Northern Section, CIF Celebrating Women In Sport

Northern Section, CIF Twelve women from Smith College form the first intercollegiate women's tennis club. (June 6, 1881)

Northern Section, CIF The first women's intercollegiate basketball game is held between the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University. Male spectators are barred. (April 4, 1896)

Northern Section, CIF Lizzie Arlington becomes the first woman to sign a contract with a minor league baseball team. (1898)

Northern Section, CIF Nineteen women debut as the first competitors at the Paris Olympic Games. Charlotte Cooper becomes the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal. (1900)

Northern Section, CIF Introduced into the United States by England's Constance Applebee, field hockey quickly becomes the most popular outdoor team sport of young American women. (1901)

Northern Section, CIF Thirty-six women compete at the Olympic Games in gymnastics, tennis, archery and figure skating. (1908)

Northern Section, CIF Long distance swimmer Annette Kellerman is arrested for exposing her legs while swimming in Boston Harbor in an indecent one-piece bathing suit. (1910)

Northern Section, CIF Women are first allowed to swim in the Olympic Games. Australian Fanny Durack - wearing a long woolen swimsuit with a skirt - wins the 100m freestyle to become the first female champion in the Games; impressively, her time was the same as the men's winner. (1912)

Northern Section, CIF Suzanne Lenglen makes her triumphant debut at Wimbledon. She wins the first of her six singles championships and makes a shocking fashion statement in her calf-length, one-piece dress that exposes her arms and allows her to be aggressive in her play. (1919)

Northern Section, CIF Jeux Feminins, the first all-women Olympics, is held in Monaco. Three hundred women from five countries compete in many sports not permitted in the Olympic Games such as track and field and basketball. They are so successful that they are held again in 1922 and (1921)

Northern Section, CIF Bessie Coleman is the first African-American, male or female, to earn a pilot's license. All of her applications to aviation school in the United States are rejected, so she travels to France for training and certification. (June 15, 1921)

Northern Section, CIF The Olympic Winter Games debut in Chamonix, France, with events for women in figure skating (individual and pairs). (1924)

Northern Section, CIF Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel. Her time of 14 hours and 31 minutes breaks the men's record. (1926)

Northern Section, CIF Track and field for women makes its debut at the Amsterdam Olympic Games.

Northern Section, CIF When several women reportedly collapse at the conclusion of the 800-meter race, officials seize on the reports as a pretext for banning women from running any distance greater than 200 meters in Olympic competition till 1960.

Northern Section, CIF Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias is the first woman to win medals in three Olympic events - two gold and one silver. She is denied the third gold when she goes over the high jump bar head first - a technique barred by rules at the time. (1932)

Northern Section, CIF Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. (1932)

Northern Section, CIF Swimmer Hideko Maehata of Japan becomes the first woman of color to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. (1936)

Northern Section, CIF Sonja Henie, becomes the first (and as of 1999, the only) woman ever to win three Olympic gold medals in individual figure skating competition. (1936)

Northern Section, CIF Tennis champion Helen Wills Moody wins a record eighth ladies' singles title at Wimbledon. (1938)

Northern Section, CIF The All American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed. At its peak in 1948, it consisted of 10 teams and drew nearly a million fans. (1943)

Northern Section, CIF Alice Coachman becomes the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal. (1948)

Northern Section, CIF Larissa Latynina of Russia wins the first of her 18 Olympic medals at the Melbourne Olympic Games. (1952)

Northern Section, CIF Althea Gibson becomes the first woman of color tennis player to win Wimbledon and Forest Hills. (1957)

Northern Section, CIF Wilma Rudolph overcomes childhood polio to capture three Olympic gold medals at the Rome Olympic Games and the title of fastest woman in the world. She inspires generations of girls and women to participate in track and field. (1960)

Northern Section, CIF Volleyball is introduced as the first team sport for women in the Olympic Games. (October 23, 1964)

Northern Section, CIF Kathryn Switzer becomes the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon when she registers as K. Switzer. When officials see that she is a woman they try to remove her from the race. She finishes in four hours and 20 minutes. (1967)

Northern Section, CIF Title IX, the federal law that opened the door of opportunity for girls and women to participate in sports by prohibiting gender discrimination in schools and colleges that receive federal funding, is signed by President Richard M. Nixon. (June 23, 1972)

Northern Section, CIF Before Title IX, young women were 7% of the students participating in high school sports. In 2001, young women are 41.5% of the students participating in high school sports. In raw numbers, we went from 300,000 to 2.7 million athletes-a gain of over 800%. Thank you to the Women’s Sports Foundation for statistics.

Northern Section, CIF 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 receiving federal financial assistance. (Title IX of the Education Amendments of To honor one of its key Congressional sponsors, it was named the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act on October 9, )