Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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S haron Petro had to take a pay cut to become the first varsity women's bas- ketball coach at Notre Dame. In 1977, she sacrificed the always-cushy salary of a Catholic high school health and physical ed- ucation teacher to be- come the only woman in the Irish athletic de- partment. the second sport of- fered to women at Notre Dame Basketball became season, five years af- ter congress declared that, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination un- der any education program or activity receiving Federal fi- nancial assistance." While Title IX of the Higher Education Act never once mentions that Taking The Next Step MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY Sharon Petro's fingerprints can be found all over Notre Dame women's sports, and she continues to fight for female athletes. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS sports, the world of women's athletics will celebrate its impact more than any other group on the bill's 40th anniversary in late June. This April, 19,028 fans In Denver saw Notre Dame play in its second straight na- tional championship game. More than two million others watched on television. The Irish fell a game short this year in basketball, but women have added nine titles to the school's national championship trophy case since Title IX started (five in fencing, three in soccer and one in basketball). They have produced a long list of All-Americans and Olympians, and amazing stories like Haley Scott DeMaria, this year's com- mencement speaker. They all had a hand in building a program that started with humble beginnings. Petro, a collegiate fencer at Wayne State in Detroit, vis- ited Notre Dame to ask if they needed a women's coach. The school didn't have a team at the time, but they asked if she would be interesting in coaching tennis and basketball instead. "I said sure," Petro recalled. "I was look- ing for a new challenge." Her experience coaching at Aquinas High School in Southgate, Mich., was marginally helpful. She had to study the boys' practices JUNE/JULY 2012 9