As has been highlighted in the news locally and beyond, this month marks the 50th anniversaries of two events important in American history, but for different reasons.
The passage of Title IX, which amended an earlier law prohibiting discrimination in employment by also including educational institutions that receive federal funds, was signed by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972. It was part of a larger education bill that at the time had nothing to do with sports.
Further clarifying and explanatory legislation signed by President Gerald Ford in 1975 and subsequent work by colleges in the late 1970s and into the 1980s were what really began the push toward equalizing women’s college sports. The collegiate changes would trickle down into the high schools, too, with young athletes and their parents knowing scholarships and sanctioned sports were awaiting them.
The Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters, meanwhile, occurred six days earlier on Jun 17, 1972, at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. The revelation that the break-in had been done by people working for the re-election of President Nixon, and the revealed coverup and overall actions of this president who was once generally praised led to his 1974 resignation.
While one of these memorable events of a half century ago was considered by most the beginning of a better era for women and helped female sports blossom like never before, Watergate was a dark moment. That is, even though it did uphold the constitutional fabric that no one is above the law.
But the two events do have a connection other than that Richard Nixon was involved with both: they were also hardly noticed or taken note of at the time, at least in Chattanooga.
When the Watergate break-in occurred on that Saturday night, it understandably did not make news until Monday, the 19th. The Chattanooga News-Free Press ran a story on it on page 26 under the headline, “GOP Employee Caught Bugging Headquarters of Democrats.” The Chattanooga Times, to its news-noticing credit, did run a story on the Monday front page under the headline, “GOP Security Coordinator Held in Plot on Democrats.”
While some newshounds no doubt thought it was an interesting piece of curiosity, not until weeks or months later would it be dominating the news and eventually lead to a Public Service Pulitzer Prize for the Washington Post and a presidential downfall. Nowadays it would have immediately been talked about on the various news shows and forms of social media, but not so much back them.
As an aside, I recently wrote a Watergate-related story about recently deceased public servant John Stewart of Knoxville for the Shopper News that is connected to the News Sentinel in Knoxville, where I still contribute articles. His wife, Nancy, told me that his office as communications director for the DNC was the one broken into, and that they received a call from police early the next morning after the couple had been out the night before celebrating a birthday.
The police asked if he wanted to come and swear out a complaint, but he instead sent someone else. He later regretted not going and being more directly involved with the very historic Watergate incident, his wife said.
Besides the TV coverage of the Watergate hearings that I remember taking place without being old enough to comprehend them fully, I know the scandal did in many ways affect upcoming elections. In 1974, Democrat Ray Blanton was elected Tennessee governor and recently widowed Marilyn Lloyd was voted in as Third District congresswoman as a Democrat, too.
And Watergate likely led to the election of two other Democrats of local interest in 1976 as well-- Jimmy Carter as president and Jim Sasser as U.S. senator over the formerly popular Republican Bill Brock.
But Watergate did have an added note of interest as Ms. Lloyd became the first – and to date, only – woman in the U.S. House from Chattanooga. She ran after replacing her husband, former TV newsman and frontrunner Mort Lloyd, after he died in an airplane crash.
Of course, the election of Republican Marsha Blackburn to the U.S. Senate in 2018 shows that women can more easily be chosen for high office today.
But in the 1970s, women were just starting to be on the collective move in America after being inspired by such events as Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in the memorable “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match and Helen Reddy proudly singing her pioneering “I Am Woman” song.
Regarding Title IX, the needle-sized newsworthiness of it in terms of the future was hidden in an even bigger proverbial haystack. The focus of the wire service news report in the Chattanooga papers the next day on President Richard Nixon’s large education bill in which Title IX was included was on the busing issue.
To President Nixon’s disappointment, Congress had added a provision halting any forced busing for 18 months. Busing was being used to achieve desegregation in schools in the country, and Chattanooga was even planning to order more buses to fulfill this federal order but canceled the plans after hearing of the expected halt.
But the new law did have several components pushing for greater equality and improvements in education, including Title IX. And to his credit in the eyes of Title IX supporters, President Nixon had gone ahead and signed the law. The 1972 article in the Chattanooga paper briefly references the projects supporting various other aspects of education.
