Title IX brings what-if pondering of supremely athletic Grandma D'Addona
As Title IX marks its 50th anniversary, there is a lot to celebrate.
The groundbreaking legislation created more opportunities for women in sports from the high school level through college and has transformed the scope of sports around the world.
But like other groundbreaking moments, including Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, it makes us wonder how things might have been different if it happened earlier.
Robinson makes us wonder what the major leagues would have been like if players like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were on the Pittsburgh Pirates instead of the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the Negro Leagues.
The same can be said for Title IX.
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For me this gets quite personal. It makes me think of my grandmother.
Dorothy D’Addona — Grandma D — is nearly 94 years old and has been an athlete her entire life.
She grew up in Benton Harbor and played tennis, baseball, softball and anything she could as an active youth. She remembers watching the famous House of David barnstorming baseball team based in Benton Harbor. They faced traveling teams that at times included players like Paige and Babe Ruth.
But while those memories could manifest dreams of being an athlete for young boys, as a girl, my grandmother was basically out of luck.
It didn’t matter that she could beat most of the boys in tennis, or play baseball or even football as well as they could. There simply weren’t any opportunities to prove it in organized sports starting in high school.
My grandmother couldn’t get out of town and move on to something bigger because of sports, but she did get out using the tools she could. She was a strong student in school and became one of the few women of her generation in her town to go to college (studying journalism, of course), starting at Western Michigan and eventually moving to the University of Michigan where she met my grandfather and later started a family.
How things could have been different if she lived in the Title IX era.
First of all, Grandma D would have been a star female athlete of her school and perhaps the entire town. She could play so many sports, the opportunities to play in college would have been endless had she been born decades later.
She was definitely good enough to earn a college scholarship to play something, whether it was tennis or softball or something altogether different.
Would that have changed where she went to school? Who knows?
Maybe she would have been an All-American. Maybe she would have remained in sports and been a coach, inspiring more young women to play sports.
Of course, that is not what happened, though she has still been a source of inspiration — at least within our family.
My grandmother was 43 when Title IX passed. She was born too young to play in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, featured in the movie “A League of Their Own.”
That didn’t stop Grandma D from being an avid ice skater, excelling in golf, playing tennis around Ann Arbor until nearly the age of 80. Or being able to play baseball, bocce, tennis and more with her grandchildren, who marveled at her athletic prowess. Or from continuing to be a close-to-200 bowler until the age of 90.
What if she was able to have the opportunity in her prime?
She doesn’t dwell on this of course, but it crosses her mind from time to time. She instead supported that athletic careers of her children and grandchildren, having multiple daughters compete in sports, a son who was a strong high school tennis player and another who was a strong bowler.
Each of her grandchildren had strong athletic moments at some point, whether in baseball, track, field hockey, lacrosse or even synchronized swimming.
Grandma D’s support continues today with her great-grandchildren. My daughters continue her tradition in tennis — and in fact, my oldest uses the last racquet grandma used before finally ending her tennis career.
She doesn’t have any official statistics simply because of when she was born, but that didn’t stop Grandma D from inspiring future generations of female athletes.
— Contact Sports Editor Dan D'Addona at Dan.D'Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Title IX brings what-if pondering of athletic Dorothy D'Addona
