Women's History Month 2022
In celebration of Women's History Month and in honor of 50 Years of Title IX, Michigan Athletics will feature great moments in U-M women's athletics history. We will also profile coaches who have helped build and carry on the culture, tradition and success that make the Wolverines Leaders and Best.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 of the Civil Rights Act
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 of the Civil Rights Act was signed on June 23, 1972, by President Richard Nixon, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex with educational programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance. It’s hard to fathom that this needed to be legislated. It’s harder to understand how congressmen continued to advance bills and regulations in an attempt to over-ride Title IX, often as it pertained specifically to intercollegiate athletics.
50 Years Later
Fifty years later, the battle wages on, though much has changed and improved. As legendary Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins said about competitive sports, “They learn commitment, they learn team, they learn leadership, and they learn the value of overcoming adversity. If they’re good for boys, I can guarantee you they’re good for young women.”
2021 NCAA Basketball Tournaments
Recent events with the NCAA women’s basketball tournament shined a bright light on discrepancies. Images went viral during the 2021 NCAA basketball tournaments showing a sharp contrast in resources between the men and women, whether it was weight room accommodations or meals. More recently, it was reported there’s even a discrepancy in what officials have been paid at the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments. The NCAA acknowledged in December 2021 that it would begin paying them equally in 2022, as well as officials in softball and lacrosse compared to their counterparts.
Women of Michigan Athletics Network (W.O.M.A.N.)
At a gathering this past fall for the Women of Michigan Athletics Network (W.O.M.A.N.), a panel of three coaches talked about the evolution of women’s athletics and their experiences, both good and bad. Michigan’s first volleyball coach, Sandy Vong explained how he worked as an engineer for Ford during the day, and coached the Wolverines for free in the evenings. He served as Michigan’s head coach from 1973-83. Women’s gymnastics coach Bev Plocki, who is coming off a national championship season, explained that she was one of the first women’s coaches to be hired full-time. And that was in 1990!
“We can’t keep patting ourselves on the back for how far we’ve come when the disparity is growing bigger and bigger,” Plocki stated. “… We don’t have enough women athletic directors and women in administrative positions. There’s not enough people in high positions who care and want to help drive women forward.
"I think in some form, NIL is a threat to women,” she continued. “You have guys in pads or holding a basketball, but they put a woman in a sports bra and spandex. I want women to have equitable opportunities, and for sponsors to have the same respect for women as athletes as they do for men.”
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Historic Hiring
Milan (Mimi) Bolden-Morris was hired in March 2022 as the football program's graduate assistant coach working with the quarterbacks. Bolden-Morris is the first female graduate assistant coach at a Big Ten school and the first at a Power 5 FBS program.
Bolden-Morris was a guard for the Georgetown University women's basketball team for the past year-and-a-half. She transferred into Georgetown as a graduate student midway through the 2020-21 season and played with the Hoyas during the 2021-22 season.
• Published: 3/15/2022 (Football)
I have always believed in providing opportunities for individuals who are passionate about football and Mimi is someone who has shown that drive to become a football coach. Mimi reached out and expressed an interest in our graduate assistant positions when we had multiple openings this spring. We had some great conversations and I came away extremely impressed with her desire and ideas for coaching, and for making us better as a team. Mimi is a very bright, intelligent and competitive young woman who will be a great addition to our program and offensive coaching staff. We look forward to having Mimi transition into this role working with our quarterbacks. We can't wait to see the new perspective she brings to our team.Jim Harbaugh
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Hutchins Back Atop Wins List
Head coach Carol Hutchins once again became the winningest coach in NCAA softball history as No. 19 Michigan defeated Northern Kentucky, 3-0, and No. 13 Duke, 3-2.
Hutchins improved to 1,676-537-5 over her 39 years as a collegiate head coach, breaking the existing tie with fellow hall of famer Mike Candrea (1,674-436-2), who retired last spring after 36 seasons and eight NCAA titles at Arizona. Hutchins previously rose to the top spot in 2016, passing Margie Wright's record of 1,457 career wins, and held the wins record for more than two years.
• Published: 2/25/2022 (Softball)
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Spotlight: Marcia Pankratz, Field Hockey Coach
Marcia Pankratz was a mathematical science major with plans of being a stockbroker. Her parents were teachers though and ultimately she realized coaching – teaching - field hockey was the perfect scenario for her.
After a long career on the U.S. national teams and representing the Red, White and Blue at the 1996 Olympics, Pankratz assumed head coach duties at Michigan. She remained in that position through the 2004 season, winning the athletic department’s first women’s national championship in 1999.
After a four-year hiatus, she returned to Ann Arbor in 2009. All told, her teams have won 10 regular-season Big Ten titles, six Big Ten tournament titles, and most recently finished runner-up at the 2020 NCAA Championship.
• Published: Winter 2022 Issue of M Magazine
I grew up in a neighborhood of 15 boys so I just played sports all day every day outside. I didn’t really know any different, I just thought we got to all play sports if we felt like playing sports. So when you go off to school you realize, ‘Oh there is no sport for ice hockey for girls.’ We didn’t even have soccer. There wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity that was organized for women when I was young so we did whatever they had to offer. … There were two sports offered for the women in 1978-79 when I was in high school. It was cross country and field hockey.Marcia Pankratz
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Naz Etches Name in History
Naz Hillmon broke the Michigan basketball scoring record at Ohio State (1/21/2021), netting a career-high 50 points and became just the second player in Michigan women's basketball history to score more than 40 points, joining the company of Diane Dietz, who accomplished the feat Feb. 27, 1982, with the previous program-best 45 points.
