Henry Griffin / AP fileGet breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.INDIANAPOLIS — Former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, who championed the federal law banning discrimination against women in college admissions and sports, has died. He was 91.
The law's passage came at a time when women earned fewer than 10 percent of all medical and law degrees and fewer than 300,000 high school girls — one in 27 — played sports. As the Title IX law reached its 40th anniversary, North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow called it one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in the country's history.
The amendment led to the presidency of Gerald Ford less than a decade later when Ford first succeeded Spiro Agnew as vice president and then took over the White House after President Richard Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal. Marvella Bayh gained attention by speaking and making television appearances around the country promoting cancer detection and encouraging research. But her cancer later returned, and she died in April 1979 at age 46 — shortly before her memoir recounting her health fight was published.
Bayh won his first election to the state Legislature in 1954; his son Evan was born the following year. Bayh rose quickly in politics, becoming the Indiana House speaker in 1959 at the age of 30. He earned a law degree from Indiana University, completing law school while serving in the Legislature.
May we always remember his service to furthering human progress.