Title IX Trailblazers

We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark law supporting female participation in education-based programs. The passage of Title IX led to a movement here in Tennessee, where now more than 51,000 female athletes compete annually in 10 sanctioned TSSAA and TMSAA sports. During the 2021-2022 school year, 43 girls’ teams and 269 female individuals claimed state championships in these 10 girls’ sports. Yet on June 23, 1972, when the law was passed, there were only two sanctioned TSSAA girls’ sports with state championships: basketball and tennis. Almost immediately, the TSSAA Board of Control and Legislative Council began rapidly expanding access to girls’ sports by sanctioning and subsequently adding state championships in the following: track & field (1974), golf (1975), cross country (1975), volleyball (1976), softball (1979), soccer (1986), bowling (2002), wrestling (2015), and most recently, dual wrestling (2022).

During our 2022-2023 state championships, TSSAA honored the women who played and coached for the first-ever state championships in their sport. This led to some memorable reunions that you can read about in the news articles below. You can also watch the Title IX basketball celebration in the video linked below.

If you have ideas on how to further celebrate the women who advanced girls' sports after Title IX, we would encourage you to let us know by emailing titleix@tssaa.org.

Because the opportunities for today’s athletes were built on the perseverance of those who came before, the TSSAA asked its member schools to help us identify the important Title IX figures in their own communities. We collected stories of female leaders from both past and present that helped expand opportunities for female athletes, particularly for middle and high school girls. These women were celebrated in the TSSAA Title IX Trailblazers articles below: