Judy Dixon (born August 16, 1949) is an American tennis player and collegiate tennis coach, known as a "pioneer"Greg Garber

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, June 20, 2002. in

women's athletics Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, cross-country running, and racewalking. ...

for being the first person to sue a major university for

sex discrimination Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

under

Title IX Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...

.Jack Sullivan
"False Start"
, ''CommonWealth'', October 19, 2010.

Early life

Dixon grew up in New Jersey, and played national-level tennis as a teen.Joe DeBurro

, Massachusetts Republican, July 5, 2008. In 1967, she won the national junior indoor championship, and was ranked in the top 20. She was invited to substitute for

Rosie Casals Rosemary Casals (born September 16, 1948) is an American former professional tennis player. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 titles and was crucial to many of the changes in women's tennis during t ...

, who was injured, as

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

's doubles partner for two tournaments when Dixon was age 17. Dixon graduated from University of Southern California in 1973,Jesse Mayfield Sheehan
"Dixon Pioneering Success at UMass"
''Massachusetts Daily Collegian'', November 6, 2012. with a degree in psychology.
, UMass Athletics (last visited July 23, 2013). From 1973 to 1975, she played professionally, including tournaments at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and the U.S. Open.

Yale Title IX litigation

In 1974Lori Riley
"Difficult Trail for Pioneer"
''The Hartford Courant'', June 21, 2002. Dixon joined

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

as the women's athletics coordinator and women's tennis coach. The conditions for women's athletics at Yale were significantly worse than for men, and Dixon was paid considerably less than comparable colleagues. Women had one tennis court while men had three, for example, and Dixon earned $24,000 annually for serving as both tennis coach and full-time athletics coordinator, overseeing recruiting for seven sports; her male peers earned more ($27,000) just for coaching. Consequently, Dixon filed a complaint in 1975 with the

Office of Civil Rights The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education that is primarily focused on enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting schools from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex ...

, and then filed a lawsuit under

, the first such lawsuit against a major university. Title IX requires educational institutions receiving federal funds to treat its students equally across gender. Yale stripped Dixon of her administrative position at the end of the year, assigning her to the sports information office, and moving her from her private office to an office with a departmental coffee machine. Dixon left Yale a year later, resigning March 30, 1977,"Cross Campus: This Day in Yale History"
''Yale Daily News'', March 30, 2009. after working one more year under the reduced circumstances. In approximately 1981, just a week or two before the case went to court, Yale offered to settle. Yale offered to pay Dixon $5,000, and to address her original complaints by providing trainers for female athletes, providing full-time women's coaches, and upgrading facilities and budgets for women athletes. In exchange, Dixon agreed not to talk to the press for some amount of time.

Later career

In the interim, Dixon worked as a journalist, working at NBC, PBS, and ABC. She was the first woman to do professional sports

color commentary A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

(for the

Boston Lobsters The Boston Lobsters were a World TeamTennis team based in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Lobsters played home matches at the Walter Brown Arena, Boston University, in Boston, MA. The most recent Boston Lobsters were a ...

World Team Tennis World TeamTennis (WTT) was a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973. The league's season normally took place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA would ...

), and in fact for her color commentary, Dixon was the first woman nominated for an Emmy Award in Sports Broadcasting. Dixon has also written for '' Sportswoman Magazine''. Dixon owned a tennis health club in

Sunderland, Massachusetts Sunderland is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States, part of the Pioneer Valley. The population was 3,663 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Sunderland was first ...

, and worked in

sports marketing Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades; however, a generally accepted definition does not exist. Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...

, for a number of years, before being recruited to the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

, as its head women's tennis coach in 2002."Head Coach Judy Dixon To Be Honored by Yale on Friday"
, UMass Athletics, April 24, 2006. At UMass she has successfully resurrected the women's tennis team, and has been nominated for a number of awards for her coaching.

Awards

Yale Club The Yale Club of New York City, commonly called The Yale Club, is a gentlemen's club, private club in Midtown Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is restricted almost entirely to alumni and faculty of Yale University. ...

of New York City, Honoree commemorating history of women's tennis at Yale (April 2006) * New England Hall of Fame, inducted June 21, 2008 * Nominated, "Emmy Award in Sports Broadcasting in 1975 for her color commentary of the Spalding International Mixed Doubles Championship for PBS." *

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located mostly on the East Coast and Midwest of the ...

Coach of the Year, three times.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Judy American female tennis players American women sports commentators University of Massachusetts Amherst people UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen coaches Yale Bulldogs coaches 1949 births Living people University of Southern California alumni Tennis players from New Jersey USC Trojans women's tennis players 20th-century American sportswomen