Every Little Girls Dream

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, a law passed in 1972 that created equal rights for females in athletics.

They are 37 of the most influential words in female athletics....

 "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 educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Some of my favorite memories I have as a small girl are surrounded by sports! The earliest being my Dad throwing a Nerf football to me as I was running pass patterns across the living room or sitting and watching the Reds win the 1990 World Series with him at only 4 years old. Since a little girl I have been in love with the competition and  fascinated by everything sports related! 

I was never the girl who played with dolls or wanted to be a princess with the sparkly dress and play make up. For my birthday I wanted a basketball hoop and played football in the side yard until time for dinner and then went back outside until dark. I loved to get dirty and play with the boys! With all of that I learned from an early age the boys didnt always want me to play with them. While the girls on recess talked about what barbie they wanted or what boy the liked, I was begging the boys to let me play football. I remember running out everyday at lunch and lining up only to be the last one picked and never got to be the QB and the only time I got the ball thrown to me is when I was WIDE open and there absolutely no one with in 10 yards of me. LOL  That was the reason I ran out there everyday, to have that moment. That moment to show them that I could play, that I  could catch and I was able to make the move to make the others miss and score! I did that probably everyday from Kindergarten to 5th grade. 

One of my favorite childhood memories is a pick up game of football my cousin and I played in a neighbors yard against boys that was 3 to 5 years older than us and we killed them. Everyday we would go out and play, I was always the QB and he the receiver. I felt bad bc he would always get crap for bringing a girl to play. What they didnt know was this girl could throw a spiral 30 yards at 10 years old! haha 

Playing with the boys wasnt always fun, I got roughed up...A LOT! LOL There were cheap shots, elbows and hard hits almost every game I would play in. Even my cousins would lay me out when we played, I learned early on that I had to suck it up and keep playing! I was taught to get up, dust myself off, walk it off and keep playing. No tears! (Thanks Dad)

Eventually I got into playing organized sports, after a year of flag football in second grade (I was the only girl on the team) I decided I probably should stick with softball and basketball with the other girls and played into High School. 

I was watching the WNBA draft today with Josh and as they were talking about Title IX and how it paved the way for the ladies sitting there. I took a moment to think about what great athletes and coaches we would have missed if this not occurred. I mean can you really see Sammy Prahalis doing anything other than running fast breaks and executing perfect behind the back passes. Pat Summitt started playing Basketball at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1970, 2 years before Title IX was passed. Summitt's parents paid for their daughters college because no scholarships were awarded to female athletes. What if it never had passed, would Pat Summitt become the Pat Summitt we all know today? Would she still have been the most winningest  coach in ALL of NCAA basketball history?  

You may not be a fan of Women's sports, you may not think its exciting. We may not hit as hard, or dunk on fast breaks, But we are athletes too. We know the game just as well as the boys and play OUR style, we play OUR game! We may still not get the multi-million dollar deals but we have come soooo far because of Title IX and if it not passed, we would still be playing. Not because of the money but because just like the boys...It's apart of us, it's who we are, WE ARE IN LOVE WITH THE GAME!

This Quote from  Pat Summitt sums it up...

"I had to drive the van when I first started coaching," Summitt said. "One time, for a road game, we actually slept in the other team's gym the night before. We had mats, we had our little sleeping bags. When I was a player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, we played at Tennessee Tech for three straight games, and we didn't wash our uniforms. We only had one set. We played because we loved the game. We didn't think anything about it."