Christine Grant opened the door of opportunity for women in college athletics

Christine Grant, a trailblazing advocate for women's college athletics, passed away on Dec. 31, 2021. The longtime Iowa administrator was 85.

"We have lost a giant in college sports. A tireless advocate for the right of women to participate in sports, Christine Grant fought for gender equity her entire career. Her contributions to and  unwavering support of Title IX, which will mark its 50th anniversary this year, were instrumental in that law's adoption," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "She empowered, she inspired, and she fought to lay the foundation for those who came after her. We must continue to build on that foundation in her honor. Our deepest condolences are with her friends and family."

A product of three different cultures, Grant was born May 27, 1936, in Scotland, where she developed her passion for athletics — most notably field hockey. After earning a degree in physical education, Grant moved from Scotland to Canada in 1961 to pursue a career teaching and coaching field hockey. Over nearly a decade, Grant laid the foundations for the sport to emerge in Canada, helping to form a national field hockey organization and serving as Canada's first national coach.

Seeking to continue her education, Grant began her time at Iowa in 1968 — first attending then teaching at the university's Graduate College. In a 2017 speech at the NCAA Inclusion Forum, Grant recalled going to her first college football game at Iowa in 1969.

"I had never, ever seen anything like it at the university level. And as I was learning everything that was being given to men's intercollegiate teams at that time, I also learned that women only had club sports," Grant noted. "After inquiring why there were such discriminatory practices, I was frequently and forcefully informed: Women are not interested in sports. That came as a real culture shock to me, since almost all of my entire life had revolved around my own wonderful sporting opportunities."

1969 was also when Iowa began plans for a new recreation building that would be partially financed by student tuition. With other graduate students and faculty, Grant attended the first unveiling of the plans for the new facility. But, to her amazement, the blueprints featured no women's locker rooms or restrooms. In essence, female students were to pay for half the building yet were not expected to use it. At that moment, Grant recalled, she realized she was a feminist — having crossed an ideological bridge on which she would never go back again.

"I refuse to meekly accept being a second-class citizen in this land that prides itself on being the land of equal opportunity," Grant said.

Grant's career flourished in lockstep with the growing women's movement of the late 1960s, and she called the '70s "the highlight of her career." Just after the passage of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational institutions, she was named Iowa's first director of women's intercollegiate athletics. She would hold this post until her retirement from the athletics department in 2000.

During her career, Grant embraced the role of being the national leading expert on Title IX and athletics. She testified in numerous Title IX legal cases and gave hundreds of presentations that showed the status of gender equity in intercollegiate athletics, shining a spotlight on progress that still needs to be made in participation opportunities, allocation of resources and treatment of student-athletes.

According to Hawkeye Sports, the 12 women's Hawkeye programs combined to win 27 Big Ten championships under Grant's leadership. Among highlights of Grant's tenure, Iowa field hockey won the national title in 1986 and was runner-up in 1984, 1988 and 1992. Iowa's women's basketball reached the 1993 NCAA Final Four. Earlier that year, Iowa drew a national record crowd of 22,157 for a women's basketball contest against Ohio State on March 7. 

In addition to her responsibilities at Iowa, Grant was active among women's college athletics groups. She was a founding member of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and served on numerous organizational and planning committees. Grant helped lead the AIAW from 1979-82. She also served on the board of directors of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (now called Women Leaders in College Sports) from 1984-87 and was the group's president from 1987-89. She also chaired the NACWAA Committee on Gender Equity

Grant helped pave the way for women's athletics by leading many NCAA committees, as well. She served on the NCAA Special Committee to Review the NCAA Membership Structure from 1988-90, the NCAA Special Committee on Assessing Interests of Female Student-Athletes from 1993-94 and the NCAA Committee on Committees from 1993-96. In addition, she served on the NCAA Cabinet on Academics/Eligibility/Compliance and the NCAA Subcommittee on Amateurism and Agents at the time of her retirement as the Iowa women's athletics director.

She was honored by the NCAA with the Gerald R. Ford Award in 2007 for her lifetime of leadership, and the Christine Grant Ballroom in the NCAA national office in Indianapolis was dedicated in 2012.

Amy Wilson, managing director of inclusion at the NCAA, remembers Grant as both a committed administrator and teacher, describing the opportunity to study and work closely with Grant as "the greatest honor" of her life. 

"Dr. Grant cared deeply about the success of all student-athletes as exemplified in her student-centered leadership philosophy and in the values of equity and excellence she lived every day as an athletics director and professor at the University of Iowa," Wilson said. "She was a true and unwavering champion for equity, and the best way we can honor her legacy is to strive to provide equitable educational and athletic opportunities and experiences for all students in our places of power and influence." 

While Grant may have retired as the Iowa women's athletics director in 2000, her steadfast presence remained in both her social advocacy work and at the university she loved. For 10 years, she volunteered as a member of the advisory board of the Rape Victim Advocacy Program. Iowa's field hockey field was renamed Dr. Christine H.B. Grant Field in 1991 and was rededicated in 2006. Grant was also named one of the 100 most influential sports educators in America by the Institute of International Sport in 2007. More recently, Christine Grant Elementary School, named in her honor, opened in North Liberty, Iowa, in 2019.