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History of Women in Sports Timeline
Part 6 - 1990-1997
"A woman's place is at home. And at first, second, third..."
- 1990 - Title IX gets a boost from the Supreme Court.
- 1990 - The number of women playing college sports has jumped to 160,000.
- 1990 - Bernadette Locke becomes the first female Division I coach of a men's basketball team when she joins the University of Kentucky as an assistant coach to Rick Pitino in June.
- 1990 - Juli Inkster of Los Altos, CA, becomes the first woman to win the only professional golf tournament in the world in which women and men compete head-to-head. She wins the Invitational Pro-Am at Pebble Beach in a one-stroke victory.
- 1990 - Triathlete Paula Newby-Frasier is named the Women's Sports Foundation's "Professional Sportswoman of the Year." In her career she is an eight-Time Ironman Triathlon World Champion (1996, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1989, 1988, 1986).
- 1990 - Sara Lee becomes the first corporation to make a major commitment solely to female athletics on the collegiate level with a $6 million donation to the NCAA.
- 1990 - Beth Daniel shoots a 66 to win the LPGA Championship, beating Rosie Jones by one stroke and taking home $150,000, the largest prize in LPGA history.
- 1990 - Jean Driscoll wins the first of seven straight wheelchair Boston Marathons in a world-record time of 1:43:17. She will set the record in each of the next four years.
- 1990 - Team Canada skates to a 5-2 victory over the US women's team in the first International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in Ottawa, Ontario.
- 1990 - Jennifer Capriati, 14, becomes the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 defeat of Manuela Malveeva at the French Open.
- 1990 - Monica Seles becoms the youngest Grand Slam winner with her defeat of Steffi Graf at the french Open.
- 1990 - Jennifer Capriati, 14, defaets Helen Kelesi 6-3, 6-1 in the first round to become the youngest winner of a match in Wimbledon history.
- 1990 - LPGA golfer Beth Daniel is named the AP Female Athlete of the Year. She became the third player in LPGA history to cross the $5 million mark in career earnings in 1996.
- 1990 - Martina Navratilova becomes the first woman in history to win Wimbledon nine times.
- 1990 - Life magazine names Billie Jean King as one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" for her work to promote women's participation in athletics and sports.
- 1990 - Kelly Craig becomes the first female staring pitcher in Little League World Series history, openning for Trail, British Columbia.
- 1990 - Juli Furtado wins the world mountain bike cross-country championship.
- 1990 - Susan Butcher sets a record with her Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race run of 11 days, 1 hour and 53 minutes and 23 seconds.
- 1990 - Tennis player Chris Evert is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award. The Flo Hyman Memorial Award is given by the Women's Sports Foundation in honor a captain of the 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist United States Women's Volleyball Team.
- 1991 - NCAA elects Judith Sweet as its first woman president.
- 1991 - Pilot Patty Wagstaff wins the US National Aerobatics Championship.
- 1991 - Susie Maroney completes the fastest return crossing of the English Channel, from Britain to France and back, in 17 hours 13 minutes.
- 1991 - The women's Final Four of college basketball is televised live for the first time. Tennesse edges Virginia 70-67 for its third NCAA title in the first OT game in the tournament's 10-year history.
- 1991 - Nine-time champion Martina Navratilova wins her record 100th singles match at Wimbledon over Elna Reinach.
- 1991 - Amy Alcott wins the Dinah Shore tournament with a record 8-shot victory over Dottie Mochrie.
- 1991 - The US Women's Soccer team wins the first-ever women's world championship, beating Norway.
- 1991 - Meg Mallon wins the LPGA Championship on the final hole to beak a 3-way tie.
- 1991 - Debbie Doon pitches her second consecutive perfect game in women's softball at the Pan American Games for the US team.
- 1991 - Jo Ann Fairbanks became the first American female referee to serve at an international soccer event when she was a lineswoman in the women's qualifying rounds for the North and Central American and Caribbean regional soccer tournament in Haiti.
- 1991 - Kim Zmeskal becomes the first American woman to win an all-around world championship in gymnastics.
- 1991 - Goalie Jenny Hanley of Hamline University in Minnesota becamethe first woman to play on a men's college hockey team.
- 1991 - Manon Rheaume makes ice hockey history when she becomes the first woman to play in a major Junior game - coming in as the relief goalie.
- 1991 - Monica Seles is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for tennis; she repeats in 1992.
- 1991 - Silken Laumann wins the world championship in single sculls.
- 1991 - Algerian-born Hassiba Boulmerka becomes the first woman from an Arabic or African nation to win a world track championship with her gold in the 1,500 meters at the Tokyo world track and field championships.
- 1991 - Disabled skier Diana Golden is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
- 1992 - Hassiba Boulmerka wins the Olympic gold in the 1500 at the Barcelona Games in the 1,500 meter.
- 1992 - Team Canada wins its second International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in Finland.
- 1992 - Just under 2 million girls participate in high school sports.
- 1992 - Lyubov Egorova, a native of Siberia, competes for the unified team Albertville Olympics, medaling in all five Nordic Skiing events, winning a total of three golds and two silvers.
- 1992 - A League of Their Own, a movie by director Penny Marshall about the first year of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, was a box office hit, due in large part to the many women who went to see female sports role models on the screen.
- 1992 - Nera White is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
- 1992 - Judo and the women's biathlon become Olympic events for women. Two additional women's sailing divisions - singlehanded and windsurfer - are added.
- 1992 - Connie Price-Smith becomes the first woman to win the discus and shot put at the US Olympic trials since Earlene Brown in 1960.
- 1992 - Chinese skeet shooter Zhang Shan is the first woman to earn a gold medal in a mixed shooting event. By the 1996 Atlanta Games, the rules are changed so men and women compete separately.
- 1992 - Bonnie Blair wins both the the 500-meter and 1,000-meter Olympic speed skating events, becoming the first woman to win two Olympic 500s and the first American woman to win consecutive Winter Olympic championships. She also wins AAU's James E. Sullivan Memorial Award.
- 1992 - Juli Furtado wins the world title in downhill mountain biking.
- 1992 - Anita Defrantz becomes chair of the IOC’s Committee on Women and Sports, playing a key role in getting women’s soccer and softball added to the 1996 Atlanta Games as medal sports.
- 1992 - Evelyn Ashford, in the Barcelona Games at the age of 35, crowns her Olympic career with a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay, becoming the oldest American woman to earn an Olympic track and field medal.
- 1992 - Manon Rheaume continues to make ice hockey history as the first woman to play goalie in a pre-season game for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightening against the St. Louis Blues.
- 1992 - Lyn St. James is the first woman to race on the IndyCar circuit, taking Rookie of the Year honors.
- 1992 - The NCAA delays imposing 10% cut in athletic scholarships for women until the release of it's gender-equity study.
- 1992 - Velo News names Juli Furtado Cyclist of the Year, making her the first woman to earn that honor. At her retirement in 1997, she was a two-time world champion, three-time World Cup champion and five time national champion in mountain biking .
- 1992 - The US Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Franklin v Gwinnett County Public Schools, permiting students to sue for monetary damages for sexual harassment and other forms of sex discrimination at schools and colleges on Feb. 26.
- 1992 - Lynn Jennings wins her third consecutive world cross-country championship. She also wins a bronze medal for the US at the 1992 Olympics in the 10,000 meter race. She ran her first Boston Marathon at age 17 (unofficially, because no one under 18 was supposed to run) in 1978, coming in third among the women.
- 1992 - The first two women are inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. They are Nera White, a 10-time Most Valuable Player in Amateur Athletic Union tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s, and Lusia Harris-Stewart, a member of the first U.S. Olympic women's basketball team in 1976.
- 1992 - Girls win all three divisions in the All-American Soap Box Derby, for the first time ever.
