Former Dayton star Ann Meyers on the importance of young female athletes understanding the value of Title IX.
The National Association of Collegiate Women's Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) has announced its 25 nominees for its Title IX Trailblazer Tribute Contest in honor of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, which is coming up on June 23, 2012.
The contest solicited videos from conference offices and other organizations around the nation to celebrate and nominate a trailblazer who has made significant contributions in the area of gender equity.
Dayton's submission features an interview with Ann Meyers (not Drysdale), who played from 1976-1980 and is still the school's all-time leading scorer for both men's and women's basketball with 2,672 points, as described in the summary of the video.
The 1979-80 UD women's basketball team—of which Meyers was the high-scoring, big-rebounding star—finished 36-2 and won the small division national crown of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (AIAW), the precursor of the NCAA in women's college athletics.
One of the team's two losses came when the Flyers were without the 6-foot-1 Meyers who was was playing in the volleyball national tournament. Meyers was the star of that team too, and for two years in a row she was the National Player of the Year for all divisions of college volleyball.
In the video above, Meyers discusses her role as a trailblazer in women's sports, the importance of young women understanding the legacy of Title IX and some of the conditions she played in at that time.
You can view all 25 videos at the NACWAA YouTube Channel and the full list of videos is listed with the announcement on their website. For what it's worth, UCLA also nominated Ann Meyers Drysdale.
The winner will get a $9,000 gift from the NACWAA Foundation Fund in support of its women’s athletics programs and/or female staff professional development.
For the full release and list of videos, visit the NACWAA website. For more on Dayton's 1979-80 championship team, visit the release about their induction into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame last year. Click here for more on Title IX.