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35th Anniversary of Title IX

Last weekend marked the 35th anniversary of Title IX, the legislation credited with increasing gender equity in sports. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, since its enactment in 1972, female athletic participation has increased by a staggering 904 percent in high school and by 456 percent in college.

As someone who has benefited from Title IX, softball star Jennie Finch is quick to share her appreciation for those women that came before her. "I'm truly grateful for people who have paved the way, and have fought the fight," Finch said in the Daily Freeman. "I'm happy they broke down barriers to give women like myself the opportunity to be successful athletes and make a living playing a sport that I love."

I’m no softball star, but I am also thankful for the positive influence of Title IX in my life and the opportunity to play ball in college. Here are some other women who have enjoyed the effects of Title IX and are part of my favorite moments in sports history:

1996 | New Women's Olympic Sports. Women's softball and soccer made their Olympic debut at the Summer Games in Atlanta, and the U.S. dominated, winning the gold in both sports, as well as in basketball, gymnastics and synchronized swimming. The Atlanta Games made stars of Lisa Leslie, Mia Hamm and Lisa Fernandez, giving rise to professional softball and soccer leagues for women in the U.S.

1999 | Women's World Cup. A billion TV viewers and a stadium crowd of 90,000 witness the celebration as the U.S. wins the Women's World Cup in an overtime shoot-out against China. Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey after scoring the winning goal, giving little girls someone besides a model to look at for a strong, beautiful body. And for the first time, a women's soccer team got as much attention a men's squad usually does.

2007 | Equal Pay at Wimbledon. After 123 years of awarding more prize money to men than women, Wimbledon yielded to public pressure and announced on Feb. 22, that it will offer equal pay through all rounds at this year's tournament.

2006 | Winningest Coach in NCAA History. Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history--male or female--earned her 900th career win as the Tennessee Lady Vols beat Vanderbilt, 80-68. That year, Summitt signed a $1.125 million deal for the 2006-07 season, making her the first women's basketball coach in history to be paid a million dollars or more.

2003 | Annika Plays a PGA Tour Event. Annika Sorenstam became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to compete in a PGA Tour event. Sorenstam missed the cut at the Colonial--in Fort Worth, Texas--by four strokes, but walked off the course to a standing ovation.

1997 | The WNBA is Born. The WNBA kicked off its inaugural season with eight teams, but unlike the other women's pro basketball leagues before it, this one has enjoyed longevity, this year celebrating its 10th year of existence.

2001 | Increased Exposure for the Women's Tournament. The NCAA and ESPN announced an 11-year agreement for the cable outlet to televise every game of the women's national championship basketball tournament.

First international youth soccer showcase in the U.S.

The first-ever international youth soccer showcase in the U.S. took place last weekend. The U.S.F.C. Discover America(TM) International Youth Soccer Showcase, held at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., played host to over two dozen of the top 16- to 18-year-old elite soccer players in the country.

Read more on how the U.S.F.C. Discover America(TM) International Youth Soccer Showcase brought premier-league European coaches, technical directors and scouts to the U.S., where they hoped to discover promising young players to enroll in their clubs' renowned training academies.

1,000 Goal Club: Romario versus Pele

Veteran 41-year-old striker Romario scored the 1,000th goal of his 23-year career last weekend in the second round of the Brazilian national championship.

One thousand goals scored. That’s amazing, even if Romario does count goals scored in training games and unofficial matches against small clubs towards the 1,000 goal tally. However, his tally reportedly had to be revised several times because he initially counted goals scored in matches that never happened and in games that ended 0-0. That’s bogus.

Three other players have scored 1,000 goals, the most notable being Pele. According to FIFA, Pelé ended his career with a total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches, with his 1,000th goal scored when he was 29 years old. That’s what I’m talking about. Pele surpassed the thousand-goal mark by far and in 12 less years—without padding his own stats. Pele is still, in my opinion, the greatest player to have ever played the game.

On another note, while many Americans will be tuning into the American Idol finale tonight to find out if Jordin or Blake is going to win the competition (Jordin has my vote), there is another major event that I will be tuning into. Today held the biggest event on the European soccer calendar and I, along with many other soccer fans in the U.S. will be watching a replay of Liverpool versus AC Milan in the final of the Champions League. I’m a Liverpool fan so I’m hoping to see a repeat of the 2005 final, which Liverpool won on penalties after dramatically coming back from a 3-0 deficit.