- 1992 - Golfer Nancy Lopez is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
- 1993 - Julie Krone becomes the first woman jockey to win a Triple Crown race, riding Colonial Affair in the Belmont Stakes.
- 1993 - Manon Rheaume becomes the first woman to play goalie in a professional hockey game for the Atlanta Knights of the International Hockey League in Salt Lake City on Dec. 13.
- 1993 - Ann Meyers becomes the first woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
- 1993 - Sheryl Swoopes is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for basketball. In fact, she is named 1993 National Player of the Year by nine organizations, including USA Today and Sports Illustrated.
- 1993 - Sherry Davis becomes the first woman public address announcer in major league baseball, working for the San Francisco Giants.
- 1993 - Basketball player Lynette Woodard is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
- 1994 - 23 women were selected for the first all-female team to race for the America's Cup. They are: Stephanie Armitage-Johnson, Amy Baltzell, Shelley Beattie, Courtenay Becker, Sarah Bergeron, Merritt Carey, Sarah Cavanagh, Elizabeth Charles, Leslie Egnot, Christie Evans, Jennifer Isler, Diana Klybert, Linda Lindquist, Stephanie Maxwell-Pierson, Susanne Leech Nairn, Annie Nelson, Jane Oetking, Merritt Palm, Katherine Pettibone, Marci Porter, Melissa Purdy, Hannah Swett, and Joan Lee Touchette.
- 1994 - Ground is broken for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, TN, the first sports hall of fame devoted solely to women's athletics.
- 1994 - Amy Van Dyken is named the NCAA Swimmer of the Year.
- 1994 - A survey by Women's Sports and Fitness magazine finds that 82% of the most powerful women in Washington poitics had played organized sports when young.
- 1994 - Jean Driscoll, the best wheelchair marathoner in history, sets a new world record at the Boston Marathon with 1:34:22.
- 1994 - Shannon Miller wins the women's all-around title for the second straight year at the World Gymnastics Championship. The last woman to win consecutive all-around titles was Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1970 and 1974.
- 1994 -At the Lillehammer Games, Lyubov Egorova wins three gold and one silver, setting a records as having won either gold or silver in nine straight Nordic skiing races, a feat unmatched by anyone. She is second among all female Winter Games medal-winners with six golds and three silvers.
- 1994 - Bonnie Blair wins her fifth gold medal for speed skating at the Winter Olympics, giving her the most gold medals for any US woman. She is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for speed skating. She is also awarded the Women's Sports Foundation Individual Sportswoman of the Year for both 1994 and 1995 and the Babe Zaharias Female Amateur Athlete of the Year award for 1994.
- 1994 - Jockey Cindy Springman-Noll, a native of Muscatine, Iowa, earns the title of the nation's winningest female jockey for 1994.
- 1994 - 300% more girls play high school basketball than did in 1972.
- 1994 - Ann Trason, ultramarathon runner, is inducted into the Road Runner's Club Hall of Fame, with 20 career world-record performances and eight consecutive years as the UltraRunning Magazine UltraRunner of the Year.
- 1994 - Team Canada wins its third International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in Lake Placid, NY.
- 1994 - Bonnie Blair wins an astounding six gold medals at the World Cup speedskating competitionObihito, Japan.
- 1994 - Cassie Clark and Stephanie Brody becomes the first two women on a men's national junior weightlifting squad.
- 1994 - Minnesota is the first state in the US to have their state athletic association (MN State High School League) sanction high school girls ice hockey.
- 1994 - The Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-female professional baseball touring club, takes the field to play against men's professional, college, semi-pro and amateur teams.
- 1994 - Uta Pippig wins three consecutive Boston Marathons from 1994 to 1996, breaking the course record in 1994.
- 1994 - Martina Navratilova retires. During her career, she set records for most singles titles (167), most matches won (1438) and most Wimbledon titles (9).
