Women's Sports Foundation - Year-by-year History

Year-by-year History

1974: The Women’s Sports Foundation is founded by Billie Jean King and supported by Donna de Varona and Suzy Chafee in San Francisco. Since then, more than 225 Trustees from the worlds of sport, business, education and entertainment have volunteered and led the way towards carrying out the mission and vision.

1975: The Foundation publishes the first College Athletic Scholarship Guide for Women at a time when few opportunities existed for women to compete in college athletics, and there was virtually no media coverage of the few competitive opportunities. Today, more than 150,000 women are competing in sports at NCAA member institutions, making up more than 40 percent of the participants in intercollegiate athletics and receiving about 43 percent of the scholarship dollars.

1976: The first Executive Director, Eva Auchincloss, is appointed and heads up the office of the Foundation on only $5,000 and a donated office space in San Mateo, Calif. Athletes like Jane Blalock, Donna de Varona, Chris Evert, Diane Holum, Joan Joyce, Micki King, Karen Logan, Sandra Paulson, Paula Sperber, and Wyomia Tyus were members of the first advisory board.

1977: The first official Women’s Sports Foundation newsletter is distributed to its members. Today, a weekly e-mail newsletter is sent out to more than 38,000 members, the Women’s Sports Experience newsletter is circulated to 25,000 members per quarter and SportsTalk reaches 5,000 youth members per quarter.

1978: The first grant programs, including summer camp scholarships, are established by the Foundation. Since then, more than $8 million in cash grants and scholarships and $42 million in educational materials and services has been provided to individuals, teams and grassroots organizations. Eva Auchincloss hires former World Team Tennis Director of Tennis Properties, Holly Turner as Director of Fundraising. Holly later becomes Associate Executive Director. Together, Eva, Holly and Donna create and secure financing for many of the well-recognized programs, projects and funds that provide the basis of the Foundation's work today.

1979: Donna de Varona becomes the Women’s Sports Foundation’s first president, setting the standard for athlete involvement in the organization’s leadership. An Emmy award winning pioneer sports broadcaster, Donna used her contacts and visibility to help launch the foundation and build it into a strong, credible and viable organization. Under her leadership the foundation initiated the Hall of Fame Dinner (now the Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner), Travel & Training grants, research projects, media awards and a toll-free telephone number. Donna has worked to insure there are annual visits to educate Congress about Title IX and the importance of providing sport and physical activity opportunities on an equitable basis. Still involved with the Foundation, de Varona is now the Chair of the Founder’s Circle.

1980: The first Annual Salute to Women in Sports Fundraising and Awards Dinner is held. This year marks our 25th year of honoring the women who are dedicated to making a difference, advancing participation and who dare to compete.

1980: The inaugural induction class of the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame is honored. With 124 members of the Hall of Fame, the organization continues to direct and advise hundreds of other non-sport organizations to salute women athletes and coaches as leaders and award recipients across all areas of society.

1981: The Foundation’s toll-free information line opens. The Foundation now receives more than 100,000 requests for information each year, sends more than 10,000 general information packets each year and distributes more than 2 million pieces of material each year to girls, parents and program leaders.

1982: The Foundation’s Internship Program begins. More than 450 young professionals have learned professional skills, provided assistance in the implementation of programs and have gone on to successful careers.

1983: The New Agenda Conference brings together the leaders of women’s sports to create a blueprint for the future of women’s sports.

1984: The Foundation’s Travel & Training Fund grants are first awarded. To date, more than $1,200,000 has been awarded from this fund so that athletes can continue their dreams of competing at the highest level.

1985: The High School All-Star program begins and provides recognition for more than 1,700 outstanding high school female athletes. Since then, the Foundation has granted more than $1,000,000 in college scholarships to deserving female athletes in need.

1986: The Women’s Sports Foundation relocates to New York City and hires its second executive director, Deborah Slaner Larkin.

1986: The Women’s Sports Journalism Award program is created to honor women’s sports media coverage. In the 15 years that this award was given, 117 journalists from around the country were honored for excellence in media coverage of women’s sports.

1987: The inaugural National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) celebration is held in Washington, D.C., as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to ensure equality for women’s sports. Since that time, 18 years of NGWSD celebrations have acknowledged the past, recognized current sports achievements and celebrated the move toward equality and access for women in sports.

1988: The Foundation’s second major research study, The Wilson Report: Moms, Dads, Daughters and Sports, is published. To this day, it is recognized as the first large-scale, nationwide intergenerational study of the female sports experience.

1988: Kristi Yamaguchi receives a Travel and Training Grant for her athletic success in figure skating. Four years later at the 1992 Olympic Games, she becomes the first U.S. woman since Dorothy Hamill in 1976 to win the women’s Olympic figure skating gold medal.

1990: The first “Grants for Girls” are awarded. In its 12 years of existence, $545,000 is distributed to fund equipment, facility rental and apparel to girls’ sports programs across the country. Its direct descendant, the GoGirlGo! grants, awarded more than $1 million in its first three years, 2002-2004.

1991: Soccer player Michelle Akers receives a Travel and Training Grant. Nine years later, she is named the FIFA Player of the Century.

1992: The Community Awards and Grants Program (later the Community Action Program) is established. This program brings together community leaders from youth-serving agencies, sports organizations, schools and businesses to promote girls’ and women’s sports in their local communities. Through the Take Action and Spread the Word awards, granted to more than 100 grassroots organizations across the country, communities are encouraged to celebrate participation and support the achievements of girls and women in sports and fitness.

