Female Firsts
1950 - 1999
1950 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias is named "Women Athlete of the Half Century" and an AP poll for her outstanding performances in golf, basketball, baseball, javelin, tennis, diving, bowling, eighty meters hurdles, shot-put, high jump, and discus.
Babe Didrikson Zarharias
1952 - Katherine Hepburn stars in a romantic comedy, Pat and Mike, portraying an all-around athlete who competes against real-life athletes of the era; Babe Zaharias and Betty Hickes in golf and Aloce Marble and Gussie Moran in tennis.
1954 - The Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union is formed under the direction of Wayne Cooley. The organization successfully works to establish a state-wide program for girls sports equal to that for boys. In the next twenty years, almost five hundred Iowa schools have full girls' programs, which include equal coaches salaries, better media coverage, and the end season championships for girls and boys.
1961 - Track star Wilma Rudolph wins AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
Wilma Rudolph
1963 - The LPGA championship tournament is televised for the first time.
1965 - 1964 Olympic swimmer, Donna de Varona, becomes the first woman sports broadcaster on national television for ABC. De Varona is also a founder of the Women's Sports Foundation.
Donna de Varona
1965 - The Women's Golf Open is televised nationally for the first time.
1968 - Debbie Meyer, swimmer, is awarded AAU's James E. Sullican Memorial Award.
1968 - Enriquette Basilio becomes the first woman to light the Olympic flame at the Mexico City Summer Games.
1970 - Just 294,000 American high school girls take part in interscholastic sports.
1971 - The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women is formed to plan, govern, and promote the growing number of college tournament for women athletes.
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was passed by Congress. It states that, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activities recieving Federal financial assistance."
1972 - There are 817,073 girls participating in high school sports.
1972 - Sports Illustrated names Billie Jean King Sportswoman of the Year, this is the first time a female has recieved this award.
Billie Jean King
1973 - There are 1.3 million girls participating in high school sports.
1973 - A world-wide audience of over fifty million people watched Billie Jean King win the "battle of the sexes" tennis match against Bobby Riggs. It firmly connected women's rights to women's sports and inspired millions to demand equal rights, equal treatment, and equal pay.
1974 - The first issue of Women's Sports magazine is published.
1974 - Donna de Varona cofounds the Women's Sports Foundation. She served as the organization's first president from 1979 - 1984.
1975 - The first ever nationally televised women's college basketball game sees Immaculata defeat the University of Maryland.
1975 - Title IX goes into effect.
1976 - The New York Times reports there are more than ten thousand women weight lifters.
1977 - Mary Shane is hired as the new TV play-by-play commentator for the Chicago White Sox, becoming the first woman to be hired my major league baseball.
1978 - The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 prohibits gender discrimination in open amateur sports, makes training facilities and money more available to women and minorities.
1978 - 1.6 million American high school girls are taking part in interscholastic sports.
1978 - Tracy Caulkins, swimmer, wins AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
Tracy Caulkins
1978 - Sports Illustrated's Melissa Ludtke files a lawsuit; a US District Court judge rules that male and female reporters should have the same access to athletes, even if it means entering locker rooms while athletes are dressing.
1978 - New York State becomes the first state to offer an amateur competition for female and male atheletes when the Empire State Games debut.
1982 - Mary Decker, runner, becomes the first woman to win the Jesse Owens Award, which is presented annually to the best US track and field athlete. She is also named the Women's Sports Foundation's Amateur Sportswoman of the Year.
1982 - The Supreme Court rules that Title IX covers coaches and other employees as well as students.
1983 - The National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women is dissolved when women's sports come under the NCAA. The long term effect of his will reduce the number of women coaches and administrators.
1983 - Mary Decker wins her third Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year Award. She also becomes the sixth female to win AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
Mary Decker
1984 - The US Supreme Court weakens Title IX in Grove City College vs. Bell effectively denying the application of the Title IX to non-federally funded sub-units of educational insititutions such as college departments of physical education and athletics.
1984 - There are 1.8 million girls participating in high school sports.
1984 - Ultrasport magazine is founded by Lyn Lemaire.
1984 - Mary Lou Retton is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for gymnastics. She appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated and earns Sports Illustrated co-Sportsman of the Year honors.
Mary Lou Retton
1986 - Judy Bell is nominated to become the first woman member of the USGA's Executive Committee; she is elected for the position in 1987.
1987 - The first annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day is celebrated in the United States.
1987 - Aside from the swimsuit edition, Jackie Joyner-Kersee becomes the first woman athlete to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
1987 - Martina Navratilova, tennis player, is recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1988 - Florence Griffith Joyner is voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, along with the AAU Sullivan Award.
1988 - Title IX is restored when Congress enacts the Civil Rights Restoration Act over President Reagan's veto.
1988 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, track and field, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
1989 - Janet Evans, swimmer, is awarded the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
1989 - Phyllis Holmes becomes the first female president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
1989 - Judith Davidson becomes the only woman athletic director at a Division 1 school in charge of all sports, including men's football and men's basketball, when she takes the job at Central Connecticut State University.
1990 - Title IX gets a boost from the Supreme Court.
