Title IX Passage

The federal law known as Title IX is passed in 1972. Patsy Mink (D–HI), the first woman of color and first Asian-American in the House of Representatives was a major author and sponsor of the initiative. Mink, a graduate of University of Hawai’i, wrote the bill in part in response to being rejected by all 12 medical schools she applied to because she was a woman. After her death in 2002, the official name of Title IX was changed to the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

 

PCAA Takes the Lead
In 1983, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) becomes the first western conference to introduce women's athletic programs, allowing female student-athletes to compete at the same level as their male counterparts.
 
UNLV defeated UC Irvine to win the first PCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in 1984. UNLV was led by Misty Thomas, an Academic All-America guard who represented Canada in the 1984 Olympic Games. Thomas, who would later be inducted into the UNLV Hall of Fame and Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, squared off against UC Irvine’s Cheri Graham. Graham set UC Irvine single season records for points (593), field goals (240) and blocks (115) in 1984, en route to becoming the Anteaters’ first All-American in women’s basketball. Graham is a member of the UCI Hall of Fame.
 
Names and Games
In 1988, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association changed its name to the Big West Conference. The move came on the heels of a contract to appear as the late game on ESPN’s Big Monday triple header telecast along with the Big East and Big Ten.
 
Long Beach State won the first women’s basketball championship under the Big West moniker. The win was Joan Bonvicini’s 3^rd straight conference title. Overall Bonvicini turned in a 325-71 record in 12 seasons at LBSU. During her tenure, the team averaged 24 wins per season on the way to ten conference titles and ten consecutive NCAA Tournaments bids including Final Four appearances in 1987 and 1988.
 
80’s Excellence
The PCAA/Big West enjoyed unprecedented success in women’s sports in the 1980’s, winning a total of seven national championships in the decade.
 
Pacific’s women’s volleyball team became the first PCAA women’s program to claim a national championship with the back-to-back titles in 1985 and ‘86. Hawai’i women’s volleyball followed in 1987 as freshman Tonya “Teee” Williams earned AVCA National Player of the Year honors.  Long Beach State’s Tara Cross won Player of the Year the following season, and the duo of Williams and Cross shared the honor in 1989. Cross’ Long Beach State squad also won the national championship in 1989, capping off a run of four national championships in five years for the PCAA/Big West.
 
Judi Garman, hired by Cal State Fullerton as the first full-time softball coach in the nation in 1980, led the Titans to the 1986 Women’s College World Series championship. Garman amassed an overall record of 913-376-4 in 20 seasons in addition to nine conference titles. Garman was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1993.
 
San Jose State, then a member of the Big West, also captured women’s golf national titles in 1987 and 1989.
 
Individual Honors
UNLV’s Sheila Tarr claimed the PCAA’s first individual national title when she won the heptathlon at the 1984 NCAA Championships. Tarr was also the first NCAA champion from the state of Nevada and was named alternate to the 1988 United States Olympic Team. She is a member of the UNLV and Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame. Tarr succumbed to Multiple Sclerosis in 1998 at the age of 34. The Sheila Tarr Academy of International Studies, an elementary school that bears her name, is in Las Vegas.
 
Tarr is one of seven PCAA/Big West individual national champions. A list that also includes San Jose State’s Pat Hurst who won individual medalist honors along with a Honda Award as the nation’s best female collegiate golfer in 1989. Hurst was a first team All-American in 1989 and ’90 and won the 1990 US Women’s Amateur. Hurst won LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1995 and won six LPGA Tour events in her career.
 
In 1998 Long Beach State finished 36-0 and became the first women’s NCAA volleyball team to have an undefeated season. LBSU was captained by setter Misty May who would share the Most Outstanding Player award after setting a tournament record with 20 service aces. In her career, May won numerous Big West accolades as well as the Honda Sports Award for the nation’s best female volleyball player, the Honda-Broderick Cup as the best overall female college athlete and back-to-back National Player of the Year awards in 1997 and 1998. In all, Big West women’s volleyball players have won or shared the AVCA National Player of the Year award ten times.
 
