Celebrating Title IX: Lois Webb

LAKELAND, Fla. - Florida Southern College athletics continues their celebration of the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX by highlighting another key figure in the growth of women's athletics at FSC.

A legendary volleyball coach for 24 years at Florida Southern, Lois Webb stands as one of FSC's monumental Title IX advocates. Not only did she lead the Mocs to 16 NCAA volleyball postseason tournaments advancing to the NCAA Championships in three consecutive years, but she also served as a head women's basketball coach from 1977-1982, and was also responsible for starting the women's golf program, serving as the head coach for the first two seasons. Webb retired from coaching in 2001 with an astonishing 747 wins, the second-most wins of any NCAA Division II coach at the time of her coaching retirement. 

Prior to the passing of Title IX, Webb worked for the Florida public schools. "The public-school system did not adhere to anything within the Title IX parameters," said Webb. "They did start to advance intramural play and called it 'Extramural play', but when I came to Florida Southern it was just five years since the passing of Title IX and I have to absolutely attribute then Athletic Director Hal Smeltzly who hired me and set the bar for women in athletics thinking forward." 

"Smeltzly was the leader of the pack for all athletic directors within the Sunshine State Conference back in the day," stated Webb. "FSC was the first college in the SSC to move forward with implementing changes that would adhere to the Title IX equality. With that thought in mind, he hired me. I was interviewed when Title IX was implemented in 1972 and I was anxious. I had just gotten my master's degree and I wanted to move up at the college level, both in coaching and teaching, so he offered for me to start the women's intercollegiate athletics in the sport of volleyball and basketball." 

"It was at the grassroots, but I think part of Hal's genius was to find somebody who was anxious to make these things happen… I think he saw I was energetic and anxious to be at the college level. One coach for two sports, that's how it started… could you imagine the basketball coach coaching soccer? We were ahead of the other schools; Hal Smeltzly was ahead of the other schools.

Leading the way for Title IX and female student-athlete rights at FSC, Webb was the NCAA Senior Women's Administrator for the college since 1981. Webb was named the interim athletic director for FSC in 2000, before taking the role permanently from 2001-2008 to become the first female athletic director for Florida Southern. A nod to her pioneering women's athletics, Webb was the 2002 recipient of the Founders Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

"When I became the athletic director, there were still challenges going on. Mostly balancing the budget needs," expressed Webb. "The big thing that I instituted was fundraising for women's sports. I worked really hard making many friends at the college and in the community that would want to participate in supporting women's volleyball, women's basketball, tennis, softball, golf, and soccer. Fortunately, we had a lot of fans that were created when I was first coaching who liked the sport and had not really seen a higher level of athletics for women. I was big on implementing a booster club for women's volleyball and basketball, and Chris [Bellotto] did the same thing in softball. 

As Title IX has come so far over the past fifty years, Lois Webb, like many others, is even more hopeful for the future of women's athletics. "These student-athletes, because of Title IX, have the opportunity to continue their love for their sport and play and get a good education before they go on with their career." Not only did she commend the advancements of women's sports at the collegiate level, but also how it has changed at the professional level saying, "these women have the opportunity to be recognized as an outstanding athlete and they have a place to go in professional sports for women, and they did not have that before." A message she would give to prospective female athletes seeking to play their sport at the next level is "do your homework… see if they have the academic program you want first," and to "continue to look forward, whether it's in their sport or in academics."

For more information on FSC's commitment to Title IX, please visit: fscmocs.com/TitleIX