Former Iowa director of women’s athletics Christine Grant has died. Iowa’s women’s sports programs enjoyed great success during Grant’s tenure.
Grant was a trailblazer in women’s sports and also a fighter for gender equality in the field of athletics.
“Under Grant’s watch, 12 Hawkeye programs combined to win 27 Big Ten championships,” a University of Iowa Athletics release said.
Grant was 85 upon her death on New Year’s Eve. Grant was one of the main proponents of Title IX which greatly aided women’s sports. She served as the director for Iowa women’s athletics for 31 years from 1969 to 2000 when the then respective women’s and men’s athletic departments were merged.
Grant was originally from Scotland with her first sports experience being playing and coaching field hockey, according to Hawkeye Sports. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Iowa in 1969 and a master’s degree in the same subject in 1970, before getting a doctorate in sports administration, also from Iowa, in 1974. While running Iowa’s women’s athletics department, she was a strong voice on national issues and lobbied for Title IX which passed in 1972.
One of the most notable moments of Grant’s tenure was Iowa women’s basketball making the Final Four in 1993 and drawing a crowd of 22,157 in the same year for a game against Ohio State, a record crowd for a women’s basketball game.
