Video: 'Title IX: Let 'em Play'

(Friday, June 23, 1972, Nixon’s statement on signing the Education Amendments of 1972 delivered at 2:48-2:57 p.m. EDT) — U.S. President Richard Nixon today signed Title IX barring discrimination on the basis of sex for “any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Those words fueled the growth of women’s college sports, as the schools had to provide athletic programs for women as well as for men. As federal school funding expanded, so did opportunities for girls at the primary and secondary school levels.

Video: 'Title IX: 37 Words That Changed Everything'

Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana first introduced an amendment to the Higher Education Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sex on Aug. 6, 1971, and again on Feb. 28, 1972, when it passed the Senate.

Representative Edith Green, chair of the Subcommittee on Education, had held hearings on discrimination against women and introduced legislation in the House on May 11, 1972. The full Congress passed Title IX on June 8, 1972.

When Title IX was passed in 1972, only 42% percent of the students enrolled in American colleges were female.