LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been 50 years since the passage of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any educational activity receiving federal funding. In many ways it's been a game-changer for girls and women in sports.
Several prominent Louisville area women who've made careers in athletics reflected on the impact of Title IX.
Sacred Heart basketball coach and athletic director Donna Moir
Donna Moir said she grew up thinking she could play anything. The longtime basketball coach and athletic director at Sacred Heart Academy played four sports there in the late '70s and went on to play basketball and golf at the University of Cincinnati.
"We practiced like 6-to-8 or right during dinner time and the boys got the primary practice time so I didn't really think about the inequities then as that, because I just wanted to play, to get the opportunity to play," Moir said. "But now you look at it and the girls should have everything the boys have."
When growing up, Mary Bryan wanted to play baseball but since there were no female teams at the time, she sat on the bench while her dad coached Little League teams.
Bryan eventually turned to golf and although there was no high school team and virtually no college teams, she played professionally for 10 years and then worked as one of the first female broadcasters in the sport for another 18 years.
Mary Bryan, a professional golfer in the Louisville area.
"I still loved other sports, but before Title IX, the doors were not open for young girls to do anything besides tennis and golf really, maybe swimming," she said.
Despite there not being a high school basketball team when growing up in Alabama, Von Macklin went on to have a U of L Athletics Hall of Fame career in the mid-'70s. She later became a coach, teacher and administrator in the Jefferson County Public School system.
"They did have a women's tennis team and that's where my beginning of sports started, with tennis," Macklin said. "Never played before. Just thought I liked it because they were talking about Althea Gibson and other minority players and you know, I wanted to be like somebody."
"I am thankful that it (Title IX) did come about for all the girls that came after me," she said.
Von Macklin, who's in the U of L Athletics Hall of Fame.
Amy Calabrese played soccer and basketball in high school growing up in Colorado, then played soccer at U of L and is now the Associate AD and Senior Woman Administrator at the school.
"There was a lot of opportunity to play sports," Calabrese said. "I went to a big high school. There was a lot of opportunity to compete on different teams."
Calabrese also reflected on stories she's heard from athletes that came before her.
"Women's basketball, they didn't even play full court many years ago," she said. "And you're like 'Wait, what? It's so mind-blowing, right? You almost laugh but then you're like, oh no, this was actual reality.'"
All of those athletes have enjoyed seeing the progress made over the decades.
Amy Calabrese with UofL Athletics.
"It keeps getting better and better each year and that's what you want," Moir said. "You want your daughters to experience something better than what you did."
"What it has done is created some very self-sufficient, confident young women that aren't necessarily professionals but have taken that confidence to the business world and motherhood or whatever they want to do and taken their kids and have them participate in sports," Bryan said. "So, Title IX has been one of the best things to happen to a female."
"I just have to smile and think back where we came from and then where we are now," Macklin said.
"It sends a message that you matter," Calabrese said. "As a female student-athlete here, I always felt supported, appreciated, that I mattered."
Things are definitely better. They also agree, there is still work to do.
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