Fiftieth anniversary of Title IX should be and will be more than a celebration

This is an editor's note with a purpose of telling our readers this is the first of several days during the next four months when you'll see stories from us celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Another purpose of this note is to tell you our series of stories will do more than celebrate. There is much work left to be done on measures of gender equity in sports.

This anniversary is indeed a moment to celebrate, and also a moment to revisit issues and shine light on challenges and obstacles. We'll do all those things in the next four months, today through June 23, the day the Education Amendments were signed into law 50 years ago.

That following morning back in 1972, Minneapolis Tribune readers learned about this historic legislation — if they were reading closely. There it was, on an inside page of the news section, the 15th paragraph of a wire service story: "The bill would take federal assistance away from any graduate school or public undergraduate college that discriminated against women."

One paragraph. It was a whisper, really. Heck, Title IX itself is only 37 words. Sports were not mentioned in the law or in the news. No one knew what was ahead or what to expect. We'll know what to expect, though, when the girls' hockey state tournament starts today and when the NCAA Women's Final Four comes to town in a few weeks. Sports — full-on, no-brakes, high-powered sports. It has been quite a half-century.

"I thought this was going to be a sprint when I was 25," Chris Voelz told me the other day. "It has been a marathon — no, an ultramarathon."

Ultramarathons are worth celebrating. We will celebrate. You'll read stories of joy, opportunity, equality, power and progress. This anniversary is no finish line, though. We'll seek balance in our coverage. And our daily coverage of girls' and women's sports itself will be one of the topics. Challenges and celebrations, both.

I asked Voelz, a lifelong equality advocate and former University of Minnesota athletic director, for her thoughts about balance and tone for this moment.

"It is a celebration, a celebration of progress you can see all over," she said. "You can see it in the Olympics, in law and medicine, in boardrooms, all across society and sports and our cultures.

"And yet, it's also a time to reflect. Let's reflect on how we can continue this trajectory for the next 50 years."

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