(Photo provided by GettyImages/Richard Heathcote)

The Beautiful Game and not-so-beautiful fans?

Former French national goalie Fabien Barthez is quitting the Nantes soccer team, saying he fears for his safety from angry fans.

Barthez, a World Cup and European Championship winner with France, has made costly errors in recent matches -- and was booed and jeered by some Nantes fans on Saturday. Several fans surrounded Barthez's car as he left the stadium, kicked the vehicle, and tried to pull him out.

Not long ago, high school sporting officials in the state of Washington were considering tough new rules for spectators, including a ban on booing. Those who support the ban say that too often, spectators are cruel. While I believe booing can be unsportsmanlike, physical threats such as those that Barthez encountered go beyond the realm of sports.

In a sports world that has a father throwing his son’s opponent from the wrestling mat, a youth coach knocking down a football referee, and soccer matches being played in empty stadiums due to security concerns – an athlete can’t even feel safe and supported by his team’s own fans? I find the situation in Nantes ridiculous -- a World Cup hero for the very same country is taking abuse. I think that certain fans of “the beautiful game” need to reevaluate their allegiances and loyalties.

(Photograph provided by Getty Images/Michael Steele)

Soccer Season Kicks Off

Tomorrow, Major League Soccer’s 2007 season kicks off with a match between D.C. United and the Colorado Rapids.  It’s true, David Beckham has brought a lot of attention with him to MLS, but there are other noteworthy developments this season that will also attract new eyes to the league. Not only will every game be televised for the first time in league history, but there will be a tournament featuring four MLS teams and four Mexican clubs that debuts in July with a $1 million prize.

I was saddened to hear that Cobi Jones announced that he will retire at the end of the season. Growing up very involved in the soccer community, and with heightened exposure around the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Cobi quickly became my favorite player. We shared a jersey number and, I liked to think back then, a similar, spunky style of play. He is the only player who has remained with the same MLS team since the league’s debut in 1996, playing 281 games for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Part of me expected him to always be on the field.

Cobi’s involvement with the same team for so many years brings up an interesting point regarding player loyalty. It the rare professional athlete who remains with just one team, especially if doing so means turning down more money elsewhere. Similarly, in youth sports, there is a fine line between staying loyal to your team and putting yourself in a position to reach a future goal -- such as getting an athletic scholarship.

I personally observed what seemed like a lack of loyalty in the sport community growing up. I played on the same competitive fastpitch softball team for eight years. We were like a second family. I was crushed to learn after one of those years that half of our starting lineup was quitting to create a new team more attractive to college scouts.

I understand that you have to lookout for yourself and do what is in your best interest. However, I couldn’t and didn’t want to switch teams and leave my teammates and coaches of so many years—we had our fair share of exposure, too. Is breaking away from a close-knit team worth a bit more college exposure?

(Photo provided by Getty Images/Doug Pensinger)

The Greatest Sports Nicknames

Last month I posted an entry that covered a few of the most unique mascots that I could dig up. When I posted the topic to our message boards, there was some very interesting feedback on mascots from all over.

Today I decided to sift through some of the great sports nicknames and post up a list of my favorites. Many people say the creation of sports nicknames is a lost art and that athletes just don’t have nicknames like they used to. To an extent, they have a point; modern nicknames are, for the most part, boring and unimaginative (T-Mac, A-Rod, etc.) I'd like to salute a few of the great ones from the past in a brief list of my favorites (in no particular order):

The Iron Horse (Lou Gehrig) – There are few nicknames that are more apt in their description of a player than “The Iron Horse”, earned by Gehrig during his long-standing record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played.

Shoeless Joe (Joe Jackson) – This is one of my favorite nicknames of all time. Joe Jackson earned the name “Shoeless” when, as a young player, he took off a pair of spikes that hurt his feet and played the outfield wearing only socks.

Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy elected to Hall of Fame

Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy, two longtime pillars of the United States women’s national soccer team, were the only players elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame recently from among the 62 players on the ballot. Former teammates Hamm and Foudy, each in their first year of eligibility, comprise the first all-women class elected to the Hall of Fame. The duo will join the five women who have been inducted since the hall began in 1950.