- 1994 - Lisa Andersen wins first of her four world surfing titles, repeating in 1995, ‘96 and ‘97.
- 1994 - Tegla Loroupe of Kenya becomes the first African woman to win a major marathon, finishing the New York City race in 2:27:37. She repeats her victory in 1995.
- 1994 - Shawna Robinson becomes the only woman NASCAR driver to win a pole position in the Busch series. She was the second-best NASCAR rookie in 1992, and finished 23rd in points 1993.
- 1994 - Golfer Patty Sheehan is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
- 1995 - Ila Borders, a southpaw at Southern California College, becomes the first woman to pitch in a men's collegiate baseball game.
- 1995 - Golfer Betsy King is inducted into the PGA Hall of Fame follwoing her 30th title vitory at the Spo Rite LPGA Classic.
- 1995 - Chris Evret is inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 16.
- 1995 - The US women wins the Team Handball event at the Pan American Games.
- 1995 - Julie Croteau becomes the first female assistant coach in men's collegiate division I baseball at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
- 1995 - Picabo Street becomes the first US woman to win the World Cup for downhill skiing.
- 1995 - Basketball player Anne Donovan is inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. During her career at Old Dominion, she averaged 20.0 points and 14.5 rebounds per game as ODU goes 116-20. She was a 3-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist.
- 1995 - UConn caps an unbeated season, defeating Tennessee 70-64 for the NCAA women's championship. The Huskies, 35-0, become the winningest basketball team for one season in Division I.
- 1995 - Sheryl Swoopes has an athletic shoe named after her by Nike, the "Air Swoopes."
- 1995 - Kerri McTiernan is hired to coach men's basketball at Kingsboro Community College in Brooklyn, the first woman ever to coach a men's team at this level.
- 1995 - The University of Connecticut's women's basketball team has a perfect 35-0 season.
- 1995 - Rebecca Lobo is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for basketball.
- 1995 - Dominque Moceanu, 13, vecomes the youngest athlete to win the National Gymnastics Championship senior women's all-around title.
- 1995 - Steffi Graf wins her sixth Wimbledon singles title.
- 1995 - "FloJo" - Florence Griffith Joyner - is inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame; she had been named Sportswoman of the Year in 1988, and the Most Outstanding Amateur Athlete in America in 1989.
- 1995 - Gymnist Mary Lou Retton is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award. The Flo Hyman Memorial Award is given in honor a captain of the the 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist United States Women's Volleyball Team.
- 1996 - Germany's Uta Pippig becomes the first woman to win the Boston Marathon for a thrid consecutive year.
- 1996 - Aileen Riggin Soule sets 11 national and five world marks in the 90-94 age-group competition at the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships. She won the first women's Olympic springboard diving competition in 1920.
- 1996 - Women's soccer and women's softball become medal sports at the Olympic Games for the first time; both events are won by US teams. Beach volleyball and women's epee are added as well.
- 1996 - Dot Richardson hits the first home run in Olympic softball history, helping the U.S. softball team win the gold medal.
- 1996 - Spalding Sports introduces the first baseball glove specifically designed to fit a woman's hand.
- 1996 - Canada wins the first 3 Nations Cup for Women's Ice Hockey with the US and Finland in October.
- 1996 - The US synchonized swimming team receives a perfect score of 100 in the free routine to earn the first Olympic gold medal in team competition. Swimmer Amy Van Dyken wins four gold medals, becoming the first U.S. woman to do so in a single Olympic Games.
- 1996 - Basketball player Teresa Edwards is the first US player to compete in four Olympics.
- 1996 - Christina Sanchez, 24, becomes Europe's first qualified woman bullfighter.
- 1996 - Martina Hingis becomes the youngest champion in Wimbledon history at 15 years, 282 days when she wins the women's doubles title with Helena Sukova.
- 1996 - After being ranked #1 for the 332nd week in her career, Steffi Graf passes Martina Navratilova as the record holder of most weeks with that ranking.
