GRANVILLE, Ohio (August 9, 2022) – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a landmark piece of legislation for gender equity.

In recognition of the 50th year of Title IX, Denison University Athletics asks you to join us in our year-long celebration as we recognize and pay tribute to the impact the women of this university have had on the athletic department.

On the ninth of each month from July 2022 to May 2023, Denison Athletics will highlight various female pioneers, former student-athletes, current student-athletes and coaches highlighting their impact on Denison Athletics and their thoughts on Title IX's impact on their lives.

Next up, we have the pioneers who helped move us forward and bridge the gap for women competing in varsity sports at Denison University:

Lynn Schweizer
In 1973, Lynn Schweizer was hired as the head women's basketball coach at Denison University, a position she held until 1980. While serving as the women's basketball coach, Schweizer also took on the role of head women's swimming coach (1974-85) and head women's diving coach (1974-86). She was honored as the National Diving Coach of the Year in 1986. She also took on the head coaching duties of synchronized swimming teams (1974-79) and the men's diving team from 1984-86.
After stepping away from the pool deck, Schweizer moved into an administrative role at Denison, serving as the chair of the Physical Education Department from 1985-2004. She took the reins as director of club and intramural sports in 1986 while also serving as the point of contact for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Across campus, Schweizer served on over 30 committees during her tenure. Schweizer was integral in the formation of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and was a part of 15 of the college's record 18 NCAC All-Sports Championships. Schweizer's Varsity D Hall of Fame induction in 2019 comes on the heels of her receiving the Rasmussen Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators in 2018.

Q: Why was Title IX so important for women in sport?

A: I started my career in athletics at Denison in 1973 which was an exciting time in the history of women's sports as Congress passed Title IX the previous year. Prior to Title IX, organized sport for girls was not culturally supported in society so there were few opportunities for girls to play competitive sports. Physical Education leaders encouraged girls and women to participate in dance or recreational activities. As schools and colleges instituted the law and more athletic programs were established for girls and women, participation increased exponentially at all age levels. Support for girl's athletics continued to grow and as sport opportunities increased, more girls considered playing sports in college. For the first time in the history of women's athletics, college coaches at the Division I and II levels were recruiting girls and offering them scholarships to play sports in college. Title IX has had an enormous impact on sports as evidenced by the significant increases in the participation rates of girls and women at the high school and college level. Bottom line, Title IX was the impetus that forced schools to provide the resources needed to support competitive sports programs for girls and women. This also opened the door for women to pursue coaching and athletic administration as a career.

Q: How did Title IX transform sports?

A: I experienced the transformation of sports firsthand as I had just started my career at Denison the year after Title IX was passed. Denison had many challenges ahead to implement the necessary changes to comply with the law. If we look back into the history of women's athletics at Denison before Title IX, the Women's Athletic Association (WAA) organized athletic activities for women. There was a faculty advisor and student leaders who gave oversite to the WAA. Teams were comprised of members from sororities and resident halls and the teams competed against each other, comparable to intramural sport competition. Cleveland Hall (now the Bryant Arts Center) was the center for women's indoor sports and the facilities included a pool, basketball court, running track around the top of the court, and dance studio. The women used Lamson Lodge and the adjacent field for outdoor sports activities.

The men's athletics program was an organized intercollegiate program that competed in the Ohio Athletic Conference. The men's athletics program was located on the opposite side of campus in what is now Mitchell Center, but it was a much smaller facility than it is today.

To comply with Title IX, Denison formed the women's intercollegiate athletics program and appointed Dr. Elizabeth (Penny) Van Horn as the Director. The women's program moved from Cleveland Hall to what is now Mitchell Center. This was a challenging time as the men and women coaches had to learn to work together to figure out a way to equitably share the facilities. This was no easy task as there were many competitive personalities vying for the same practice space!

Under the leadership of Dr. Van Horn, Denison added seven women's intercollegiate sports during the seventies: basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming/diving, tennis, and volleyball. Women also competed in a bowling league during the seventies.

The rapid growth of sports was not without challenges. Equity was slow to come and as a coach, I was often frustrated because the women's programs had limited resources compared to the men's programs.

• Half of the women's sports did not have full-time coaches, there were few or no assistant coaches, the women shared one locker room for all indoor sports, travel budgets and salaries were not equitable.
• The Sports Information Director covered the men's sports only, which meant that there was no statistician at the women's athletic events.
• There was no athletic trainer assigned to cover women's sports.
• Laundry was not available for the women's teams except for game uniforms.
• The women were not allowed to play in the OAC, so the women coaches had to create schedules and hire the officials.