1990 - 160,000 women play college sports.
1990 - Sara Lee becomes the first corporation to make a major commitment solely to female athletics on the collegiate level with a six million dollar donation to the NCAA.
1990 - Life magazine names Billie Jean King as one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" for her work to promote women's participation in athletics and sports.
1990 - Chris Evert, tennis player, is awarded the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
Chris Evert
1991 - Judith Sweet is elected as NCAA's first female president.
1991 - Diana Golden, disabled skier, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1992 - Just under two million girls participate in high school sports.
1992 - Penny Marshall directs A League of Their Own, a movie about the first year of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. The movie was a box office hit, due in large part to the many women who went to see female sports role models on the screen.
1992 - Speed skater Bonnie Blair wins AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
1992 - Anita Defrantz becomes the chair of the IOC's Committee on Women and Sports.
1992 - The NCAA delays imposing ten percent cut in athletic scholarships for women until the release of it's gender-equity study.
1992 - The Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Franklin vs. Gwinnett County Public Schools, permitting students to sue for monetary damages for sexual harassment and other forms of sex dixcrimintation at schools and colleges.
1992 - Nancy Lopez, golfer, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
Nancy Lopez
1993 - Sheryl Swoopes, basketball, is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. She is also named National Player of the Year by nine different organizations, including USA Today and Sports Illustrated.
1993 - Sherry Davis becomes the first woman public address announcer in major league baseball.
1993 - Lynette Woodard, basketball, is awarded the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1994 - A survey by Women's Sports and Fitness magazine finds that eighty-two percent of the most powerful women in Washington politics had played organized sports as a child.
1994 - Patty Sheehan, golfer, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1995 - Sheryl Swoopes has an athletic show named after her by Nike called the "Air Swoopes."
Air Swoopes
1995 - Mary Lou Retton, gymnast, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1996 - 2.4 million girls play high shool sports, including 819 football player, 1.164 wrestlers, and 1,471 ice hockey playes.
1996 - Loretta Claiborne, Special Olympics athlete, is honored with ESPN's ESPY Arthur Ashe Award for courage.
1996 - Christy Martin, professional boxer, is the first woman fighter to be televised on pay-per-view.
1996 - Bonnie Blair wins the Olympic Torch Award and is a Humanitarian World of Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
1996 - Donna de Varona, swimmer, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1997 - Anita DeFrantz becomes the first female vice-president of the International Olympic Committee executive committee.
Anita DeFrantz
1997 - Billie Jean King, tennis, recieves the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1998 - Chamique Holdsclaw, basketball, wins AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
1998 - According to a survey conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, forty percent of athletes at Division 1 schools in 1997-1998 were women; that is a five percent increase from 1996-1997. Women also recieved forty percent of athletic scholarship budgets, up fourteen percent from the previous year.
1998 - Nadia Comaneci, gymnist, is awarded the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
1999 - Chamique Holdsclaw becomes the first woman basketball player to win the Sullivan Award, the nation's top amateur award.
Chamique Holdsclaw
1999 - Two women make Sports Illustrated's "Our Favorite Athletes of the 20th Century" listing: runner Wilma Rudolph (number 14) and tennis player Chris Evert (number 20).
1999 - Title IX's 27th birthday. About thiry-one thousand women were involved in college sports in 1972; that number has more than tripled. Spending on athletic scholarships for women has gone from less than one hundred thousand dollars to almost two million dollars. There was an average of 2.1 women's team at colleges in 1972. That number is now at a record 7.7 per school.
1999 - For the first time in its seventy-five year history, General Mills will feature soccer players on the Wheaties box. Women's World Cup players Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, and goalie Briana Scurry will be pictured on one of five special edition boxes.
1999 - Juli Inkster and Mia Hamm are honored as Sportswomen of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation.
1999 - The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) names Fanny Blankers-Koen as the female Athlete of the Century in a ceremony in Monaco.
1999 - Sports Illustrated for Women announces their choice of the US Women's Soccer Team as Sportswomen of the Year and Jackie Joyner-Kersee as Athlete of the Century.
1999 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias is selected by Sports Illustrated as the best female athlete of the 20th Century.
1999 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias (number 9) heads the list of the ten women chosen as a part of the 100 Athletes of the Century by the Associate Press. The other women members of this exclusive club include Martina Navratilova (20), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (40), Billie Jean King (41), Nadia Comaneci (52), Chris Evert (55), Steffi Graf (68), Sonja Henie and Wilma Rudolph (tied for 76), and Althea Gibson (83). The 16 panelists who ranked the 325 entries for Athletes of the Century included three women; Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation; Anita DeFrantz, the first woman vice-president of the International Olympic Committee; and Judy Rankin, a former LPGA Tour professional and TV analyst for ABC Sports.
1999 - The US Women's Soccer team is honored as Sportswomen of the Year in the December 20th issue of Sports Illustrated.
1999 - The coverage of the Women's World Cup in soccer is named the Associate Press Story of the Year.
1999 USA Soccer Team
1999 - Speedskater Bonnie Blair, the most decorated US athlete in Winter Olympic History, is awarded the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.