TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo hosted a panel discussion on Title IX and its historical impact on women's athletics on Wednesday, Feb. 1. The panel discussion, which took place at the Carlson Library, was part of series of events celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the founding of The University of Toledo.

The panelists included Jodi Manore, a former Rocket women's volleyball coach and current head girls' volleyball coach at Bedford (Mich.) High School; Kelly Savage, a Varsity Hall of Fame member who played for the Toledo women's basketball team from 1986-1990; and Kelly Andrews, the senior associate athletic director and senior women administrator in the Toledo Athletic Department.

In addition to being a part of the University's sesquicentennial celebration, the event celebrated two other significant anniversaries affecting women's athletics: the 50^th anniversary of the passing of Title IX and the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the very first women's sport at the University of Toledo. The event also coincided with the date of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 established as federal law the protection for all from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. It is generally credited with having an enormously positive impact on athletic opportunities for girls and women at the high school, collegiate and professional levels.

Among the topics addressed were the opportunities created for girls and women by the passage of Title IX, the changes in women's athletics over the past few decades and the personal experiences of the panelists.

Manore, who served as head coach of the first varsity women's volleyball team at Toledo from 1975-88, recalled that the passage of Title IX had relatively little fanfare when it became law in 1972.

"I knew it was passed and I knew there were going to be some changes, but I didn't realize what it was going to do for my life and how it was going to affect it all these years," said Manore, who recently completed her 38^th season as the head girls volleyball coach at Bedford High School in Bedford, Mich., her alma mater, and has accumulated 2,224 victories, the most wins of any varsity high school coach in the country.

Savage added that she reaped the benefits of Title IX when she began playing sports, first in high school at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo and then as a student-athlete at the University of Toledo.

"I think Title IX is amazing," said Savage, who was a two-time All-MAC player for the Rockets. "I caught a lot of the positives from it. We wanted to compete, and we were given the platform to do that. Every year it gets better and better. Title IX, thank God it came along before I played because I benefited from it." 

Andrews said that Title IX has helped make men's and women's collegiate sports more equal, which wasn't always the case.

"Now when you look at scenarios for women sports, there's multiple coaches, separate locker rooms, full-time people assigned to them in sports communications and athletic training, and all kinds of support areas," said Andrews, who played three sports in college and coached volleyball at East Tennessee State before joining the Rockets as an administrator in 2002. "It's grown by leaps and bounds, which you hope in 50 years that would happen."

All the panelists said that the main goal should be to provide girls and women an equal opportunity to compete with the same resources as their male counterparts. The one area that the panel identified as still lagging is the number of women in the coaching profession.

"One thing I see as lacking is the lack of role models for girls," said Manore. "I'm on the High School Volleyball Coaches Association, and we're constantly trying to figure out how to get more women into coaching, to be those role models, and to stay in coaching."