- 1996 - 2.4 million girls play high school sports, including 819 football players, 1,164 wrestlersand 1,471 ice hockey players.
- 1996 - Special Olympics athlete Loretta Claiborne is honored with ESPN’s ESPY Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. The youngest of six children in a poor, single-parent family, she was born partially blind and ran in 25 marathons, twice placing among the top 100 women in the Boston Marathon, and carrying the torch in the International Special Olympics where she has won medals in dozens of its events.
- 1996 - In the first major international championship, women’s pole vault is on the program of the European Indoor Track.
- 1996 - Professional boxer Christy Martin is the first woman fighter to be televised on pay-per-view.
- 1996 - Amy Van Dyken is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for swimming. The 23-year-old became the first American woman to win four gold medals at one Olympic Games with wins in the 400 medley relay, the 400 freestyle relay, the 100 butterfly and the 50 freestyle in Atlanta.
- 1996 - Becky Oakes is elected president of the National Federation of State High School Associations, the first woman to hold the position in the organization's 77-year history.
- 1996 - Olympic 800- and 1,500-meter champion Svetlana Masterkova of Russia sets a world's record in the women's mile, clocking 4:12.56 at the Weltklasse Grand Prix.
- 1996 - Bonnie Blair wins the Olympic Torch Award and is a Humanitarian World of Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
- 1996 - Swimmer Donna de Varona is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
- 1997 - France’s Catherine Chabaud becomes the first woman to finish a nonstop solo round-the-world voyage in a time of 140 days.
- 1997 - Martina Hingis beats former champion Mary Pierce in the finals of the Australian Open. At 16 years, six months, she becomes the youngest woman to win a major in 110 years.
- 1997 - The International Women's Sports Hall of Fame's Class of 1997: Evelyn Ashford (track and field) and Diana Golden Brosnihan (skiing) in the contemporary category, pioneer Barbara Ann Scott-King (figure skating), and coach Gail Emery (synchorinized swimming).
- 1997 - American Anita DeFrantz becomes the first female vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive committee.
- 1997 - Marion Jones becomes the first woman in 50 years to win three events at the US Track & Field Nationals. She is named the unanimous choice as female athlete of the year by Track & Field News in 1997 and 1998.
- 1997 - Team Canada skates to a 4-3 victory over the US women's team in the International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in Kitchener, Ontario.
- 1997 - The International Female Boxing Association is formed in April to promote women boxing throughout the world as a genuine, professional and athletic competition.
- 1997 - Triathlete Paula Newby-Frasier (34) races to victory at the Ironman Australia competition and becomes the first person to win 20 Ironman competitions. Her first victory was in 1986.
- 1997 - Maryland's women's lacrosse team wins its third consecutive Division 1 title.
- 1997 - Australian Susie Maroney becomes the first woman to swim the 104 miles between Cuba and Florida in 26 hours 22 minutes.
- 1997 - The inaugural Women's National Basketball Association season begins on June 21.
- 1997 - The NBA hires two female referees, Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer, the first to work regular-season games in a major men's pro sports league.
- 1997 - Liz Heaston of Willamette University, Salem, OR, kicks two extra points to become the first woman to play in a college football game.
- 1997 - Soccer player Mia Hamm wins the ESPY award for Most Outstanding Female Athlete and the Women's Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year Award.
- 1997 - Martina Hingis is named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for tennis. She is the youngest Wimbledon champion of the century by defeating Jana Novotna in the finals.
- 1997 - Nawal El Moutawakel, the first woman from an Islamic nation to win an Olympic medal, is appointed Minister of Sport and Youth in Morocco and becomes the first Muslim woman ever elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
- 1997 - North Carolina women's soccer team wins their 15th NCAA title with a 2-0 decision over the University of Connecticut.
- 1997 - Heather Fuhr is the Ironman Triathlon World Champion.
- 1997 - Tennis player Billie Jean King is honored as the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award.
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