1992: The Minority Internship Program begins, giving more women of underrepresented populations the experience to make their mark in sports-related careers.

1993: The Women’s Sports Foundation gets a “new home” in Nassau County, N.Y., when the eight full-time staff and two interns move into the Lannin House in Eisenhower Park. Today, 29 full-time staff, nine part-time staff and consultants, and 14 interns share their passion for the cause on a daily basis.

1993: Michelle Kwan is named a recipient of the Travel and Training Grant. Four years later, during the 1997-98 season, she becomes the first woman to earn a perfect score at the U.S. national championship when she earns seven 6.0 scores in the short program.

1994: The Athletes’ Speaker Service is officially launched. Since its inception, hundreds of athletes have educated people at schools, companies and conferences.

1995: The Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner is televised on TNT. This is the first of a total of five times that the Dinner is televised on a major cable network.

1996: The Olympic Games in Atlanta include 45 Foundation Travel and Training grant recipients competing for the United States. Twelve of them win 16 medals, including Mary Ellen Clark in diving (bronze), Kerri Strug in gymnastics (gold) and Brooke Bennett in swimming (gold).

1996: The Foundation launches a World Wide Web site (now at www.WomensSportsFoundation.org). Millions of people around the world have accessed the Foundation’s information via the Internet.

1996: The first Wilma Rudolph Courage Award is given to Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Since then, eight other women who have demonstrated the ability to overcome adversity, make significant contributions to sports and serve as inspirations and role models for others have received this prestigious honor.

1997: The Foundation publishes The Women’s Sports Foundation Gender Equity Report Card. This publication examines the compliance with Title IX of more than 700 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities.

1998: The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Sport and Teen Pregnancy is published. Until this study, there was little or no recognition among teen pregnancy prevention experts and policymakers that athletic participation helps reduce many girls’ risk for pregnancy. The report is so successful that it is published in major newspapers such as USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and international outlets, generating about 250 million media impression.

1998: The Foundation is granted United Nations Consultative status for being concerned with matters within the competence of The Economic and Social Council. To date, the Foundation is the only non-governmental sport organization in the world to receive such status.

1999: The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Addressing the Needs of Professional and Amateur Athletes is published. With this data, the Women’s Sports Foundation helps National Governing Bodies address issues of importance for female athletes.

2000: The Foundation’s first bilingual (English/Spanish) guide, the Parent’s Guide to Girls’ Sports, is published. Since its first printing in 1986, more than 1 million copies have been distributed.

2000: The Foundation is awarded the International Olympic Committee’s first-ever Women in Sport Award for the Americas.

2001: The Foundation publishes The Women’s Sports Foundation Report: Health Risks and the Teen Athlete study. Now, program leaders, educators and policymakers have solid evidence that sports participation is a fundamental solution to the health risks faced by teen girls.

2001: The first grant in The Project to Eliminate Homophobia in Sports is awarded. An educational curriculum and video entitled “It Takes A Team” is created to reach athletes, coaches and administrators nationwide.

2001: GoGirlGo! education and grant programs are established. More than 625,000 girls aged 10-14 have been educated about avoiding health-risk behaviors and more than $2,000,000 has been given to support girls’ physical activity opportunities.

2002: The National Public Service Announcement campaign “Do you know who I am?” is created thanks to Element 79 Partners, Seven Worldwide and the many individuals who donated their time and expertise. The campaign appears more than 18,000 times in print, on television and on the radio and generates 500 million media impressions.

2002: The Olympic Winter Games take place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Travel & Training grant recipients win four of the 11 Olympic medals earned by United States women and seven medals, four of them being gold, in the Paralympic Games.

2003: The Foundation helps lead a 12-month campaign with a coalition of more than 100 organizations to engineer grassroots demonstrations in seven cities to oppose the administration’s attempts to dismantle Title IX. Without these efforts, high school participation opportunities for women might have fallen by 163,000, college rates by 43,000 and as much as $103,000,000 might be lost in college athletic scholarships annually.

2004: The GoGirlGo! National Campaign to get one million inactive girls active and to keep one million active girls motivated to participate is launched. Obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last two decades. One in seven young people is obese and one in three is overweight. The Foundation is combating these health risks one girl at a time. Atlanta becomes the first GoGirlGo! community.

2004: SuperWomen: 100 Women-100 Sports, is published. The book shows everyone that female athletes come in all races, ages and body types and that there is a sport for everyone.

2004: The XXVIII Olympic Games is held in Athens, Greece. Seventeen Travel & Training grant recipients compete for the United States, four of whom brought home medals in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.

2005: Chicago becomes the 2nd GoGirlGo! community project.

2006: San Antonio becomes the 3rd GoGirlGo! community project

2006: The Foundation publishes Women in the 2006 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership and Media Coverage. This report examined the extent to which both the international and U.S. sports communities provide equitable sports participation and leadership opportunities for women and assigned grades based on the assumption that men and women should have equal opportunities as athletes and leaders and be equally represented in media coverage.

2007: Boston becomes the 4th GoGirlGo! community project

2007: The Foundation publishes Who’s Playing College Sports: Trends in Participation. It provided the most accurate and comprehensive examination of participation trends to date. Data from almost every higher education institution in the country was analyzed utilizing data and methods that are free of the shortcomings present in previous research on this subject.

2008: The Billie Jean King International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame opened in the Sports Museum of America. The museum closed due to financial problems in February 2009.