Judy Dixon

Last updated
Judy Dixon
Country (sports)United States
Born (1949-08-16) August 16, 1949 (age 74)
Singles
Grand Slam singles results
Wimbledon 1R (1973)
US Open 2R (1968)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon 1R (1968)
US Open 1R (1969)

Judy Dixon (born August 16, 1949) [1] is an American tennis player and collegiate tennis coach, known as a "pioneer" [2] in women's athletics for being the first person to sue a major university for sex discrimination under Title IX. [3]

Contents

Early life

Dixon grew up in New Jersey, and played national-level tennis as a teen. [4] In 1967, she won the national junior indoor championship, and was ranked in the top 20. [4] She was invited to substitute for Rosie Casals, who was injured, as Billie Jean King's doubles partner [4] for two tournaments when Dixon was age 17. [5]

Dixon graduated from University of Southern California in 1973, [5] with a degree in psychology. [6]

From 1973 to 1975, she played professionally, including tournaments at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. [5]

Yale Title IX litigation

In 1974 [7] Dixon joined Yale University as the women's athletics coordinator and women's tennis coach. [3] The conditions for women's athletics at Yale were significantly worse than for men, and Dixon was paid considerably less than comparable colleagues. [7] Women had one tennis court while men had three, [7] [2] for example, and Dixon earned $24,000 annually for serving as both tennis coach and full-time athletics coordinator, overseeing recruiting for seven sports; her male peers earned more ($27,000) just for coaching. [7] [2]

Consequently, Dixon filed a complaint in 1975 with the Office of Civil Rights, and then filed a lawsuit under Title IX, the first such lawsuit against a major university. [7] Title IX requires educational institutions receiving federal funds to treat its students equally across gender. [7] Yale stripped Dixon of her administrative position at the end of the year, assigning her to the sports information office, and moving her from her private office to an office with a departmental coffee machine. [7] Dixon left Yale a year later, [6] resigning March 30, 1977, [8] after working one more year under the reduced circumstances. [7]

In approximately 1981, just a week or two before the case went to court, Yale offered to settle. [2] [5] Yale offered to pay Dixon $5,000, and to address her original complaints by providing trainers for female athletes, providing full-time women's coaches, and upgrading facilities and budgets for women athletes. [2] [5] In exchange, Dixon agreed not to talk to the press for some amount of time. [note 1]

Later career

In the interim, Dixon worked as a journalist, working at NBC, PBS, and ABC. [6] She was the first woman to do professional sports color commentary (for the Boston Lobsters of World Team Tennis), and in fact for her color commentary, Dixon was the first woman nominated for an Emmy Award in Sports Broadcasting. [6] Dixon has also written for Sportswoman Magazine . [6]

Dixon owned a tennis health club in Sunderland, Massachusetts, and worked in sports marketing, for a number of years, before being recruited to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as its head women's tennis coach in 2002. [9] At UMass she has successfully resurrected the women's tennis team, and has been nominated for a number of awards for her coaching. [4] [2]

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ Press conflicts differ on whether Dixon agreed not to talk to the press for five years or for two. See Sheehan (five years), ESPN (two years).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Title IX</span> United States federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs

Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This is Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Massachusetts Amherst</span> Public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the oldest, largest, and flagship campus in the University of Massachusetts system, and was founded in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Althea Gibson</span> American tennis player (1927–2003)

Althea Neale Gibson was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam event. The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals, then won both again in 1958 and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. "She is one of the greatest players who ever lived", said Bob Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. "Martina [Navratilova] couldn't touch her. I think she'd beat the Williams sisters." Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. In the early 1960s she also became the first Black player to compete on the Women's Professional Golf Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campbellsville University</span> Private Christian university in Campbellsville, Kentucky, U.S.

Campbellsville University (CU) is a private Christian university in Campbellsville, Kentucky. It was founded as Russell Creek Academy and enrolls more than 12,000 students. The university offers associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees.

