Women & Sport: 50 years after Title IX, there are still plenty of modern day 'firsts' in NJ
It’s been 50 years since Title IX became the law of the land.
In 37 words, the landmark passage opened the door for gender equity in sports, education and society to take shape across the United States. All these years later, many doors are still just opening for girls who play sports.
In New Jersey, there are a host of untold stories about women who are making daily strides in male-dominated sports spaces. Today, I'm going to take a moment to highlight some of the modern day “firsts” for women and girls in Garden State sports.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but more of an ambitious start to telling them all. If you have any suggestions for stories like these, my email is anzidei@northjersey.com.
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From Little League to college baseball
The first recorded game of modern baseball is believed to have been played in Hoboken in 1846. Another historic first in Hoboken? In the 1970s, the city set the stage for a civil rights battle that paved the way for girls to play Little League baseball. That’s all thanks to Maria Pepe, then just a 12-year-old Hoboken girl who suited up and pitched three games for her Young Democrats team in 1972.
The youth team was told they could only continue playing if Pepe was off the team. It was a heartbreaking moment that ended Pepe’s Little League career. But the National Organization for Women quickly sued Little League Baseball on Pepe's behalf. By 1974, the New Jersey Superior Court ruled girls must be allowed to play. By then Pepe was too old to keep playing, but she cracked open a door for millions of girls to follow her through.
Today, there are many girls in New Jersey who continue to prove the ceiling in baseball has no limits for them. There’s Alexia Jorge of Lyndhurst, who plays college baseball at Saint Elizabeth University. She is one of the first young women to do so in the United States. At Montclair State University, Sabrina Robinson this year started the first women’s college baseball club at the school. The team is one of several that are being formed across the country in a push to have women’s baseball sanctioned by the NCAA as an individual sport.
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First college women’s wrestling team
In the heart of Jersey City, there are a group of women who are making history every day as the first women’s college wrestling team in New Jersey. The New Jersey City University team was founded in 2021, and has been actively recruiting new players from across the region. In February, the team reached another milestone when it hosted the first-ever collegiate women’s wrestling match in New Jersey.
Girls’ wrestling has been exploding across the country — especially in New Jersey. It’s only natural that the next step was to establish a pathway for girls to continue wrestling at the college level. There are several active teams across the country. However, girls from this region often had to choose from a limited number universities that were far from home. That route is not always a viable option for athletes, so having a program like NJCU in a state with a booming number of female wrestlers has been a gamechanger.
An inclusive skateboarding community
Last summer, skateboarding debuted as an Olympic sport in Tokyo, as a movement to make the sport more inclusive grew steam around the world. In Montclair, Boardroom Skate, an inclusive skate collective that offers female and nonbinary people a safe space to skate, was formed to meet that demand. The tiny collective sets aside hourslong sessions every weekend inside Rand Park.
The collective was started by Olivia Karny before the pandemic. Once the world began to reopen, the collective gathered momentum and has been expanding into surrounding areas, including Paterson. Some skaters commute from as far away as Morristown to get to the Montclair sessions because they offered a safe space for girls to skate in a judgement- and harassment-free space. The collective is also part of a larger push to grow skateboarding in general in Montclair with a permanent skatepark in town.
More changes, more stories
Plenty of these kinds of stories remain untold, but it’s something that I’m actively working towards changing through my work and this column.
Even today, on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the U.S. Department of Education released proposed changes to the regulations that would, in part, increase protections for LGBTQ students, strengthen victims’ rights and amend how schools investigate claims of sexual assault and harassment. In many ways, these proposed changes may open the door for countless more stories to be told over the next 50 years.
Women & Sport is a new NorthJersey.com column devoted to female athletes from the rec league level to those in college and the pros. If you've got a tip on an athlete from North Jersey who should be noted in the column, no matter how young they are or how old, please drop me a line at anzidei@northjersey.com.
Melanie Anzidei is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: anzidei@northjersey.com
Twitter: @melanieanzidei
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Women & Sport: After Title IX, still plenty of 'firsts' in NJ
