individual athletes and coaches who were the best in their sport during their respective collegiate careers at Penn State after the passage of Title IX legislation
- Penn State’s Role in Support of Title IX and Struggle for Equal Access-Documents include correspondence and newsletters from coaches and administrators that supported Title IX and their fight to keep athletics part of the legislation
The growth and achievement of Penn State women’s athletic teams is extraordinary. There are many women and men who contributed to the program’s success. This exhibition is just a small sample of items representing these achievements in the Sports Archives. The Penn State Special Collections Library contains the records of the fifteen current women’s varsity sports, individual’s collections, and other related physical education collections. Here is a list of those collections that contain information and images related to women’s physical education and intercollegiate athletics at Penn State. The list of women’s varsity teams is located on the Team Accomplishments page.
Intercollegiate Athletics, Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics collection
Women’s Recreation Association records
Pennsylvania State University, Intercollegiate Athletics public relations files
Athletics Photographic Vertical Files