In 1973, the implementation of Title IX for most schools served as a starter kit for how to provide an even-handed offering of women's sports at public schools.
 
But at UC Davis, groundbreaking women's programs had already been crafted, and a heartfelt understanding of the worth of equitable opportunities for female student-athletes permeated the campus.
 
The Aggies never lacked administrators, professors, coaches or athletes who were firmly behind sports equality.
 
From national pioneers in female collegiate athletics such as Marya Welch, Pam Gill-Fisher and Jorja Hoehn, to voices of fair play such as Nona Richardson, Carol Cartwright, Larry Vanderhoef, Kevin Blue and Rocko DeLuca, UC Davis has been a model of consistency in providing for its distaff population.
 
Through shifts in student population, budget concerns and changing dynamics at other West Coast campuses, the Aggie sextant nonetheless guided a steady course.
 
But early on, in the fledgling days of Title IX — which was designed to ensure that federally funded institutions were providing ethnic and gender equality down all avenues, not just sports — it was storied UCD Athletic Director Joe Singleton whose booming voice was heard on the subject from Hickey Gym to campuses across the nation.
 
"Growing up as a Black man in America (he was born in 1935) contributed to his sense of fairness," former Senior Associate Athletics Director Pam Gill-Fisher explained. "Things in his life that were challenging, discriminatory, racist …
 
"From that, he evolved anyway into a terrific leader who, in his mind, didn't care what your ethnicity was, what your gender was — there was a right thing to do and a right way for people to be treated."
 
Singleton came to UC Davis from New Mexico. He first served as an assistant football coach and lecturer before being named Bill Lakie's successor as AD in 1971.
 
He became one of the first African-Americans to serve in such a post outside of historically Black campuses.
 
Singleton once told The Davis Enterprise about his experiences of having to stay at separate hotels from White teammates when his New Mexico Highlands teams traveled.
 
"There were different restaurants for colored people," he said. "Black athletes were advised to keep their heads down when on the road, stay close to our coaches. The less we said, the better."
 
Gill-Fisher explained that Singleton's "past experience and leadership as a Black man in this country — being involved in sports — gave him a true understanding of not having certain opportunities."
 
As it related to the newly minted Title IX, "Here's a man who understood the issue. I just felt blessed to work with him," she added.
 
Together, Singleton and Gill-Fisher pushed UC Davis out front as a nationwide leader in athletic gender equity.
 
Pam Gill had grown up in Dixon in the 1960s, attending high school there. A self-described tomboy, as a kid, Gill played baseball, football and basketball with the guys. Denied entrance to Little League Baseball because she was a girl, she found that even when she got to junior high, sports offerings were not available for girls.
 
By the time Gill was in high school, only competitive tennis was offered for girls.
 
"When I played basketball in junior high physical education, I grabbed the ball, dribbled the length of the court and made a basket," remembers Gill-Fisher. "They blew the whistle and said, 'You can't do that. You have to stop at the half-court line.'
 
"I thought, 'This isn't basketball.' "
 
It wasn't until women got to college that they could traverse half court, but only two of the six women on a team had that right. There were some other antiquated rules as well. That was if you could even find a women's basketball program.
 
Early on in track, "Women couldn't run any farther than 800 meters … because officials said, 'We don't want you to upset your reproductive cycle,' " noted Gill-Fisher.
 
But things in women's athletics began to evolve after Title IX — quickly for UC Davis.
 
Gill-Fisher almost went to USC for college, but after three days in Los Angeles, she discovered it wasn't for her and transferred to UC Davis.
 
Here, she was mentored by the icon Welch and coach Judy Meyer (Brame), fresh from Cal where she was an all-around athletic star.
 
Gill-Fisher became a multi-sport Aggie standout and eventually was inducted into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame as an athlete (later as an administrator, the first two-time hall inductee).
 
With Singleton as AD, brilliant administrators and coaches surrounding her — and the advent of Title IX as another building block in the 1964 Civil Rights Act — Pam Gill-Fisher saw the writing on the wall.

In 1971, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded. Not affiliated with the NCAA, the AIAW scrambled to get things going. Colleges across the land began with modest offerings. Basketball, track and softball among the most popular sports.
 
Regional leagues popped up. Far and wide, funding was a concern. 
 
But at Davis, by 1972, field hockey, tennis, track and field, basketball, swimming, softball and volleyball had been offered and funded through the physical education department.
 
The year before, the Aggies were one of 16 women's basketball teams invited to "national championship" at West Carolina University. UCD beat Kansas in overtime before losing to Southern Mississippi. Just like that, the Aggies were known from coast to coast.
 
While a majority of the college emerging in women's sports split their athletic departments into men's and women's divisions, Singleton would have none of it.
 
"Joe realized we cannot continue to be separate but equal," Gill-Fisher remembers. "That goes back to his civil-rights days. (In the early 1970s) he was pushing for conferences to come together with the women … even at the national level."
 
Singleton, with Gill-Fisher in collaboration, steered UC Davis through early days of Title IX and into the '80s when the NCAA finally did take over supervision of women's athletics.
 
Singleton retired in 1987 an died in 2018 at age 82.
 
But Gill-Fisher continued her dynamic work on campus and nationally.
 
She's served a lifetime providing the best athletic offerings for Aggie students, including keeping a keen eye on what was available to female competitors — and maintaining a balance of opportunity based on the letter of the law.
 
Up next: After the influence of the Aggie athletic pioneers, the signing of Title IX and teamwork of countless campus coaches and administrators helped women's programs at UC Davis take off. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation heard from the Aggies as to how to do be equitable in their approaches to women's athletics.
 
About Pam Gill-Fisher: The former Dixon High and UC Davis five-sport athlete spent almost three decades in Aggie Athletics administration.
 
Gill-Fisher played softball, basketball, volleyball, field hockey and tennis at UCD from 1967-72. She graduated from UC Davis with degrees in physical education and sports psychology before earning a sports administrator certificate at Penn State.
 
A former president of the Women Leaders in College Sports, Gill-Fisher went on to coach tennis, basketball and volleyball for the Aggie women. Gill-Fisher's 1990 women's tennis team earned a national championship.
 
Gill-Fisher's athletic responsibilities as a coach and administrator spanned the school's reclassification from Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to the NCAA and consequently from Division I to Division II.