June 28, 2002
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – University of Notre Dame head women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw has been named a member of the newly-created Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced Thursday. McGraw is one of 15 sports professionals and educators on the blue-ribbon panel, which will be co-chaired by former Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Cynthia Cooper and Ted Leland, director of athletics at Stanford University.
The Commission was founded to study the effects of Title IX, the 30-year-old anti-discrimination law, and examine ways of strengthening enforcement and expanding opportunities to ensure fairness for all college student-athletes. The members of the panel will hold public hearings and speak with coaches, student-athletes, parents, college officials, educators and other experts to gather information and prepare recommendations that will be submitted to Paige by January 31, 2003.
“I’m very honored to have been chosen for this very important Commission,” McGraw said. “I think Title IX has been great for female student-athletes and I hope we will find ways to make it even better.”
McGraw, who will begin her 16th season at Notre Dame in November, is the only women’s basketball coach on the Commission. Among the other featured members on the panel are: Julie Foudy, president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and captain of the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, and Donna DeVarona, co-founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation and a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming.
“Without a doubt, Title IX has opened the doors of opportunity for generations of women and girls to compete, to achieve, and to pursue their American dreams,” Paige said. “I am confident that, with the help of this Commission, we will learn how we can do a better job of enforcing a law that represents hope to so many Americans.”
— ND —