Celebrating the 50-Year Anniversary of Title IX
National champions. NCAA record-breakers. Hall of Famers.
Slam dunks and grand slams.
Primetime showdowns on network television.
In 2022, that’s “business as usual” for the Lady Volunteers.
The University of Tennessee has long led the way—beared the torch, if you will—in transforming talented young women from across the country and the globe into elite achievers in intercollegiate athletics and beyond.
Enactment of the initial version of Title IX on June 23, 1972, set into motion a sequence of federal legislative progress that prompted leadership at the University of Tennessee to accelerate efforts to enhance its athletics opportunities for women.
Upon its initial establishment, the Department of Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Tennessee sponsored seven sports supported by a budget barely exceeding six figures.
Women’s intercollegiate athletic programs are making great strides, but the hurdles have been high and the progress slow... Despite the obstacles, things are looking up for the female athletes at UT and around the country... Women’s athletic programs need university funding if they are to exist at all. After years of discrimination, they deserve it.UT Daily Beacon - July 9, 1976
The pace of progress steadily intensified on The Hill—outpacing similar, simultaneous efforts throughout much of the collegiate landscape.
By the spring of 1977, Lady Vols were capturing Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) individual national championships. Tennessee’s first AIAW team national title soon followed in 1981 when the women’s track & field squad triumphed at the outdoor championship.
Tennessee’s transition from AIAW to the NCAA brought with it exceedingly extraordinary competitive excellence. Ten more team national championship trophies eventually arrived in Knoxville, flanked by scores of individual/relay champions, All-Americans, Academic All-Americans and Olympic legends.
If the 50-year journey of women’s intercollegiate athletics took the metaphoric form of a mountain, it’s fair to say world-changing women from the University of Tennessee planted an orange flag atop the Summitt.
See what we did there?
Tennessee Athletics invites you to join us in celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Title IX.