For the record, I was 12 years old in June 1972 and for at least part of that month, I was attending the UT All-Sports Camp in Knoxville getting a little homesick but also maturing while being away from home alone for the first time. I was also trying to develop my sports skills before I enrolled in the 7th grade at Baylor School, which was to be full of competitive athletes and students.
The camp was for all boys, and there was apparently no camp for girls at UT that year. I knew at Bright School the previous years that several girls were pretty good athletes at running or gymnastics, but I had never pondered any athletic future for them in my limited and probably self-focused outlook.
But as the 1970s continued, I took notice of the fact that Bradley Central had a great girls basketball program under coach Jim Smiddy without any kind of extra governmental help at all. And they were still playing the antiquated style where three girls would stay on the defensive half of the court and three others on the offensive end.
I also took note of a young women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee named Pat Head, who played in the Olympics and was already showing a lot of promise as a head coach. It was very obvious simply from glancing at the sports page or watching TV sports from down here in Chattanooga that UT had a woman winner in Knoxville.
I went back and looked at her 2013 autobiography, “Sum It Up,” written with Sally Jenkins, and she points out that it was the follow-up Title IX clarification laws in 1975 that really changed women’s collegiate athletics. She wrote of the admirable work of then-UT President Ed Boling in beginning to pump money into women’s athletics.
“President Gerald R. Ford had signed Title IX regulations into law in 1975, and schools hurriedly poured money into women’s basketball in an effort to comply,” she said. “After all the years of bad uniforms and bake sales, I was suddenly in the middle of a gold rush. Tennessee’s president, Dr. Ed Boling, set up an independent women’s athletic department and funded us to the tune of $126,000 for seven sports, and we had our own athletic director, a talented executive named Gloria Ray.”
As another aside, I once had an opportunity to interview three players from coach Summitt’s first team in 1974-75 before Title IX really took effect, and it was a delightful experience talking to them by the old Alumni Memorial Building where they once played. I even got them to autograph a page in my notebook, and they all wrote something to the effect that they were forever Lady Vols. Finding it stashed away in the coach Summitt autobiography this week almost brought me to tears looking at it.
When I enrolled at the University of Georgia in 1978, I remember noticing the blossoming women’s basketball program under new coach Andy Landers beginning my sophomore year. I even became acquainted with one or two of the players in the regular cafeterias and elsewhere as they were just beginning to enjoy the fruits of Title IX without really any special privileges that would come later.
Title IX would have some consequences of a negative nature to men’s sports, as I also knew one or two Georgia wrestlers, and they were not too happy when the program was dropped my sophomore year as women’s sports were expanding. I remember one wrestler even wrote an angry letter to athletic director and generally popular football coach Vince Dooley.
UTC also saw a casualty when baseball was dropped to make way for an equal number of women’s sports, and fans have been calling for it to be returned in the more than 40 years since. Some believe they could even use Engel Stadium, which I would love to see. Among other reasons, it would give me an additional excuse to enjoy a hot dog!
While wishing no sports would have to be cut, I as an adult have always been a champion of women’s equal rights, just as I have always been for fair opportunities for black people. I guess I got that way a little because my wife, Laura, has been a United Methodist minister with full clergy rights for nearly 20 years, and I realize not everyone supports women ministers. In fact, one or two have told her that over the years.
And my cheering of women naturally carries over to women’s sports, whether I am pulling for the Georgia women, the U.S. women in the Olympics, or the Tennessee Lady Vols and others. I enjoy watching them and rooting for them all.
With the U.S. women’s success in international sports like the Olympics, I realize the U.S. women are hard to beat and one should never root against them. And their success is likely due to Title IX in large part.
I have also found that in more than 10 years doing some sports writing and covering games involving high school and college teams, young women are generally a lot easier to cover and interview overall. I have never really met a woman athlete with a bad attitude.
However, I have some friends and acquaintances who for whatever reason care little about women’s college sports.
But I simply say, “Go get them, girls.” In fact, I might just have to play Ms. Reddy’s old song, “I Am Woman,” in honor of the anniversary.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net