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— Michigan Athletics ?? (@UMichAthletics) February 28, 2022
Naz Hillmon is officially the only Michigan player in history - man or woman - to have 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. #GoBlue | @umichwbball pic.twitter.com/lI3Ih2vvbj
That’s cause she like that!!! Congrats family @nazhillmon ??????????????? https://t.co/fEDzc4fY2s
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 2, 2022
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Van Dievoet Named U-M's First WGCA All-American
Women's golf sophomore Elodie Van Dievoet was awarded the program's first All-America honors by the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) following her second-team selection.
Van Dievoet guided U-M to its second straight NCAA Championships (May 20-24) following her dramatic 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at the Columbus Regional (May 8-10), closing ninth individually. With her 219 (+3) at the national finals, Van Dievoet recorded the highest individual finish for a Wolverine, tying for fourth, while pacing U-M to its best finish at the championships, tying for 16th. Her final-round 68 (-4) was the lowest single round of the championship and one of just three sub-70 rounds fired at Rich Harvest Farms.
• Published: 5/23/2017 (Women's Golf)
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U-M Women's National Titles
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Spotlight: Jennifer Klein, Women's Soccer Coach
Jen Klein grew up playing all sports but eventually zeroed in on soccer. She realized that coaching was a way to stay involved with the sport she loves.
In her fourth year as the women’s soccer head coach, her Wolverines are coming off a 2021 season that brought the program its first Big Ten Tournament championship since 1999, its 300th match as a varsity program, and a berth in the NCAA quarterfinals.
• Published: Winter 2022 Issue of M Magazine
When you look at Title IX it was such a boost in participants in sport and you’ve seen a sliding scale of more women and girls playing, but we don’t have a ton of women coaching. … It doesn’t always need to be the head coach of a collegiate team. Go coach your daughter’s club team, or an AYSO team, or a high school team just so they can see you and have that role model of, ‘Hey, I can do this too when my time comes.’ We just need to continue to push and grow the opportunity for everybody – women, women of color, under-represented groups – it’s something we really have to make sure we keep pushing for.Jennifer Klein
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Kate Johnson's Rise Through the Sports World
When she was an eighth-grader finishing middle school in Marin County, California, Kate Johnson received some unsettling news: her family was picking up and moving north, to Portland, Oregon. Johnson was a lifelong competitive swimmer and outdoors fanatic, and she loved her home in the Bay Area.
A few rainy days on a trip the family took to Oregon was enough to convince her she did not want to go north with her family -- at least, not right away. Johnson pitched her parents, Linda and Paul, on the idea that she would live with a nearby family in Marin County until she finished eighth grade, then rejoin them in Portland to begin high school in the fall of 1993.
• Published: 3/30/2020 (Rowing)
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U-M Women at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Leading the way for the Wolverines was Canadian swimmer Maggie MacNeil, who won the women's 100-meter butterfly and added a pair of relay medals to become the first U-M varsity swimmer (female or male) to win three medals in one Olympics. She is the first female varsity athlete from the University with three career Olympic medals. Alumna Siobhán Haughey also made history in the pool, collecting silver medals in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events to become Hong Kong's first Olympic swimming medalist.
Jayde Riviere and Shelina Zadorsky contributed to Canada's first Olympic gold medal in women's soccer. Also adding to the Wolverines' impressive medal count were softball player Amanda Chidester, who had a pair of game-winning hits during Team USA's run to the silver medal; swimmer Catie DeLoof, who won bronze with the USA women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.
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Spotlight: Kim Barnes Arico, Women's Hoops Coach
Not many people can say they’re the all-time winningest coach at two schools, but that’s exactly what Kim Barnes Arico has done, first at St. John’s (2002-12, 176-133) and now at Michigan (2012-present).
She acknowledges all the individuals who helped her along the way, from high school to Division III and now here at Michigan, and the changes she’s seen over the years. Now it’s her turn to help her mentees achieve their goals and support them in the way she was supported.
• Published: Winter 2022 Issue of M Magazine
A lot of times women are told you have to choose between a family and a profession. Where men, you can have your profession AND you can have your family. It’s my responsibility to show my assistant coaches and my players you can have both. You wanna be president? You can be president. You wanna be athletic director at the University of Michigan, you can be athletic director at the University of Michigan. People are going to tell you no, or try to say there’s no way you can achieve that, but I’m here to show them you can. Just keep fighting and keep clawing.Kim Barnes Arico
Michigan Athletics is recognizing "50 Years of Title IX" during the 2021-22 academic year, culminating with the 50th anniversary of the signing on June 23, 2022. In the Spring Issue of M Magazine, we will highlight Michigan’s other female head coaches: Ronni Bernstein (women’s tennis), Jan Dowling (women’s golf), Carol Hutchins (softball), Hannah Nielsen (women’s lacrosse), Val Potsos (dance) and Pam St. John (cheerleading). Visit MGoBlue.com/titleix for more.