For me, one of the most exciting sports events in New Mexico is about to get underway – the high school basketball tournament! Prep basketball has long been a community event across New Mexico, from Dulce to Eunice to Belen to Taos to neighborhoods in Albuquerque.
I grew up in Hobbs, where boy’s basketball was legendary. Coach Ralph Tasker was himself a legend and the first high school basketball coach nationwide to win 1,000 games. It was a family activity, a teenage activity, and eventually an adult activity for me. I have attended every state tournament with few exceptions since 1957.
Next week I hope to go again to cheer on the Hobbs Eagles. What will be different this year is that I will be cheering for the Lady Eagles. That wouldn’t have happened any time before 1973.
Everything changed in 1972 when Title IX came along.
Title IX was part of a landmark civil rights law passed in 1972 known as the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX updated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned several forms of discrimination in employment but made no mention of discrimination in education. Schools that received federal funding fell under the amendment.
Once passed, schools receiving federal funding began to create opportunities for girls to participate in team sports: basketball, track, tennis, golf, swimming and more. That was a momentous change from the early days when girls could only play half-court intra-mural basketball and sit on the sidelines during track meets.
Now 52 years later, we are reaping the benefits of these changes. The overall effect following the passage was a considerable increase in the number of female students participating in a variety of sports.
In a study in 2006, almost 35 years after Title IX, participation by women was up nine times in high schools and 450% in collegiate sports. Collegiate sports averaged eight different sports for women.
The law also made it possible for more women to seek professional careers in sports. Today, 40% of the coaches in college women’s basketball are women.
In 2023 for the first time, all four officials in the women’s NCAA Final Four game were women.
As the sports media industry started to see the writing on the wall, the first women sportscasters began to emerge. In 1974 Phyllis George, Miss America in 1971, became a sportscasting pioneer. CBS hired George not to broadcast women’s sports but to broadcast for the National Football League.
Today women keep setting records. In January Tara VanDerveer, the Stanford women’s coach, earned her 1,023rd victory, becoming the coach with the most wins in college basketball history – for men or women. When she was in high school, she wasn’t allowed to play on a basketball team.
And Caitlin Clark, of the University of Iowa, on March 3 became the all-time leading scorer – male or female – in NCAA Division 1 basketball. She surpassed the record held by Pete Maravich. Five days later, another day, another record. She shattered Stephen Curry’s record for the most three-pointers in a season.
In New Mexico, the high school basketball tournament begins with a full roster of women’s teams in every district. Our four-year schools all have women’s basketball teams and other programs.
Sally Marquez, who lived through the onset of Title IX, is the first woman executive director of the New Mexico Activities Association, which oversees the tournament activities about to begin.
Thanks to Title IX, I’ll be in The Pit at UNM in just a few days cheering on Hobbs’ Eagles once again. But this time it’s the Lady Eagles. Thank you, Title IX, for making it all possible.