BOULDER – Sep. 25 marked the 50th Anniversary of Title IX. CU welcomed the return of legendary former women’s basketball head coach Ceal Barry as keynote speaker for the athletics department anniversary brunch. Upon her return, we sat down with Barry as she reflected on helping bring Title IX to CU, as well as crafting one of the most successful basketball programs in the history of college sports.

It was 50 years ago that Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, opening the doors for women in sports across the country. 

“Prior to Title IX women’s sports was run out of intramurals and the recreation department. There were no budgets whatsoever for uniforms, for shoes, for travel, for coaching,” said Barry.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, before the passage of Title IX, around one in 27 women in America played sports. A measly average of 2% of athletic budgets across the country went to female athletic programs. Today, the number of women participating in sports at an intercollegiate level exceeds 190,000.

Title IX was created in an effort to provide equal opportunity and treatment between the sexes at any federally funded institution. In the case of athletics, the amount of women participating in sports must be proportionate to the school’s gender ratio. For CU Boulder, that ratio is 55% male, to 45% female. 

Ceal Barry was hired to be the head coach of women’s basketball in 1983 when the program was just beginning. Following a string of unsuccessful seasons for the Buffs in the late seventies and early eighties, enlisting a new generation of players became the primary issue for the program.

“My biggest challenge was recruitment,” Barry said about building a women’s team in 1983. “Fortunately, there were a couple of real good in-state players: Tracy Tripp and Bridget Turner. They were really the foundation of the women’s program.” 

Both Buffs helped CU win its first Big 8 championship title in 1989 with the first undefeated 14-0 standing in conference history.

Over the 80’s, CU’s athletics department expanded and their success swelled. The Buffs won championship titles in football and basketball in the late eighties to early nineties, and the department added women’s volleyball in 1986, golf in 1994, and soccer in 1996 with renewed vigor. 

“Life was pretty good to be a Buff in 1989-1990,” Barry laughed. 

The success of CU sports not only led to the expansion of the program, it continued to draw in more and more fans.

“The first sellout at the Events Center was a women’s game. Not very many people know that. There were over 11,200 people,” Barry said. 

Barry went on to bring the Buffs to eleven NCAA tournaments and sixteen winning seasons over her 22-year tenure. Among her other accomplishments, she was an assistant coach for the 1996 United States Olympic Basketball Team in Atlanta, where the team won gold. She continues to hold the record for the most wins by a Buffs coach with a grand total of 422. 

Barry herself is a four-time Big 8 Coach of the Year, a recipient of the Carol Eckman award in 1995, and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 as well as the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1997. 

“I will always remember those haydays in the Big 8”, she said. “We were winning a lot!”

Barry retired from coaching in 2005, but continued to work closely with CU’s athletics department until 2020. When asked about the future of the CU Women’s Basketball program, Ceal Barry revealed what to her is most important about the game. 

“I hope they’re still having fun. That the innocence of playing sports isn’t lost.” 

Although Barry retired in 2020, her legacy endures on the courts of CU.

Find the full interview with Ceal Barry online at https://www.youtube.com/c/SkoBuffSports