Q: When did you first notice significant changes following the enactment of Title IX?

A: It was not until the eighties, that I started to experience changes regarding equity between the men's and women's programs. In 1982, Dr. Van Horn and other women physical education leaders from Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster, Oberlin, Kenyon, Muskingum, and Wittenberg met to discuss the formation of an athletic conference for women. These pioneers were instrumental in forming the Centennial Athletic Conference (CAC) which played two conference seasons before it was disbanded in 1984 due to the formation of the North Coast Athletic Conference.

In 1983, Denison appointed Cheryl Bailey (Marra) as the Director of Women's Athletics. She implemented policies to respond to the above inequities and the growing demands of the women's intercollegiate program. During the eighties, Denison added three more sports: cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track.

The formation of the North Coast Athletic Conference in 1984 brought the most significant changes as the founding principles of the NCAC were based on gender equity, and sport equity. To have an athletic conference that supported both men's and women's sports equitably was unprecedented at the time. The NCAC was a national leader and provided a model not only for Division III colleges, but also for Divisions I & II. For the first time in my tenure the resources provided to the women's sports were in alignment with the men's. There were more equitable budgets for travel and equipment, more assistant coaches, access to athletic trainers, laundry services, sports information coverage and record keeping of final scores across all sports.

Women's athletics was also changing on the national scene. The AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) sponsored national competitions for women and Denison competed in several events in 1981 and 82. Prior to 1982, the NCAA only sponsored championships for men. In 1982, the NCAA started to sponsor women's championships, which provided many more opportunities for Denison women to participate in the NCAA Division III nationals.

Q: What action did you take in support of Title IX?

A: I served on conference, as well as campus committees to advocate for the women's athletic program and to help others understand the educational value of athletics. My athletes gave sport clinics to local children and spoke at the local schools about participation in college athletics. As an administrator in the athletics program from 1986-2017, I worked closely with the college to assist Denison in the implementation of Title IX.

With the increase in participation on both the women's and men's intercollegiate teams, as well as the expansion of club and intramural sports, Denison's athletic center was bursting at the seams. In 1984, we added additional locker rooms, a larger equipment room to accommodate storage for both men's and women's equipment, and additional office space to accommodate the larger women's coaching staff. With the new facilities and the creation of the NCAC, Denison athletics experienced exceptional growth. We would not have experienced this growth without Title IX being the driving force to provide equal opportunities in athletics.

The nineties and the turn of the century brought a great deal of positive change. In 1990, Denison merged the men's and women's athletics programs under one director, Dr. Larry Scheiderer, a position he held until spring of 2011. As the Associate Athletic director, I worked closely with Larry to assist in all aspects of the program. Budgets and staffing became more equitable and support for all programs, especially the women's programs, increased. The sports of softball (1997) and golf (2006) were added which made a total of twelve sports for women. The indoor athletic facilities were expanded to include the Mitchell Center Track, the Trumbull Aquatic Center, and the Crown Fitness Center. Mitchell Center is now one of the premier athletic facilities in the nation. Having one director overseeing all intercollegiate sports continued to bring equity between the men's and women's athletic programs.

In the fall of 2011, Denison hired Nan Carney-DeBord, class of 1980, as the Athletics Director and Chair of Physical Education. Nan is an outstanding leader not only at Denison, but also at the conference and national level. Over the past three years, two more intercollegiate sports for women have been added – fencing and squash. Nan has brought distinction to Denison, and continues to build upon the past, and has a vision for the future that will ensure excellence in athletics across the board. During the last six years of my career, Nan appointed me as her Senior Associate Athletic Director, and we worked hard to continue the advancement of women's athletics and uphold the principles of Title IX.

As I look back over the forty-four years of my career at Denison, sports for women and girls have drastically changed for the better with national participation rates increasing annually. It was an exciting time to be a coach and athletic administrator as I had the opportunity to experience firsthand, the growth of the women's athletic program. I am indebted to the women, and men, who came before me to fight for the rights for women to have the opportunity to "play ball"! Sports for women continue to reach new heights, but we need to continue to strive for excellence and equality. I want to thank all of you out there who have enriched my life through athletics.

Cheryl Bailey
Cheryl Bailey served as Denison's women's athletic director from 1983 until 1990 overseeing 12 women's varsity athletic programs. She also served as the first head women's soccer and women's track & field coach at Denison. As the head women's soccer coach, she compiled a career record of 86-52-12 and led the Big Red to an NCAC Championship in 1984. She was a three-time NCAC Coach of the Year and in addition to starting the program at Denison, her squad was also the first women's collegiate varsity program in the state of Ohio.

