{"id":7216,"date":"2012-11-01T19:57:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T23:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=7216"},"modified":"2015-07-27T14:16:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T18:16:38","slug":"the-opportunity-to-do-the-things-we-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/the-opportunity-to-do-the-things-we-love\/","title":{"rendered":"‘To Do the Things We Love’ – 40 Years of Title IX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jane Possee found herself in unfamiliar territory in 1975. A graduate of the all-female Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Possee had arrived to coach women\u2019s athletics at Rochester, a campus where the male-to-female ratio was 2-to-1.<\/p>\n

Male athletes had easy access for five to six practices a week in the alumni gym, which boasted the Palestra, an indoor track, and a field house, while the women generally practiced just three times a week with part-time coaches in Spurrier Gym\u2014with wooden backboards, no bleachers for spectators, and no scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Now the associate director of athletics and recreation at Rochester, Possee had long recognized the role that athletics could play in the lives of students. An athlete since high school, she had played basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, and badminton at Skidmore. Hired to coach the Yellowjackets women\u2019s basketball and women\u2019s field hockey teams, she started the women\u2019s lacrosse team as well.<\/p>\n