In 2010, UC Riverside’s Brenda Martinez closed out her stellar career with eight individual conference championships, making her the most decorated female student-athlete in Big West history.  Martinez would later represent her country in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
 
Olympic Glory
Brenda Martinez is one of 62 Olympians and Paralympians who have also competed in the PCAA/Big West. Over half of that group have participated in multiple Games, including Long Beach State alum Danielle Scott-Arruda’s five appearances on Team USA’s women’s volleyball squad between 1996 and 2012, the most for any Big West performer. Since the first Big West women appeared in the 1964 games, ten of the 11 institutions have been represented in the Olympics in 20 Team USA disciplines.
 
Three-time gold medalist Misty May-Treanor is the most decorated Big West Olympian. She is part of a group that includes Scott-Arruda as a two-time silver medalist (2008 & 2012, volleyball), Cal Poly gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton (2008, discus) and silver medalist, and current University of Hawai’i women’s volleyball coach, Robyn Ah-Mow (2008, volleyball).
 
CSUN alumnus Katie Holloway is a four-time medalist at the Paralympic Games, earning two silver and two gold medals in women’s sitting volleyball. Holloway, who was born without a fibula in her right leg, played basketball for the Matadors averaging 14.5 points and 7 rebounds per game during her senior year in 2008.
 
Overall, 24 Big West athletes and coaches competed in the 2020 Tokyo games, while three appeared in the Paralympic games and one coach and one alternate made their way to the 2022 Beijing Olympics and Paralympic games.
 
Pro Prospects

2022 Big West Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and championship MVP, Hawai’i’s Amy Atwell is the most recent WNBA draft pick to represent The Big West. Atwell was selected in the 3^rd round by the Los Angeles Sparks.
 
Fellow Rainbow Wahine Judy Moseley-McAfee was the conference’s first WNBA draft pick, going 6^th overall to the Sacramento Monarchs in 1997. UC Santa Barbara’s Kristen Mann is the other Big West first-rounder, having been selected 11^th overall to the Minnesota Lynx in 2005. Overall, The Big West has produced nine WNBA draft picks.
 
Long Beach State alum Penny Toler also holds the distinction of being the first player to score a basket in the WNBA as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks.
 
Long Beach State’s Lena Silano is the last of the four Big West players that have been drafted into the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Silano, and teammate Kaitlin Fregulia who was selected in 2022 are joined by Kiana Palacios (UC Irvine, 2018) and Christina Burkenroad (Cal State Fullerton, 2017) as NWSL draftees.
 
Academic Excellence
UC San Diego and CSU Bakersfield became The Big West’s newest members on July 1, 2020. Scholarship student-athletes at UC San Diego graduate at the highest rate among all public institutions in Division I and II. Female student-athletes participating in eight Big West sports at UCSD have a collective graduation rate of 95.5%.
 
The latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate data placed the overall single-year rate at 90%. In 2022, 22 Big West women’s teams had a 100% graduation rate.
 
Named after 46-year UC Davis Athletics veteran and national leader in the development of women's athletics, the Marya Welch Initiative for Women's Athletics at UC Davis strives to provide new, recurring and comprehensive support for all 16 of the Aggies’ women's teams.
 
Boundless Opportunities
In 1977, UC Irvine’s first year of competition in the PCAA, the Anteaters named Linda Dempsay Athletic Director. She was the country’s first female athletic director at an NCAA Division I institution. Dempsay served until 1983.
 
UC Santa Barbara’s Kelly Barsky and UC Irvine’s Paula Smith currently lead Big West athletic programs, while Dr. Lynnette Zelezny (CSUB), Dr. Erika Beck (CSUN) and Dr. Jane Conoley (LBSU) comprise three of the 11 female presidents in the California State University system.
 
Overall, women in Division I have the highest participation rate in all of college sports at 47.1%, up from 26.4% in 1982. Division I also has the most diverse female student- athlete population with minority participation at 39%, an increase of ten percentage points from 2001.
 
From humble beginnings, The Big West now sponsors ten women’s sports with over 1,700 student-athletes competing.