Title IX Sports Museum Exhibit Debuts at TD Garden

BOSTON — "You know, when I was growing up, I said I love to write and I love sports. I'd love to be a sportswriter, but can I even do that?"

These are the words from ESPN Boston's Jackie MacMullan on Thursday morning as she reflected on how the climate for women in sports used to be.

Jackie is one of five women featured at a new exhibit on the 5th floor at TD Garden. The exhibit, "TEAMMATES: Voices From Title IX," celebrating the rise of women in team sports since the passage of Title IX in 1972, was unveiled on Thursday morning.  

The event was hosted by Hall of Fame sportscaster Lesley Visser and featured Jackie and a panel of other established women in sports, including TD Garden President Amy Latimer, who was named the first female president of a U.S. arena in 2012, US Hockey Olympian Angela Ruggerio, and URI Women's basketball coach Daynia La-Force.

"I'm as proud of this exhibit as anything we have ever done," said Dick Johnson, curator of The New England Sports Museum.  "Exhibits are about storytelling and this exhibit allows us to tell a great story. It captures the spirit and substance of the competitors, the chroniclers and the builders of sport that just happen to be female who were given that opportunity by Title IX"

Located near the Boston Garden Theater, the exhibit is comprised of audio, artifacts, and other elements celebrating competitors (athletes such as Billie Jean King and Maya Moore), chroniclers (journalists such as Robin Roberts and Christine Brennan), and builders (coaches and executives such as Donna Orender).

"I'm very proud of this exhibit," said Visser. "I don't care what race or what gender you are. I'm the example that you can do it, because my job did not exist before I started. So nobody is allowed to use that as an excuse any longer. There is room for you."

When people come to visit this exhibit, Jackie MacMullan wants them to think about one thing.

"I want them to understand that there's no reason a woman can't do anything they want. Anything they want! Today's world is different and I'm so glad it's different. Kids grow up thinking they can be anything and that wall is proof of it"

Cox Media Group