“This is one of those things that when you start playing, you never go out there thinking about this opportunity,” Hamm said in a telephone interview from Carson, Calif., where the announcement was made. “We were just trying to promote the game in a positive way. It’s very special to me and means my career is over, which I’m fine with. I’m in a good place in my life in accepting this tremendous honor.”

Hamm was selected on 137 of 141 ballots cast, garnering 97.2 percent of the votes, a record in the 62-year history of the hall, which is located in Oneonta, N.Y. Foudy got 118 votes (83.7 percent of votes cast). They will be inducted Aug. 26.

“Two decades playing for your country, and now to be recognized and grouped with the biggest pioneers and legends of the game is a great honor,” Foudy said in a telephone interview. “We could see that we were making an impact, and what I love about the group we played with is that everyone saw the bigger picture. It was important not just to excel on the field, it was a message we wanted to give to young kids about sports, life. It was never a chore. What kept us out there was that we wanted to leave that legacy.”

Hamm and Foudy played on the national team that won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals. They and the team left an indelible mark on soccer and sports when the United States played host to the 1999 Women’s World Cup in huge stadiums that were often filled to capacity.

More Than Able

The first All-African Amputee Football Championship, supported by FIFA, recently took place in Freetown, Sierra Leone. I happened to come across a series of photos in Sports Illustrated featuring the athletes involved that gave me a glimpse into the competition and what it's about. I had to learn more.

Four participating nations, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, gave thousands of spectators a tournament to remember. Soccer for amputees has thus far received little global recognition; however, the local media covered the competition, along with the BBC, Reuters and France Television. Also, 10,000 spectators present at Freetown's national stadium for the opening game between Sierra Leone and Ghana, and some 40,000 attending over the five days of the event.

Soccer has given hope to so many men struck by tragedy, and helped rebuild the futures of members of Africa's most traumatized communities. "Football has saved my life. I never thought I'd play the game again until I discovered football for amputees. It's given me hope again," Victor Musa, captain of the team from Sierra Leone, told FIFA.

There were an estimated 4,000 such amputations during the civil war, which lasted from 1991-2000 and resulted in an estimated 50,000 deaths. Many of these amputations were caused by anti-personnel mines, bullet wounds, torture, or a lack of proper first aid.

Ghana won the event, overcoming Liberia 4-3 in the final. The country's minister, Dennis Bright, summed up the general feeling when he said, "You've proved to the world that you're not second-class citizens but real heroes."

(Photo provided by AFP/taken by Issouf Sanogo)

U.S. Women's Soccer Wins Big

I played soccer competitively growing up, and now that my college softball career is over, I've found myself getting involved and very interested in soccer again. I've been keeping a closer eye on the soccer scene (and an old teammate of mine, Lori Chalupny, pictured to the left, who now plays on the Women's National Team) and wanted to share the good news -- The U.S. Women’s National Team downed Denmark, 2-0, to win the 2007 Algarve Cup title behind goals from captain Kristine Lilly and tournament MVP Carli Lloyd.

Lilly got the U.S. on the board in the first half, netting her second of the tournament. The U.S. enjoyed an 8-2 shot advantage in the first half, but would have to wait until the opening moments of the second half to add to its lead. Once again, Lloyd provided the fireworks, cracking a left-footed shot from outside the area that caught the underside of the crossbar before settling in the Denmark goal.

The Algarve Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's soccer. Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious women's soccer events, alongside the Women's World Cup and Women's Olympic Soccer. Currently, 12 teams are invited, with the top eight competing for the championship.

With this Algrave Cup title, the U.S. became the country with the most wins overall, breaking a tie with Norway at four wins a piece. Congrats, ladies!

The U.S. will open its domestic schedule vs. Mexico on April 14 in Foxborough, Mass., in a double header with the New England Revolution. The schedule continues vs. Canada on May 12 in Frisco, Texas, as the USA will wear pink uniforms to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness. The U.S. then kicks off the six-game Send-Off Series on June 16 in Cleveland vs. China.

(Photo provided by Getty Images/taken by Christian Petersen)