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COMMENTARY
Rosa Gatti: Reflections on Title IX in the 50th Anniversary Year
Rosa Gatti, 2021 CoSIDA Hall of Famer and the ESPN's first director of communications shares her thoughts on 50 years of Title IX. Gatti has also been honored by CoSIDA with the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award (2009), Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award (2003) and Jake Wade Award (1987).
by Rosa Gatti
For me it’s easy to remember when Title IX was passed and signed by President Richard Nixon. In 1972, I had just graduated from Villanova. Although I had grown up as a sports fan and participant, it hadn’t occurred to me that young women didn’t have equal opportunities for scholarships. Many of us accepted the status quo while fortunately wiser women sought to change this discrepancy.
Title IX is one simple sentence. “No person in the United States shall, based on sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education programs or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Nowhere in the language are the words athletics or sports. Although sports were part of the discussion and eventually became the more controversial element, the legislation was inclusive for all programs.
Rosa Gatti at her ESPN office.
Throughout the next decades, colleges were trying to figure out how to apply the legislation with its financial implications or, in some cases, they were outright stalling to adopt change. I became the SID at Villanova at the end of 1974, not because of Title IX. The college president, an Augustinian priest, had overruled a decision not to appoint me as SID. He felt I deserved a chance after serving as Acting Director for some months when previous SID Bob Ellis had left. It was a moral decision.
In the mid 1970s, CoSIDA asked Langston Rogers, SID at Delta State, and me to discuss Title IX at the CoSIDA Workshop. Delta State’s women’s basketball teams were on a three consecutive national championship streak, and he was an early and strong advocate for supporting women’s sports.
I was really nervous — what the heck did I know? I learned later that Langston was also nervous. Athletic administrators, men’s coaches and many SIDs were not happy and were worried about what Title IX would mean for their operations and budgets? SIDs were already understaffed. The sky was falling — woe were we!
Did this mean we would have to dedicate the same amount of time and resources to women’s sports in order to be in compliance?
Rosa Gatti (center) with CoSIDA's first two female presidents — June Stewart, right (1990-91) and Tammy Boclair, left (2003-4), who both served at Vandy while CoSIDA presidents.
With no search engines at the time, somehow I found one of the lawyers who wrote clarifying Title IX regulations in 1975. I attempted to explain the SID’s role, and asked, “Does this mean we need to compile a 100-page media guide for the field hockey team as we do for football?” She said, “We never considered things like this. You should look at how you can promote the women’s teams — what makes sense.”
This was the answer. Simple. What was our intent?
I benefited from Title IX when Brown University wanted to diversify its staff and reached out to me in 1976. I became the first female SID in the Ivy League, oversaw 30 teams — 15 men’s and 15 women’s, and the media coordination for several NCAA championships. In the last of my four years there, I marveled at the level of play of incoming freshmen versus the seniors. Growth in women’s talent was accelerating.
Meanwhile, major football coaches were sounding the death knell for college athletics, and football in particular, because of Title IX. How could budgets accommodate another 100 scholarships for women to compensate for football? They were lobbying for exemptions to Title IX, for revenue-producing sports.
The addition of women’s teams was blamed for dropping men’s teams. What a mess. Understandably anger and division grew among alumni and student-athletes when their long-held men’s sports were eliminated or became club teams. What was the intent of the approach? Were their rationales or solutions good ones or excuses?
Most colleges were slow in making accommodations for female athletes. It took long-running lawsuits and legal decisions affirming women’s sports to generate a wake-up call for change.
Langston Rogers, legendary CoSIDA Hall of Famer and former CoSIDA President, was a true advocate for Title IX while he served at Delta State University, a AIAW basketball powerhouse, early in his career. In 2013, Rogers and the Delta State basketball legends Debbie Brock (left) and the late Luisa Harris-Stewart were among the 30-plus former AIAW basketball greats saluted during the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship Game at the New Orleans Arena.
In July 1980, I moved to ESPN. Some months later, the NCAA announced it was creating women’s championships. At the time, the AIAW ran women’s college athletics. I had been asked to speak at the AIAW Northeast meetings a few days later about running championship events and securing more media coverage. The audience of mostly female administrators and coaches was somber. I addressed the elephant in the room head on in my opening remarks: “It is absolutely depressing to see how you have built women’s sports, and another big organization, previously disinterested, comes sweeping in.”
As women’s college athletics grew, a major casualty was the decline in female head coaches. Now that schools were paying higher salaries, men who wanted to become college coaches were getting these positions. This has been moving towards a 50-50 ratior in recent years, but frankly, the balancing act is slow.
The proof of Title IX and its legislative force for change is in the results. The quality of play has grown exponentially — the ratings for women’s basketball, softball, golf and more are often as high or higher than many men’s sports. After an exciting UConn-Tennessee buzzer-beater, a top ESPN male leader said to me, “Wow, that game was as exciting as any great men’s game I’ve seen.” Women’s athletics is in the mainstream.
The biggest causal turning point for acceptance of Title IX in my and others’ opinion was the fathers of high school athletes. They were on the sidelines cheering their daughters who were gaining skills and team experiences. They wanted scholarships and fair treatment for their daughters too. It literally hit home in small towns across the nation.
Rosa Gatti serving as Brown University Sports Information Director. The pioneer for women in athletic communications left Brown in 1980 for a communications position at ESPN.
As we look back on history, it’s mind-boggling, that with the incredible growth and results of women’s sports today, that this resistance happened at all. What dinosaurs we were not so long ago.
Lessons in life were learned along the way. Just as that President at Villanova gave me a chance because of his moral compass, a Title IX lawyer challenged us to treat women’s sports fairly. HOW would we be open to solutions — not make excuses? HOW would we be open to change? HOW would we make a difference for half our population?
We as SIDs are making the difference — not because we have to for Title IX but because we care — we care to be fair!
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