"There was a time, not so long ago, when if you happened to be a young girl, your sporting options were playing in your backyard, joining a volleyball team, or donning a pleated skirt and pomcheering for the boys' basketball, soccer, or football teams...the dark ages ended thirty five years ago this month, when Richard Nixon signed into law a briefly worded document tht banned sex discrimination in any federally funded education programs..."
Even though his reputation is well earned as <strike>worst</strike> <strike>second worst</strike> one of the worst presidents in modern times, Nixon actually did a lot of good things (such as this).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rae Vynn @ Jul 2 2007, 04:29 PM) [snapback]471800[/snapback]</div> I know...I was more than a little surprised myself! I honestly don't remember this happening, nor do I recall my Mom tellling me anything about it at the time.
You can actually thank educationists of the late 60's and early 70's for pushing Title IX through (they were still quite relaxed about being liberal back then). It was designed to provide greater gender equity fo extra-curricular activities of all sorts (including the chess club). The white house was lobbied HARD to get this through. After it was enacted, most people were really quite surprised at the idea it would apply to sports teams. In my high school at the time there was tremendous bleating about how it would lead to co-ed locker rooms, women on the football team, and mixed sex water polo. I think Nixon had other things on his mind and we just got lucky.
Didn't Nixon also have something to do with creating the EPA or Endangered Species Act or something like that? Just goes to show. Richard the Lionheart gets all of the great press but it was King John that signed the Magna Carta. Otherwise John was a crappy king but he did do one thing right.
