How Title IX Changed Sports Forever: Stories From 10 Women Who Made History

SiriusXM is honoring the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The landmark legislation helped give women athletes equal opportunities in school sports programs across the country.

Meet history-making athletes and coaches, including Danica Patrick, Rebecca Lobo, Mo’ne Davis, Thunder Rosa, and the late Pat Summitt, as they reflect on what the passage of Title IX meant to them and their sports.

Suzy Whaley

Golf

In 2003, Suzy Whaley became the first woman in 58 years to qualify for a PGA Tour event. Fifteen years later, she was named the first female president of the PGA of America.

The only girl on her high school golf team, Whaley says, “Title IX ensured that I had a right to try, a right to succeed or to fail, to learn from my setbacks, and to carry on stronger and smarter for the experience.”

Danica Patrick

Race Car Driving

“I was brought up to be the fastest driver — not the fastest girl,” Danica Patrick explains. “I feel like that was instilled in me from a very young age.”

Patrick’s racing career began with go-karts at age 10 before she left home at 16 to compete in European road racing. In 2005, she became the first woman to lead laps and earn a top-five finish in the Indianapolis 500. She later transitioned to NASCAR, where she made history again in 2013 with a record-setting performance at the Daytona 500.

“We have a lot more history to make, and we are excited to do it,” she adds.

Rachel Balkovec

Baseball

Rachel Balkovec became the first woman to manage a team affiliated with Major League Baseball when she was named manager of the Tampa Tarpons, a Class A minor league team, in 2022.

“This is not just for me,” Balkovec says. “This is for a community of women. This is for a generation of women coming behind me that may not have this opportunity if I don’t continue down this path.”

Mo’ne Davis

Baseball

In 2014, Mo’ne Davis became only the fourth American girl to play in the Little League World Series — and the first to pitch a winning game.

“With the power of social media, us as athletes can really change what’s going on,” Davis says. “We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”

She now plays softball at Hampton University.

Rebecca Lobo & Sheryl Swoopes

Basketball

The WNBA officially launched on June 21, 1997, changing the landscape of women’s basketball forever.

Olympic gold medalist and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo, who played in the league’s inaugural game, remembers being “blown away” by the idea of the NBA starting a women’s league.

Fellow Hall of Famer Sheryl Swoopes says, “We had no idea what we should be fighting for, what we should be asking for, so to see the new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) that the women just got and where the game is today, it absolutely does my heart a lot of good.”

Thunder Rosa

Wrestling

Melissa Cervantes, better known as Thunder Rosa, started her professional career as a social worker before becoming a successful wrestler. She later launched her own all-women’s independent promotion, Mission Pro Wrestling.

“I love the fact that I will be one of the beacons of change,” she says. “It is very important that we have that representation.”

Earlier that year, Thunder Rosa fulfilled a lifelong dream when she became AEW Women’s World Champion.

Pat Summitt

Basketball

The late Pat Summitt served as head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 until her retirement in 2012. During her legendary career, she led the team to eight national championships and 18 Final Four appearances.

Summitt became the winningest coach in NCAA Division I basketball history in 2005 and retired with 1,098 career victories.

“I love working with these young women and helping them strive to be the best that they can be,” Summitt said.

Jen Welter

Football

Jen Welter became the NFL’s first female coaching intern in 2015 with the Arizona Cardinals.

She served under head coach Bruce Arians, who, Welter says, “bet his entire coaching legacy” on her success.

Angela Ruggiero

Ice Hockey

A championship ice hockey defenseman and four-time Olympian, Angela Ruggiero says Title IX “has given girls the opportunity to play, to train, to get scholarships, and changed, really, I think, the cultural narrative of sports in America.”

Ruggiero also served on the International Olympic Committee for eight years and says Title IX proved to be “the single greatest thing that we have in terms of training our Olympic female athletes.”

“It’s why we win the medal count, hands down, in the U.S., especially during the Summer Olympics,” she explains.