Wendy Boglioli is an American former swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. After retiring from competition swimming, she became a coach, and later, a motivational speaker. She grew up in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Smith (tennis)</span> American tennis player

Anne Smith is an educational psychologist and a former professional tennis player from the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of University of Massachusetts Amherst

The UMass Minutemen are the athletic teams that represent the University of Massachusetts Amherst; strictly speaking, the Minutemen nickname applies to men's teams and athletes only — women's teams and athletes are known as Minutewomen. The Minutemen and Minutewomen compete in NCAA Division I sports competition primarily as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. UMass is one of only 16 universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I men's ice hockey. The nickname is also applied to club teams that do not participate within the NCAA structure.

Tanya Hockman is the Malone University athletic director and coach of women's volleyball at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. 2012 will be her thirteenth season at the school as head coach and through the 2009 season, her lifetime coaching record is 260–151. She also served as an assistant Malone women's basketball coach from 1995 to 2001.

Christine Grant was a Scottish-born American athlete, coach, administrator, and advocate for women's college athletics. Dr. Grant served as the athletic director at the University of Iowa from 1973 until 2000. She was inducted into the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. Grant was also inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micki King</span> American diver

Maxine Joyce "Micki" King is an American former competitive diver and diving coach. She was a gold medal winner at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the three meter springboard event.

Francea ("Francie") Norma Kraker Goodridge is a former women's track and field athlete and coach from the United States. She set a world record in the 600-yard indoor event and was the first Michigan-born woman to win a place on the U.S. Olympic team. She later coached women's track at the University of Michigan, Wake Forest University and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she was also the Coordinator of Women's Athletics. She has been inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor, the University of Michigan Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Yvonne Gómez Muñoz is a Spanish-American former competitive figure skater who competed internationally for both Spain and the United States. She represented Spain at the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 1988 and 1989 World Championships.

Alice Luthy Tym, née Alice Luthy, is a former American college and amateur tennis player who was ranked No. 13 in the world in the mid-1960s. She later became a college tennis coach, tennis writer and university instructor. She as inducted into the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curry Hicks</span>

Curry Starr Hicks was an American college football coach, athletic director, and professor of physical education.

Judith Wilkins Rose is the former director of athletics for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte 49ers.

Elaine Sortino was a college softball coach. She was the head coach at UMass from 1980 to 2013. With 1,185 wins in 34 years as a head coach, Sortino ranks among the highest in NCAA Division I softball coaching victories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Stevens (basketball)</span> American basketball coach

Barbara Stevens is the former head coach of the Bentley University women's basketball team. Stevens had previously served as head basketball coach for Clark University and Massachusetts. Stevens was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth H. Alexander</span> American activist (1938–2021)

Ruth Hammack Alexander was an American activist for women in collegiate sports. She established the "Lady Gator Athletic" program at the University of Florida to allow women to participate in intercollegiate athletics for the first time.

Judith M. Sweet is an American sports executive. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the first woman to be elected secretary-treasurer and president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She was also the first female athletic director to run both the men's and women's programs at the University of California, San Diego. In 2006, ESPN listed her among the top 100 most influential student-athletes.

Marcellette ("Marci") Gaillard-Gay Williams is an American retired academic administrator who served as interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst from July 2001 until July 2002. She was the university's eighth chancellor and the first woman to serve in the position.

References

  1. ↑ "Judy Dixon". International Tennis Federation. Archived from the original on May 30, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Greg Garber, "Dixon faces reality of Title IX compliance", ESPN, June 20, 2002.
  3. 1 2 Jack Sullivan, "False Start" Archived 2014-11-21 at the Wayback Machine , CommonWealth, October 19, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Joe DeBurro, "New England Tennis Hall of Fame Inductee Judy Dixon of UMass..." Archived 2013-06-25 at the Wayback Machine , Massachusetts Republican, July 5, 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jesse Mayfield Sheehan, "Dixon Pioneering Success at UMass", Massachusetts Daily Collegian, November 6, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Judy Dixon Staff Profile Archived 2012-11-19 at the Wayback Machine , UMass Athletics (last visited July 23, 2013).
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lori Riley, "Difficult Trail for Pioneer", The Hartford Courant, June 21, 2002.
  8. ↑ "Cross Campus: This Day in Yale History", Yale Daily News, March 30, 2009.
  9. 1 2 "Head Coach Judy Dixon To Be Honored by Yale on Friday" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine , UMass Athletics, April 24, 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.