Here are a few highlights of achievements since the inception of Title IX in 1972.
The 70s
- Trish Bostrom (1969-72), tennis champion and women’s rights trailblazer
- UW Athletics begins women’s varsity sports sponsorship (1974-75)
- First senior women’s administrator Catherine “Kit” Green (1974-95)
The 80s
- NCAA adds women’s sports and championships (1982-83)
- Rowing’s dominance as 1981, 82, 83, 84 and 85 Women’s Eight National Champions
- Basketball draws 3,832 fans in its NCAA first-round game against UCLA (1985); moves from Pavilion Addition to Hec Edmundson Pavilion (1986)
The 90s
- Barbara Hedges, first woman hired as Athletic Director (1991-2004)
- Women’s Soccer added as varsity sport (1991)
- Softball added as a varsity sport (1993); earns Pac-10 championship after just four seasons
- Husky Women’s Basketball reaches the NCAA Elite 8 (1990) and Sweet 16 (1995)
The 2000s
- Volleyball rises to prominence with a National Championship (2005); Courtney Thompson (2003-06) wins National Player of the Year and Honda Award; All-Americans Sanja Tomasevic (2002-05) and Christal Morrison (2004-07)
- Cross Country wins 2008 NCAA Championship
The 2010s
- Two-time All-America Basketball Guard Kelsey Plum (2014-17) becomes college basketball’s all-time leading scorer and leads UW to the NCAA Final Four (2016)
- Volleyball’s Krista Vansant (2011-14) earns 2014 National Player of the Year honors and leads UW to the 2013 NCAA Final Four
- Golf coach Mary Lou Mulflur leads UW to its first NCAA Team Championship (2016)
- Washington names Jennifer Cohen its second female Director of Athletics (2016-present)
The 2020s
- Volleyball returns to the NCAA Final (2020)
- The sky’s the limit!