Bailey led the Denison women's track & field team from 1981 until 1988. In 1990 she left Denison for the University of Wisconsin where she became Senior Associate Athletic Director for the Badgers from 1990-2005. In 2001, Bailey led the Wisconsin athletic department to gender equity compliance and in 2004 she was named the chair of the NCAA Women's Basketball Committee. After Wisconsin, Bailey was named the General Manager of the United States Women's Soccer National Team in 2007, a position she held until 2011. Under her watch, the United States won gold at the 2008 Olympics and took silver at the 2011 World Cup and bronze at the 2007 World Cup. She was a founder and executive director of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2012-14. Bailey graduated from Slippery Rock in 1977 and went on to earn her master's degree from Ohio State in 1983.

Q: How did Title IX transform women's sports?

A: There is no doubt that Title IX has drastically changed women's sports over the past 50 years. One of the starkest changes is in the opportunities that have been offered and the number of girls/women who have taken advantage of those opportunities. Prior to Title IX, one in 27 girls participated in sports and now that number is two in five. Along with the opportunities Title IX provided, it required that financial resources be provided in order for those opportunities to be competitive. As a result, we now have a sizable increase in the number of girls/women participating in sports at all levels. The disparity between men's and women's sports has dramatically changed over 50 years and has opened up new opportunities that were not there prior to the passage of Title IX, including professional leagues and increased financial rewards for women who participate.

Q: When did you first notice significant changes following the enactment of Title IX?

A: I was actually a junior in high school when Title IX was passed in 1972 and the impact of Title IX was immediate for me. For the first time I was able to participate on a varsity sport - The boys' track team. We did not have any varsity sports for girls and as a result Title IX provided me the opportunity to participate on the boy's team. I ran track for my high school for two years - sometimes competing against girls (if other teams had them) and sometimes competing against boys. I received coaching for the first time and had a coach that was extremely supportive of girls participating in sports. That experience opened up many opportunities for me as time went on.  I also noticed significant changes when I went on to college. The school I went to initially did not have varsity teams for girls, so I transferred to another college and had the chance to participate on a varsity team in college. New sports were added every year and high-level coaches were hired. Actually, coaching opportunities for women is one somewhat negative impact that happened as a result of Title IX. The number of women coaches decreased over time - without the years of experience and with the increase of salaries male coaches became interested in coaching the girls/women and were hired more and more. This created fewer coaching opportunities for women during the early years after Title IX was passed. Over time this has improved, but it is still one of the unintended consequences of the passage of Title IX.

Q: Why was Title IX so important for women in sport?

A: Title IX put the teeth into a law that was not there prior to its passage. While girls had 'play days' and some competition, they did not have the financial resources to have good equipment, good coaches, good facilities in order to fully compete on the highest level. The necessity to provide equitable opportunities as a result of Title IX opened up new doors with the support behind it. While lip service was provided in the past - action could now be taken to ensure that these opportunities were truly supported (in some cases pulling and dragging individuals along). This was not instant, but it was a beginning point that women have been able to build upon over time. Title IX was the catalyst for the support that is provided to women today - financial and otherwise.  The vast benefits that sports provide were now being realized for women as well as men - scholarships, competition, teamwork, confidence, self-esteem, learning to deal with failure as well as success. These become lifelong benefits.

Q: What action did you take in support of Title IX being passed?

A: I suppose being willing to join a boys' track team could certainly represent 'action' in support of Title IX. It was not without some criticism at the time. While most of the boys were ok with having a girl on the team, there were a few that were not overly enthusiastic (mostly the ones that I beat in races). At the time I didn't see it as support of Title IX - as a 16-year-old, I just saw it as an opportunity that I had never had outside of two 'play days' that I participated in each year. I believe the many opportunities that I have had in my career were a direct result of the passage of Title IX. At each step along my journey, upholding Title IX was an instrumental part of the job - becoming the first coach of women's soccer at Denison in 1979 (the first college women's varsity soccer team in the state of Ohio), as the Senior Women's Administrator (Assistant Athletic Director) bringing the University of Wisconsin into compliance with Title IX after a lawsuit in the 90's, participation in the 2007 & 20011 Women's World Cup and the 2008 Olympics as the General Manager of the US Women's National Team and as the founding Executive Director of the National Women's Soccer League in 2013.  I'm not sure if these positions would have been available without the teeth that Title IX provided.