When the final Title IX implementation regulations of the Educational Amendments of 1972 were issued by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and signed into law by Gerald Ford in July 1975, one of the most hotly debated areas surrounded parity in collegiate-level athletic programs for men and women. In 1974-1975, women received about two percent of the total intercollegiate athletic budget in this country, a major disparity between the genders by anyone's definition.

Since the 1920s, women at Marquette had opportunities to participate in organized sports through the Women's Athletic Association, a chapter of the American Conference of Athletic College Women and its successors. Intercollegiate competition, however, was not amongst these organizations' aims, and the Marquette women typical competed against each other in teams organized by class year. By the time of Title IX's passage, Marquette women had competed in basketball, volleyball, and tennis on an extracollegiate basis with a number of institutions in the greater-Milwaukee area - including UW-Waukesha Center, Alverno, Mount Mary, Carroll College, and Cardinal Stritch. These activities were organized under the auspices of the Intramural Program, with Mrs. Pat Mattek serving as coach for all teams.

A limited number of Marquette women participated on varsity men's sports teams in the early 1970s. One woman - Kathie Naymick - was awarded a tennis numeral for the 1973-1974 season, and Anne Hanneken competed with the men's varsity tennis team in the 1975 season. These female athletes, however, did not participate in conjunction with a full-fledged women's intercollegiate program, and it was only with the implementation of Title IX that Marquette women were afforded the opportunity to participate in intercollegiate athletics at a programmatic level.

Like other colleges and universities across the country, Marquette reviewed its athletic programs and began to take action to comply with the federal law, which outlined a three-year window for compliance. One of the first actions Marquette took in response to the passage of Title IX was to hire Catherine (Tat) Shiely in 1975 as the coordinator of a new women's athletics program. Shiely was given a broad range of responsibilities, including the development, coordination and administration of the participation of women in Marquette's intercollegiate athletic program; the scheduling of women's sports games; full-time coaching duties for two women's sports; the hiring and supervision of coaches for additional women's sports teams; the recommendation of policies and programs beneficial for women; and coordination with the admissions office in recruiting women.

In its inaugural season from 1975 to 1976, the Marquette women's intercollegiate athletics program consisted of 34 women playing on varsity tennis, volleyball, and basketball teams. In their first year, the Marquette women's teams performed well, with the basketball team posting a 12-4 overall record, including a first-place finish in the WICWI tournament; the tennis team placing second overall in its final competition; and the volleyball team posting an 8-5 record in regular-season play and a first place finish in its final tournament.

While the early years of women's intercollegiate athletics at Marquette produced relatively successful seasons against their opponents, the program was not without its challenges off the playing fields. Many of the women who participated were stereotyped as being unfeminine. Shiely cited the local media's limited coverage of women's athletics as one of a host of challenges. Though women did receive a similar number of athletic scholarships as men 1, they lagged behind in terms of their actual dollar worth: in 1976 Shiely wrote William Murphy, chair of the Athletic Board, indicating her concern that wrestlers received $2400 per scholarship while women received just $125. 2

The scholarship ‘proportionality' challenge remained an area of inequality for a number of years, but both the Athletic Board and university leadership remained steadfast in their commitment to strengthen the women's athletic program at Marquette . Over the years, the university has increased opportunities for women interested in pursuing intercollegiate athletics: women's track and cross-country became varsity sports in the 1978-1979 seasons, the co-ed rifle team was added for the 1992-1993 season, and women's soccer was added in 1993. By 2004/2005, the University provided an average scholarship of just over $19,500 to female student-athletes receiving athletic aid.

Just as women's intercollegiate athletics have grown nationally over the last 30 years (from around 30,000 in 1971 to nearly 151,000 in 2001), the women's athletics program at Marquette has grown and flourished in the years since its formal inception. Women's teams have enjoyed success in reaching postseason competition: the women's basketball team has played in the NCAA tournament 7 times; the women's soccer team – the youngest women's team – participated in four consecutive NCAA tournaments in the early 2000s; and the women's tennis squad made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the 1996-1997 season.

The success of women's athletics cannot be attributed to the university's financial and program support alone. From the 34 women who participated in women's intercollegiate athletics in 1975 to the 117 who participated in 2004/2005, women's intercollegiate athletics at Marquette has built on the strength, dedication, and talent of its participants. The images in the Women in Blue and Gold digital collection document these extraordinary women.

1 In fact, an Athletic Board subcommittee initially recommended that no scholarship be provided for women because women were not specifically seeking scholarships. James Scott perhaps argued most strongly in favor of scholarships for women, writing, “I do not recall that men sought scholarships in football, basketball, track, wrestling, etc. in the early days either. The fact is we offer scholarships for men; we can do no less for women, although the number may be less at the outset.”

2 The Athletic Board also appears to have been concerned that awarding athletic scholarships to women in differing dollar values would create “dissension and hard feelings” amongst the women.