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When Congress passed Title IX 35 years ago, it changed women’s sports forever.

The amendment to the Civil Rights Act that required gender equity for boys and girls in educational programs, has been a boon for female student-athletes all over the country. And at Sac State the results have been impressive.

In 1972, the year Title IX became a reality, Sac State had few sports available to women. It now boasts nine women’s sports teams—basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics. rowing, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Several have won conference championships including five titles in 2006–07 alone. And the perpetually winning volleyball team went even further, landing two national titles in the ‘80s.

Because of Title IX, Sacramento State’s winningest coach Debby Colberg was able to play for Sac State as student-athlete before her successful turn as volleyball coach. Colberg retires this season after 32 years, 800 victories, 15 conference championships and 15 Coach of the Year awards.

Here she talks about her life in the Title IX era: Photo by bob solorio

Hard to believe, but when two-time Division I national championship volleyball coach Debby Colberg was growing up, she wasn’t able to play team sports.

“I certainly grew up at a time when there weren’t any sports programs available for girls in school,” says Colberg, who instead often took a ball to her neighborhood playground to play by herself.

Not only were club, recreational or team sports programs not available to girls, it wasn’t uncommon for those with a passion for sports to be discouraged from pursuing athletic careers. Colberg’s own high school counselor tried to convince her not to pursue a college degree in physical education.

That all began to change when Colberg enrolled at Sac State on the heels of the passage of Title IX.

At Sac State, Colberg played volleyball, basketball and softball. “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I went to college and all these sports were available to me,” Colberg says. “At that time, most of the other girls playing were fellow physical education majors. Not like today where students in all majors participate in sports.”

Still new to the student body and to other male sports enthusiasts who now had to share funding with the women, Colberg says she and her teammates stood out.

“We paid a price to be a (female) athlete in college,” she says. “You didn’t get positive feedback. You were considered a jock and it wasn’t a good thing to be considered back then. We had to be thick-skinned.”

Since the passage of Title IX Colberg is amazed not only at the increase in women’s college team sports, but the impact it has had on all female sports programs from childhood through adulthood. “We see up to 700 teams of girls at a given club sport tournament,” she says. “Look at soccer—girls and boys both are playing it in huge numbers.”

Because of Title IX she says women are more admired in sports today, and can participate and focus on specific sports while attending college. And women are undoubtedly more healthy because of being encouraged to participate in athletics.

Colberg remembers, however, how it took time for Title IX to take hold, recalling for example how women’s sports program would initially ask for $4,000 in funding while the men’s coaches were still getting up to $50,000 budgets. And she understands the frustration by some who can’t add additional men’s sports programs for fear it would throw off the balance of men and women’s sports opportunities.

Ultimately, she says the enforcement of Title IX is, and will continue to be, up to university administrators, athletic directors and coaches. “It’s in the hands of people who have a sense of fairness,” she says. “Administrators have to embrace both sides of a program,” she says. “The athletic experience isn’t more important for one gender than the other one. It’s important to all of us.”

Looking back, Colberg is personally grateful for the passage of Title IX.

“My whole career has been based on the opportunity to play sports,” says Colberg, who is retiring in December. “I would have been a totally different person … It’s hard to say what my life would have been but it certainly would not have been as rewarding as coaching has been.”

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