Recognizing over 50 years of Title IX at UCLA

In 1972, landmark civil rights law Title IX was passed, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program receiving federal funding. The law fundamentally changed the game for women’s collegiate sports, requiring universities to provide equal funding and athletic opportunities to male and female athletes. 

Then-UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young created the Department of Women’s Intercollegiate Sports in July 1974, introducing 10 varsity women’s sports that year. UCLA pioneered the change from club to varsity women’s sports nationally, and was the first university to award a full athletic scholarship to a woman, Ann Meyers Drysdale. 

Judith Holland, the Department of Women’s Intercollegiate Sports’s first full-time athletic director, oversaw the department’s integration with the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1981 and transitioned UCLA women’s teams from the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 

The initial women’s varsity sports teams at UCLA have left a legacy of athletic excellence that Bruin women athletes continue to uphold. UCLA’s female athletes are professional athletes, Olympians and NCAA champions. In 2007, the women’s water polo team secured UCLA’s 100th NCAA championship, the first university in the country to reach this milestone. More recently, the UCLA Women’s Basketball team clinched their first NCAA championship in April 2026, and shortly after, six senior members of the team were drafted into the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). 

This upcoming school year, make sure to support UCLA women’s sports by attending or watching a game! Click the links below to learn more about Title IX in UCLA athletics or visit the UCLA Title IX website for general information.