In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, Bowling Green State University will host A Conversation with Marcia Saneholtz.
Saneholtz, a 1964 BGSU graduate and Athletic Hall of Fame inductee is a nationally-recognized university athletics administrator and expert on Title IX.
Saneholtz will speak Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Student Union Theater, Room 206, in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union.
A native of Napoleon, Saneholtz majored in health and physical education and biology at BGSU.
From 1962-64, she played on BGSU’s first women’s varsity intercollegiate basketball team, which was initiated and coached by Dorothy Luedtke, a 1947 BGSU graduate, who was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985.
In 2005, Saneholtz returned to BGSU to receive her varsity letter and to be officially inducted into the Varsity BG Club.
After graduation, Saneholtz taught in the Los Angeles public schools until 1967. She then moved to Shoreline, Washington, where she taught in the public schools until 1973.
Between 1973-82, she coached in CYO and Seattle parks department programs and was active in various officials associations.
Along the way, she earned a master’s degree in sport administration from the University of Washington.
In 1979, which was the year after universities were supposed to have complied with the mandates of Title IX, Sanehotz went to Washington State University as assistant women’s athletic director.
In 1982, she was promoted to associate athletic director and in 1988 to senior associate athletic director.
In 1985, she assumed the duties of senior woman administrator and entered the first of 22 years of service on the Senior Women’s Administrative Committee of the Pac 10 Conference.
While at WSU, Saneholtz supervised six sports and several support areas, including athletic medicine and event and facility operations.
In 2007, the Women’s Sports Foundation honored Washington State University’s Department of Athletics’ commitment to equity by awarding itone of the four inaugural Opportunity Awards.
“We have created a culture at WSU that values equity in all we do,” said Saneholtz, who accepted the award from Billie Jean King in a ceremony at HBO Studios in New York City.
The same year, WSU Athletics received the Diversity in Athletics Award for Overall Excellence in Diversity and Title IX Compliance from the Laboratory for Diversity at Texas A&M University as well as being honored as a Program of Excellence by the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association.
Saneholtz’s honors include selection for the Samuel H. Smith Leadership Award, the WSU Woman of the Year Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators.
Saneholtz’s upcoming BGSU presentation is hosted by the BGSU College of Education & Human Development, School of Human Movement, Sport, & Leisure Studies, University Libraries’ Center for Archival Collections and the Sport Management Alliance.
