In 1979, a group of women athletes at Michigan State University, their civil rights attorney, the institution's Title IX coordinator, and a close circle of college students used the law to confront a powerful institution--their own university. By the mid-1970s, opposition from the NCAA had made intercollegiate athletics the most controversial part of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimination in all federally funded education programs and activities. At the same time, some of the most motivated, highly skilled women athletes in colleges and universities could no longer...

In 1979, a group of women athletes at Michigan State University, their civil rights attorney, the institution s Title IX coordinator, and a close circle of college students used the law to confront a powerful institution their own university. By the mid-1970s, opposition from the NCAA had made intercollegiate athletics the most controversial part of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimi nation in all federally funded education programs and activities. At the same time, some of the most motivated, highly skilled women athletes in colleges and universities could no longer...