Title IX became law in 1972. As a result any school that receives any federal money is required to provide fair and equal treatment of the sexes in all areas, including sports. Change didn’t happen all at once, but during the 1970s girls who had been forced to watch from the sidelines started to have real opportunities to join teams and compete. Melissa Isaacson was one of those girls.
In 1975 Isaacson was a freshman at Niles West High School in Suburban Chicago. She joined the brand new girls basketball team and four years later they won the state championship. She shares her story and the story of her team in her new book, State: A Team, A Triumph, A Transformation. Isaacson went on to an award-winning career as a sports writer and is now on faculty at the Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
She’ll be at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City on Saturday, September 21st at 4:00 p.m. in conversation with the University of Iowa’s Women’s Basketball Coach Lisa Bluder.
Guest include:
Melissa Issacson, author, State: A Team, A Triumph, A Transformation
This episode originally aired September 9, 2019.
