• OVC Title IX Website | Photo Gallery From Luncheon
As part of its annual Spring Meetings, the OVC celebrated pioneers of Title IX at a luncheon. The event is part of a year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX.
Each of the league's current and future members institutions picked one honoree to be honored during the program. The honorees were:
• Lin Dunn, Austin Peay
• Betty Wiseman, Belmont
• Dr. Gail Richard, Eastern Illinois
• Bre Watts, Lindenwood
• Karen Aston, Little Rock
• Deanie Brown, Morehead State
• Margaret Simmons, Murray State
• Cindy Gannon, Southeast Missouri
• Rosemarie Archangel, SIUE
• Patricia Marcum, Southern Indiana
• Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice, Tennessee State
• Marynell Meadors, Tennessee Tech
• Bettye Giles, UT Martin
June 23, 2022 marks the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, which was signed into law in 1972 as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It states:
“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 education program or activity.”
The OVC established women’s championships in the sports of basketball, tennis and track in 1977 with cross country and volleyball added over the next four years. Those sports were initially governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), but the overall strength of women's programs in the league was demonstrated by the automatic bids the OVC instantly received when the NCAA became the governing body in 1982. The conference added women’s golf and softball in 1994, women's soccer in 1998 and recently added beach volleyball in 2020.
Additional information on the celebration can also be found on the NCAA's website:
ncaa.org/titleix50.