GAME
SWEET VICTORY
How Judy Sweet changed the game in collegiate athletics .
BY SAVANNAH MUÑOZ ’ 20
IN 1974 , UC San Diego made a nontraditional choice in selecting Judy Sweet as its athletic director . Sure , she was UC San Diego ’ s assistant athletic director at the time , but she was also only 27 years old , and moreover , she was the first woman ever to be named athletic director for a U . S . co-ed collegiate program .
This landmark came only two years after the signing of Title IX , which prevented discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity . Sweet promptly set about using the new law to chart an ambitious course for our athletics programs — which at the time had large disparities in resources .
“ There wasn ’ t very much for anybody , but the fact was that the men ’ s teams were getting far more than the lion ’ s share ,” Sweet says . In some cases , men ’ s teams were receiving 10 times as much of an allotment as women ’ s .
Under Sweet ’ s leadership , UC San Diego athletics merged the resources , and to stay impartial , Sweet created formulas for resource distribution — starting with coaches ’ salaries . “ In many instances today , the coaches of men ’ s teams , particularly at large universities , get much higher salaries than women who coach the same sport ,” Sweet says . “ That wasn ’ t going to be the case at UCSD based on the formulas that I developed to make sure that coaches of men ’ s teams and coaches of women ’ s teams were treated equitably .”
She also created equitable equipment budgets between athletic teams . For example , men ’ s and women ’ s lacrosse teams use different equipment and have different rules , so budgets will have inherent differences . Yet this is opposed to previous years , when women were supplied with old or inferior sports equipment .
After leading the athletic program at UC San Diego , Sweet ’ s impact ultimately inspired change and transformation in athletics across the country when she became the first female president of the NCAA in 1991 .
Not everyone was happy with Sweet taking the role , however . “ I received a number of handwritten letters from people who were critical that I was taking away a job that rightfully belonged to a man ,” Sweet recalls .
But she also received letters of support from those who never thought they would see a woman in such a leadership position . All of these letters — even the negative ones — motivated her to not just promote equity , but institutionalize it .
“ We established the NCAA Gender Equity Task Force ,” Sweet says . “ And as a result , we made some significant strides in getting universities to do better with meeting the responsibilities of Title IX .”
By the early 2000s , Title IX was under attack by politicians trying to weaken it . Never one to sit on the sidelines , Sweet attended all the hearings held by the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics and helped defend the law as it was written .
Sweet continued to push the world of competitive sports : In 2003 , she spearheaded the NCAA Women Coaches Academy and later co-founded WeCOACH , formerly the Alliance of Women Coaches , in 2011 . Though Sweet has had the privilege , and sometimes the burden , of being the first woman in many roles , she hopes her legacy is one of ensuring accessibility to these same positions and resources .
“ I ’ ve always said that being the first was just a matter of timing ,” Sweet says . “ The important thing is that I ’ m not the last .”
16 TRITON | WINTER 2020