The UA is hosting a free celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. The event includes field day activities for kids, lunch at the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center and a panel discussion.
Caitlin Schmidt The landmark 1972 federal law providing women equal access to school sports is turning 50 next week, and the University of Arizona is going all-out to celebrate the occasion.
In the decades since Title IX was passed, the UA has produced four NCAA women of the year, 46 Olympic medalists, 115 national champions, 834 All-Americans and 45 Academic All-Americans. LaRose will serve as keynote speaker on Thursday's free, day-long Title IX celebration on the UA's campus.
"As an athlete, it was like a light switch turned on. All of a sudden, we had opportunities that we'd never had before," she said."We had schedules, uniforms we were able to be transported to other schools to play, we had full-time coaches. Was it fully equitable? No, but it was like hitting the lottery.""It was indescribable. They were going to give us money to play," she said.
"They say, 'build it and they will come,' but there's so much more to building it," she said."It seemed like we were plodding along, one step at a time." Roby 'laid the foundation'LaRose is quick to credit those that came before her with where she is today, including trailblazer Mary Roby, who was the UA's first and only director of athletics for women in 1972 . In 1971, Roby helped create the women’s equivalent of the NCAA, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women; she was instrumental in joining Arizona's men's and women's athletic departments.
"My opportunities were going to be a nurse or an educator. I never ever in my life dreamed of this," she said."If Mary hadn't taken a liking to me and hired me as the softball coach in 1979 and in 1980 as her assistant, things would have been very different." On Play Days, students would earn points by participating on teams and playing sports, with end-of-year letters being awarded to outstanding sportswomen with the highest number of points.
Krucker, who graduated in 1971, was a middle-distance swimmer and backstroker, captain of the UA women's volleyball team and a left fielder in softball. Krucker was one of many students who turned to Roby for guidance during her time at the UA, with countless others benefiting from the founding mother of UA sports and her words of wisdom and support.
"The UA really became leaders in this field in women’s athletics because of Mary and hopefully because of my position, but a big part of that was the Pac-10 Conference and those early women," LaRose said, adding that the Pac-12 has always been forward thinking when it came to giving women a seat at the table.
Six years later, McCartney appeared on the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine with her husband, Paul McCartney. This made her the only person to have one of her photographs featured on the front cover, as well as have a photograph of her be featured on the front cover.Notable accomplishment: Gronkowski, or"Gronk," set the NFL records for most touchdown receptions by a tight end in a season and most receiving yards by a tight end in a season, both in 2011.
Years later, Eller transformed the convenience store chain Circle K into the second-largest convenience store chain in the U.S. Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles is the first ex-University of Arizona quarterback to play and win a Super Bowl title in 2018.Notable accomplishment: During her time at UA, Finch helped the Wildcats win the Women's College World Series in 2001.
Why he's famous: A leader in higher education and former dean of the Eller College. Former president of UNLV and current president of Claremont Graduate University. In 2008, Lowell and his wife, Edith, donated $2.5 million toward the ongoing construction of the UA's basketball and volleyball practice facility. Another $2.06 million went to establishing the David Lowell Professional Program in Mineral Resources in the department of mining and geological engineering.Notable accomplishment: Lundgren is the CEO of Macy's Inc. The UA Center for Retailing bears his name.Notable accomplishment: Is a record producer, songwriter and movie producer.
After his UA career, Rustand was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors of the NBA but instead chose to play AAU basketball, and served as assistant coach at UA . He also coached and administered youth basketball for 20 years and worked as a sports reporter for KVOA-TV .