MINNESOTA, USA — History is being made every day.
Today, it's time to celebrate how far we've come during National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Fittingly, at the Minnesota History Center, the Minnesota Coalition of Women's Athletic Leadership is recognizing some history makers.
"When I was 12, I played on a women's slow-pitch softball team because there was nothing else to play," recalled Annie Adamczak-Glavan as she accepted the Special Merit Award from the coalition.
Adamczak-Glavan played three different sports in high school and was a stand-out professional volleyball player before coaching.
She shares experiences with many of the women here.
"When I was 11 years old, I joined my male classmates in attending a call for prospective little league baseball players," said Dr. Pat Rosenbrock, who helped write the history for women's athletics at Bemidji State and coached three different sports. "The coach came up to me and asked me what I was doing there. I said I wanted to join the team. He said You can't do that. I asked him why? He said, because you're a girl."
The Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota has studied that progression.
"Some examples, if you look at the Cornhusker volleyball, which over 90,000 people showed up in the football stadium to watch volleyball, women's basketball games to see Caitlin Clark are selling out all over the Big 10," said Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi the director at the Tucker Center. "Fifty plus years after Title IX was passed in 1972, we have record numbers of girls playing sport, attention sponsorship growth viewership of for women's sport right now is off the charts."
But LaVoi said more needs to be done.
"We know girls and women face gender stereotypes and bias, they get less programming and less resources. They face more harassment, and discrimination," said LaVoi.
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