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How Title IX helped Northwestern’s first female varsity athletes reach new heights

The inaugural generation of DI Wildcat women react to the 50th anniversary of the bill that changed their lives.

Photos courtesy of The Daily Northwestern (1976-1981)

When Marianne May walked into the Dean of Students’ office at Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, Ill. in 1973, she was told the school offered girls’ sports. Overjoyed at the thought of transferring somewhere she could compete, May stepped foot on campus in the fall of her sophomore year only to find she was deceived.

“I walk into the school, and there’s not one sport for girls,” May said.