These are comments Oregon Basketball Coach Bev Smith made to about 250 people attending a celebration of the 35th anniversity of Title IX.

 

By Bev Smith

 

This year I turned 47 years old.  And also this year Title IX turned 35.  I was ahead of my time as a basketball player, only because Title IX, despite being younger than I was, showed me the way to play.  Or rather, allowed me the way to play!

 

There is a bumper sticker that reads:  “Yes, I can play!” dated 2002, which was the 30th anniversary of Title IX.  “Cheers,” I said back then!

 

 And what do I say today?  Thank the Lord for Title IX.  Or rather, thank the Lord for Hawaiian senator Patsy Mink and our own Oregon senator Edith Green, who had the proverbial balls to write a bill that they then booted into legislation.

 

 Thirty-five years ago today they did that, which is cause for celebration.  And it is both a personal and public celebration, because you know personal is political.  And Title IX was a personally empowering event in my life.  It gave me the opportunity to pursue my passion, to pursue an education, and to do things after university that no woman in my family, high school, or few women in college at that time were able to do.

 

 In 1978 I left my home country Canada for a “full ride” scholarship to the University of Oregon in the United States of America.  I really thought these people knew what they were doing –- I could earn an academic degree while pursuing my passion of basketball.  I was incredibly honored and quite grateful of the opportunity.  (You see in Canada we don’t have just gender discrimination, we have student athlete discrimination –- no opportunities at all for athletic scholarships.)

 

 Yet it was an interesting and awkward situation.  I was on full scholarship like all of my male counterparts, going to school and playing basketball, and yet, to my horror, all of my teammates and others on different teams weren’t on full scholarship either -- including my sister who as a senior and a teammate, was only on partial scholarship.

 

 Oh dear!  It was somewhat embarrassing.  But my sister said, “Hey it’s not fair but we make do AND it is so much better than it used to be.”

 

 In fact, my sister said, “that life was so unfair that even two years prior to you arriving on campus, there were no scholarships for any of us and we didn’t practice or play in Mac Court.  Only the men were allowed to use Mac Court.”

 

 “What happened?,” I asked.

 

 “Well a thing called Title IX happened and you happened at the right time and as that Coach Wooden guy always said, “Opportunity is what happens when gender meets equality … or something like that. But anyway, here we are practicing and playing on Mac Court.”

 

The opportunity to practice and play on Mac Court and to do it while the University paid for my education changed my life forever.  Basketball has always been my passion; at Oregon it became my opportunity and education and has been ever since.

 

 I don’t take that for granted. I don’t take for granted either the fact that I am coaching at the University of Oregon and that our student athletes all have the opportunity to earn a degree because of their athletic and academic abilities.  Patsy and Edith are people I think of every time I look around and marvel at how far women have come.

 

 And this year is an opportunity to celebrate the difference Title IX has made in the lives of all women.  And not just for the opportunities in education and subsequently athletics, but because of how these opportunities changed how women thought of themselves and how the world began to think of women.

 

 Title IX over the years has helped to create a mental paradigm shift; as the late 70s evolved into the early 80s and 90s, and as we began to take advantage of mandated opportunity and make our way into medical school and law school and business school, and into the sciences and math and architecture and computer fields (yes even we can be computer geeks), and onto the courts and fields of America, young girls began to see and dream of themselves as doctors, lawyers, architects, chemists, astronauts, police people, professional athletes .

 

 There are arguments, of course. that I and my teammates and women all over the country, including you here in this room, have and continue to have the opportunity to study and compete at schools and major universities at the expense of having to cut high school boys’ and collegiate men’s sports.  Hmmmm!

 

 Well my question then becomes:  When women didn’t have equal opportunity to study law at Oregon, or be admitted to medical school on merit rather than quota, or play on Mac Court, at whose expense was that?

 

 And so while tonight is about acknowledgment and celebration, it also needs to be about refuting this specious argument that still finds opponents today making Title IX, below the surface, a very hotly contested piece of legislation and always facing reforms. Because as hard as Patsy and Edith booted it, and as far as it has traveled up until today, Title IX still requires promotion and vigilance on which to keep afloat and fly towards even greater horizons for girls and women alike.

 

 And ladies, because of Title IX and its 35 years of existence, we now have our own story; it is about a her story and not just a history because of Title IX.  We now have experiences and careers in education, business, medicine, sciences, professional athletics, government, and yes, at home with our families and children (let us never forget that), which give us strength and savvy and financial and political clout to take control of our future and fuel the fight and flight of Patsy’s and Edith’s dream.

 

Well ladies, for many of us as first generation Title Niners, we are now the “old girls’ network!”  We know from our education and experiences that Title IX has been wrongly blamed for discrimination against anyone and we know that what really has been the issue for Title IX has not been the allocation of opportunity but the allocation of money!

 

 For example, in athletics, spending will continue to rise in the so-called arms race of men’s basketball and football.  With the sporting culture in this nation and the old boys’ network, which does an incredible job of financially supporting their alma maters, it might be a long and drawn-out war against heavy odds.

 

 HOWEVER, while we do not entirely give up the cause to even the playing field, the battle that we can absolutely win is to socially, politically, and financially ourselves, step up to the plate to support girls and women as they chase their own personal dreams of education and career!

 

 Because let me ask you:  Raise your hands if you still want your daughters and nieces and grandchildren to have the opportunity to be scientists?  To be doctors?  To be lawyers?  To be teachers?  To be astronauts?  To play in the WNBA?  To be the president of the United States?  (Love her or hate her, we have come a long way baby.)

 

 Because you know what? If I may go back to the beginning of my talk, you do know what you are doing down here in the U.S.  Title IX is the right thing.  Opportunity is the right thing. And in this room we have a power as strong, as savvy, and certainly more beautiful than any old boys’ network to continue the legacy of Title IX.

 

 This evening, for example, was put together by the power of this most beautiful, savvy, and financially generous network!  Some of us were concerned that Title IX’s 35th anniversary would come and go without the proper acknowledgment, celebration, and promotion by the powers that be. So quite frankly, the old but beautiful network stepped up in this community, and here are!

 

 Which leads to other areas that may concern the old girls’ network with regards to the spirit of Title IX:  Like for example, if you have thoughts and opinions about the decisions by the powers that be even here at Oregon with regards to the choices we are making with men’s and women’s sports, network, speak up and voice that opinion to the powers that be!  You can make a difference!

 

 If you don’t like the coverage of girls and women in your newspaper, on your television screen, network we can change that!

 

 If you are concerned that just 21% of all full professors at colleges and universities are women, network our interest and demand that schools and universities fully comply with Title IX legislation can help to change that!

 

 The work, passion, commitment, and desire of access to equal opportunity for women and by women has got us this far in only 35 years of Title IX legislation!  Dreams have become realities.  Patsy and Edith would be so proud of us all here tonight; we are what they envisioned."

 

 May we take it further and may we understand that women need to support women if we are to continue to keep the ball of opportunity afloat and flying!  Thank you for supporting us by your attendance tonight – the network is alive and kicking!  Go Ducks and Go Title IX!