I was in high school when Title IX became law. One of my classmates was a girl who played several sports and won our school’s inaugural Athlete of the Year Award… quite a stir at the time. She went on to play basketball at the State University, went on to the Olympics I believe, and was in the first Women’s Professional Basketball League.

I didn’t fully appreciate her accomplishments until my wife and I began raising our two girls. Because of my classmate’s courage and talent, my girls got to play premier-level club sports, and middle and high school sports for a top school in Central Ohio. Both [daughters] went on to play at Big Ten Conference schools–one played soccer at Michigan and the other ran track, cross country and cycled at Indiana.

I couldn’t be more thankful that they each benefitted from the struggle my classmate endured. I hope to see her at our class reunion 50 years after we graduated, and thank her for what she helped establish: sports for girls to compete against other girls and young women. I hope my granddaughter will have that same opportunity; an equal opportunity to compete only against biological female athletes.