While a student at UI, women had to pay out of their own pockets to compete on club teams and weren't allowed to play in the Field House.
At the time of the law's passage, the NCAA oversaw only men's competitions, and women's club teams Iowa didn't receive school funding or scholarships.
Title IX, however, dictated that federally-funded educational institutions must provide fair and equal treatment to all sexes, including in athletics.
With the support of progressive UI president Willard “Sandy” Boyd and alongside men's athletic director Bump Elliott, Grant started Hawkeye women's sports programs under NCAA supervision.
Under Dr. Grant's direction, Iowa's athletics department eventually grew to include 12 NCAA sports that won a combined 27 Big Ten Conference titles.
On Feb. 3, 1985, Iowa more than doubled the national record for single-game women’s basketball attendance as 22,157 fans crowded into Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Under coaches Judith Davidson, Beth Beglin, Tracey Griesbaum, and Lisa Cellucci, the Hawkeyes have won 16 conference championships (13 in the Big Ten), six Big Ten tournament titles, and the 1986 NCAA Championship, making it the first Midwestern university to win a national title.
She testified before Congress several times as a leading national expert, and served as a consultant for the Health, Education and Welfare Office for Civil Rights Title IX Task Force, travelling to Washington, DC weekly.
[6] She testified in numerous Title IX legal cases and gave hundreds of presentations that showed the status of gender equity in intercollegiate athletics.
[7] In 1984, the Supreme Court case Grove City College v. Bell ruled that as long as an athletics program received no federal financial support, it did not need to comply with Title IX as the amendment was written.
Dr. Grant was a founding member of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) and served in a variety of leadership roles with that organization, including as its president.
[6] Grant spoke and published widely and has held numerous leadership positions as an advocate of gender equity in sports.