Debbie Chin considers herself one of the mothers of Title IX because, in many ways, her career has been tethered to the law since it was passed in 1972.
Then, Chin taught physical education at a high school in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, she continues to push for gender equity after spending 40-plus years as an athletics administrator at the University of New Haven, where she served 24 years as director of athletics.
"I've gone through a lot. I've experienced a lot," said Chin, who retired in 2017 from New Haven. "I've never been one to be quiet about anything that involved both girls in the high school or women at the college level being denied opportunities."
About a year after Title IX became law, Chin and two other physical education teachers at New Haven high schools filed a lawsuit to get funding for girls sports. The three teachers had been funding the girls teams they coached out of their own pockets.
"We knew if we didn't fight for this that we were going to lose opportunities for women and equitable opportunities in sports," she said.
The drawn-out legal battle ended in 1975 with the courts requiring the schools to fund girls sports.
Chin soon moved on to championing women's sports at the college level, starting at the University of New Haven as its coordinator of women's athletics. Her charge was to build a women's athletics program from scratch.
While Chin said the New Haven administration was supportive of this shift, it was far from a flip of a switch at any level. She emphasized how many voices continued to advocate for equity across the country.
Chin still has pictures of women marching in Washington as politicians attempted to water down Title IX's impact in the 1970s and '80s. She recalls sit-ins across the country to bring attention to this effort, as well, including one held at New Haven.
Chin was an active advocate in protecting Title IX after it became law and attempts were made to weaken its application. She took part in marches in Washington and a sit-in on New Haven's campus. (Photos courtesy of Debbie Chin)
She remembers dealing with the Supreme Court's 1984 decision in Grove City College v. Bell, which stated that Title IX affected only those programs that directly receive federal assistance and effectively removed its application to college athletics. In 1988, however, the Civil Rights Restoration Act restored that application.
"For New Haven, we were fortunate because we had administrative support," she said.
Still, it was an uphill battle.
Chin coached New Haven's first four women's programs: volleyball, tennis, softball and basketball. With volleyball and tennis both competing in the fall, she'd coach one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Through the years, she found coaches to take over all of the sports besides volleyball, which she coached until she become New Haven's director of athletics in 1993.
Chin collected countless accomplishments during her tenure as a coach and administrator. In 1987, the New Haven women's basketball team won the school's first national championship. Chin, a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, won more than 500 games as a volleyball head coach. The National Association for Girls and Women in Sports also honored Chin with its Presidential Award in 1997. She was part of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics 2018 Hall of Fame class.
"I feel good about what we were able to do on our campus," she said. "I feel good about being part of a bigger movement to never give up the fight and to continue to recognize the need for voices to still be heard."
Throughout the process of building a women's athletics program, Chin said she ran into all the expected hurdles and then some as she pushed for equity between men's and women's teams. This included uniforms, access to the weight room, locker room quality, transportation, roster sizes and game times.
"There were so many of us who chose to fight, so to speak, and to continue to strive to overcome the hurdles and not quit going forward," said Chin, who chaired the Division II Management Council and was the first woman to serve on the Division II Baseball Committee. "Even from a small institutional perspective at New Haven, it could've been banging heads with the men's side of athletics and the women's side of athletics, and it wasn't that way."
More than 50 years after Chin began advocating for change in athletics, she still is acting on her passion. Now, Chin helps lead the Division II Coaches Connection Program, which helps facilitate discussion between coaches, athletics administrators, NCAA committee members and staff.
This program, she said, is another way to continue to push for equity and change when and where it's needed.
"It's to hear what they have to say," she said. "If there are things that can't be changed, then there needs to be an explanation as to why. If the why is antiquated and needs to be changed, then we need to change it. If that was a policy and procedure that we've been doing for years and years and we never really knew why we're doing it, then we need to change it."
Occasionally in these monthly calls, Chin said she likes to chime in about her own experiences as an administrator as a reminder of the importance of advocating for change, especially when it comes to gender equity.
"I say to all of my younger colleagues, 'Don't quit now. Keep up the fight to be assured you're being provided equitable opportunities both at the institutional level and at the organizational level,'" Chin said. "I don't regret anything that I've done, the fights I've fought, the things that we've accomplished, and the goals that we've set to continue to fight because we need to continue. The voices need to be heard."
Chin started the New Haven women's athletics program from scratch. Starting with four sports, all of which she coached her first season, Chin eventually transitioned to coaching only volleyball. She won more than 500 games at New Haven and is a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. (Photo courtesy of New Haven)
