[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15446-15447]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                TITLE IX

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this past Saturday we watched a very 
interesting spectacle. It was an athletic contest. There were no 
arguments with referees. There was no vile language. There were no lewd 
gestures. There were no demands by the participants for more money. 
There were no pleas from any of the players that they didn't get a fair 
opportunity to play, that they should have had more opportunities to 
shoot for a goal. It appeared to be a real team effort, a team effort 
by daughters and mothers.
  We watched a great athletic contest between the United States and 
China for the World Cup soccer championship. The U.S. women's soccer 
team won on penalty kicks. There could not have been a more exciting 
game.
  I have had the opportunity to watch many soccer games, as my youngest 
boy played on three national championship soccer teams at the 
University of Virginia. It is a great sport. Certainly the sport was 
exemplified in the work of these women last Saturday. Throughout the 
tournament, the U.S. team emphasized what it means to play as a team. 
This was a team effort. It was team spirit that helped them win on 
Saturday.
  There were really no standouts, even though there are great athletes 
on both sides. The final penalty kick was by Brandi Chastain, but she 
was just one of the players that day. Briana Scurry made her most 
crucial save against China's third penalty kicker, Liu Ying, by diving 
to her left based particularly on instinct. Kristine Lilly saved what 
looked to be China's winning shot with a header while standing at the 
goal line in the first overtime. Mia Hamm, who is a superstar, the 
Michael Jordan of women's athletics, led the attack. While she failed 
to score, she kept pressure on the Chinese for most all of the game. 
Michelle Akers, at 33 the oldest team member, a woman who suffers from 
Epstein-Barr, or chronic fatigue syndrome, played as if she would never 
be fatigued until the last minute of regulation play. She literally was 
carried off the field, succumbing to dehydration and exhaustion. She 
was certainly a stalwart of this team effort.
  This team has captured America's heart. A crowd of over 90,000 people 
watched that game. Cumulative attendance for the U.S. team's 6 
victories was 412,486, an average of almost 70,000 a game. The 90,000-
plus that watched this game was the largest crowd to watch an athletic 
contest among women. This team, that averaged 70,000 people watching 
each of its contests, was a constant reminder that this event was seen 
as a bellwether for women's athletics in America. Could women's teams 
fill stadiums? Could they draw advertising and television viewers in a 
nonolympic event? The answer to each of those questions was a 
resounding yes.
  While most of their success is a result of the hard work and 
dedication of each team member to the sport of soccer, their brilliant 
play on the field, and their personalities off the field, they were 
aided even more in the fact this came about as a result of title IX.
  There are many heroes in bringing about title IX. We could name Molly 
Yard, who more than four decades ago started talking about why women 
deserve to be treated equally in athletics. We could talk about 
Senators Birch Bayh from Indiana and George McGovern of South Dakota 
who led the way in the Senate against sex discrimination in higher 
education programs.

[[Page 15447]]

  But there is no need to talk about any one individual. The fact is 
that title IX makes a great case for American women.
  I indicated that my youngest son is a good athlete. He really is a 
great athlete. But the fact of the matter is, he inherited his 
athleticism from his mother, not from his father. The fact is, his 
mother and I went to high school together.
  The only thing that his mother, my wife, could do in high school was 
be a cheerleader. As athletic as she was, she could not do anything 
else because there was nothing else for her to do. She was not entitled 
to play any other athletics. Title IX says that is not the way it is to 
be.
  Title IX has been an outstanding program. It has allowed women to 
build their character and athleticism just as men did for many decades. 
They are building their character, as seen in this team, this women's 
athletic team--the World Cup champions.
  Women are now seen as sports stars in their own right, not through 
their sons but through themselves, from Mia Hamm in soccer to Sheryl 
Swoopes in basketball, and as shown by the inspiring story of Dr. Dot 
Richardson, the captain of the American Olympic softball team, who left 
her triumph in Atlanta to go to medical school. That is what title IX 
is all about. And Dot Richardson exemplifies what has been accomplished 
on and off the field because of women's athletics.
  Before the passage of title IX, athletic scholarships for college 
women were rare, no matter how great their talent. After winning two 
gold medals in the 1964 Olympics, swimmer Donna de Varona could not 
find a college anyplace in the United States that offered a swimming 
scholarship. She was one of the finest, if not the finest swimmer in 
the world at that time. She could not find one because it did not 
exist.
  It took time and effort to improve the opportunities for young women. 
Two years after title IX was voted into law, an estimated 50,000 men 
were attending U.S. colleges and universities on athletic scholarships 
but only about 50 women.
  In 1973, the University of Miami in Florida awarded the first 
athletic scholarships to women--a total of 15 in swimming, diving, 
tennis, and golf. Today, college women receive about a third of all the 
athletic scholarships that are given. That is good. It should be half. 
But a third is certainly a step in the right direction.
  It is important to recognize that there is no mandate under title IX 
that requires a college to eliminate men's teams to achieve compliance.
  The critical values learned, though, are that women are entitled to 
equality. Those things learned from sports participation--including 
teamwork, standards, leadership, discipline, self-sacrifice, and pride 
in accomplishment--are equally important for young women as they are 
for young men.
  These women who have captured America's attention over the last 3 
weeks are all children of title IX. They came to age athletically at a 
time when high schools and colleges were required by law--a law that we 
passed--to treat them fairly.
  These women have set an excellent example for the thousands and 
thousands of young girls who have followed their World Cup play over 
the last 3 weeks.
  I was listening to something on public radio this morning where they 
interviewed young girls who attended their celebrations yesterday. They 
were saying they wanted to be just like them. That is important.
  So I congratulate all them and wish them continued success in the 
future.
  I have a resolution that I would like to introduce later in the day. 
I certainly invite everyone to join with me. I would certainly be 
willing to take a back seat to the women of the Senate, as we do a lot 
of times around here, to allow them to be first in line to sponsor this 
resolution. So at a later time today, I would like to introduce this 
resolution and hope that it would clear both sides of the aisle to give 
these women the recognition they deserve today, to congratulate the 
U.S. women's soccer team on winning the 1999 Women's World Cup 
championship.
  Mr. DORGAN. I wonder if the Senator will yield?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. DORGAN. I have come to the floor to speak on another issue, but I 
watched the entire soccer game on Saturday. It was exciting and 
wonderful. I also thought about the fact that it is an example of a 
regulation that works. Title IX says: Equal opportunity; you must 
provide equal opportunity in academics and athletics.
  Before title IX, of course, there was not equal opportunity. I think 
Saturday's game was such a testament to the regulations and 
requirements from title IX that have improved athletics and academics 
in this country.
  Mr. REID. I appreciate very much my friend from North Dakota 
commenting. I say to my friend from North Dakota, it is extremely 
interesting that young girls recognize that they do now have equal 
opportunity.
  I was at a small school in rural Nevada and getting ready to speak to 
a group of students who were assembling. I was in a holding room 
waiting to speak, and there were two girls in the room with me. They 
were wearing their letter sweaters. One of them was a sprinter and one 
played softball.
  I said: Do you know why you can participate in athletics?
  They said: No. Why?
  Because we passed a law saying if boys have a program in athletics, 
girls have to have something that is equal to the program the boys 
have.
  They did not know that. They just thought girls had always 
participated in athletics. One of the girls said: I would just die 
without my athletics.
  Title IX is a program that of which we should all be proud. It has 
really done a great deal to equalize athletics for boys and girls in 
America. That is the way it should be.
  Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). The Senator from North Dakota is 
recognized.

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