The 40th anniversary of Title IX, which banned gender discrimination in education, sparked a four-part series examining the affter-effects of the law put into place by Richard Nixon in 1972.
Sports editor Eric Avidon, who came up with the idea and coordinated the coverage, answers some questions about the series.
What was the impetus for the story?
About two months ago I went to the mailbox to get the day’s mail, and as I do every Thursday when Sports Illustrated arrives I quickly leafed through the magazine before heading out for the rest of the day. That week’s entire issue was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Title IX, and I immediately thought there was an easy way to take the idea of celebrating Title IX at a national level and apply it to our paper.
Though Title IX is most often associated with college sports, it’s had an important impact at the high school level (participation has increased tenfold over four decades). And because we dedicate as much coverage to girls sports at the high school level as we do boys, the 40th anniversary of Title IX felt like a way to celebrate the progress since 1972.
What were the four elements you focused on?
The first story in the series was a bit of an overview, describing what the athletic landscape was like for girls four decades ago and tracing the advancement since then. The second story focused on some of the local athletes who have benefitted from Title IX and gone on to star in college and beyond, including a goalie on the women’s Olympic hockey team that won a silver medal in 2010 and a current member of the WNBA, and also showed the difference in opportunities available to a star athlete in the 1970s versus today. The third story was about women who have dedicated their lives to sports – coaches, athletic directors and other administrators – whose may have traveled different paths without the passage of Title IX. And the final story looked forward, discussing whether there’s still a need for Title IX, and if so what battles remain to be fought.
How many staffers were involved? Who are they?
Five of us were the main people involved. And while I planned the series and oversaw it, the real credit belongs to the four reporters who conducted the interviews, researched the history and, of course, wrote the stories. Tim Whelan, Tim Dumas, Craig Gilvarg and Dan Cagen, in that order, wrote the stories, and each did a tremendous job.
The 40th anniversary of Title IX, which banned gender discrimination in education, sparked a four-part series examining the affter-effects of the law put into place by Richard Nixon in 1972.
Sports editor Eric Avidon, who came up with the idea and coordinated the coverage, answers some questions about the series.
What was the impetus for the story?
About two months ago I went to the mailbox to get the day’s mail, and as I do every Thursday when Sports Illustrated arrives I quickly leafed through the magazine before heading out for the rest of the day. That week’s entire issue was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Title IX, and I immediately thought there was an easy way to take the idea of celebrating Title IX at a national level and apply it to our paper.
Though Title IX is most often associated with college sports, it’s had an important impact at the high school level (participation has increased tenfold over four decades). And because we dedicate as much coverage to girls sports at the high school level as we do boys, the 40th anniversary of Title IX felt like a way to celebrate the progress since 1972.
What were the four elements you focused on?
The first story in the series was a bit of an overview, describing what the athletic landscape was like for girls four decades ago and tracing the advancement since then. The second story focused on some of the local athletes who have benefitted from Title IX and gone on to star in college and beyond, including a goalie on the women’s Olympic hockey team that won a silver medal in 2010 and a current member of the WNBA, and also showed the difference in opportunities available to a star athlete in the 1970s versus today. The third story was about women who have dedicated their lives to sports – coaches, athletic directors and other administrators – whose may have traveled different paths without the passage of Title IX. And the final story looked forward, discussing whether there’s still a need for Title IX, and if so what battles remain to be fought.
How many staffers were involved? Who are they?
Five of us were the main people involved. And while I planned the series and oversaw it, the real credit belongs to the four reporters who conducted the interviews, researched the history and, of course, wrote the stories. Tim Whelan, Tim Dumas, Craig Gilvarg and Dan Cagen, in that order, wrote the stories, and each did a tremendous job.
How long did it take you to plan and write the series?
The planning first started a good two months ago, about six weeks before the series ran, but while the assignments were made back in May most of the work was done in the 10 or so days before the series ran, once the high school sports season was winding down.
How did you manage to pull it off with so many other demands on your time?
Well, as a staff of aspiring sportswriters who spend most of our nights as editors putting out the paper, the 40-hour week is a fantasy. When we cover the Patriots, or Bruins, or Red Sox, it’s usually done during our free time. Beyond that, the people we need to interview for features often aren’t available during our respective shifts. So as with anything else we do, we carved out time during our respective days to get the job done.
Do you have any tips for anyone else who might want to plan a similar project?
Allow the reporters time. As I mentioned earlier, they had the assignments for about a month before there was really time for them to devote to the project. While they didn’t actually start their interviews until mid-June, we did talk about the series and discuss potential sources well before then.
