Story from EIU 40th Anniversary Title IX Celebration
Eastern Illinois Athletic Department, in conjunction with the Ohio Valley Conference, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the civil rights law that has profoundly transformed opportunities within intercollegiate athletics.
Title IX was a major law that prohibited federally funded schools from discriminating "on the basis of sex." It was signed into law on June 23, 1972, as part of a series of Educational Amendments. The full text of Title IX states:
"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity."
Since the passage of Title IX, women's participation in college athletics has increased. Today, women make up 44% of all NCAA athletes (compared to 15% pre-Title IX, when fewer than 30,000 women played college sports).
Throughout the next year Eastern Illinois will be recognizing great moments and top female student-athletes that have represented the Panthers and have done so thanks, in part, to the passage of Title IX.
Eastern Illinois had sports teams that would participate in so-called "Play Days" against other area colleges and universities prior to the passage of Title IX. The Panthers would field their first intercollegiate teams for the 1973-74 academic year with teams participating in the sports of volleyball, basketball, softball, field hockey, tennis, outdoor track and gymnastics. EIU would add badminton and swimming during the 1974-75 school year with cross country added in 1977-78 and indoor track during the 1979-80 year.
The Panthers competed as a member of the AIAW until moving to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1982-83. Since that time EIU has added the sports of golf, soccer, rugby and most recently beach volleyball while no longer competing in gymnastics, badminton, field hockey and rugby.
EIU had success at the AIAW Division II Level with the following team accomplishments.
- Softball – 3rd in AIAW Division II in 1982
- Volleyball – Quarterfinals in AIAW Division II in 1980
- Basketball – Quarterfinals in AIAW Division II in 1980-81
- Field Hockey – Quarterfinals in AIAW Division II in 1980
- Field Hockey – 7th in AIAW Division II in 1981
- Tennis – 12th in AIAW Division II in 1980
- Outdoor Track – 4th in AIAW Division II in 1981
- Outdoor Track – T33rd in AIAW Division II in 1982
- Swimming – 25th in AIAW Division II in 1979-80
- Swimming – 12th in AIAW Division II in 1980-81
- Swimming – 15th in AIAW Division II in 1981-82
- Badminton – 6th in AIAW Division II in 1974-75
- Badminton – 3rd in AIAW Division II in 1978-79
- Badminton – 7th in AIAW Division II in 1979-80
- Badminton – 9th in AIAW Division II in 1980-81
