KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Title IX during its 2023 Basketball Championship Tournament in Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium.
 
The Association honored 14 “Title IX Champions” throughout the 2023 tournament March 1-5. Each MIAA member institution selected an individual who has been a champion of Title IX on their campuses or in their communities.
 
All 14 champions, living or deceased, were recognized and presented the MIAA’s Title IX Champion plaque on the MIAA court during the tournament. 
 
Below are brief biographies on all 14 of the MIAA’s Title IX Champions.
 
Central Missouri’s Title IX Champion – Dr. Mildred Barnes
Dr. Mildred “Millie” Barnes is credited with laying the foundation that helped make the Jennies' basketball program one of the best in the nation. Barnes coached the jennies for nine seasons (1971-80). She ever had a losing season in her nine-year career, compiling a 156-63 record and winning two MAIAW state championships. The jennies were 26-5 in her final season (1979-80) as coach and reached the MAIAW national tournament.

Barnes is highly respected in women's basketball circles nationwide. She became the first woman to serve on the board of trustees of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, serving from 1977-1986. Barnes served on the U.S. Olympic Women's Basketball Committee and was instrumental in bringing the first U.S. Olympic Women's Basketball team to Warrensburg to train prior to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Barnes is a member of several halls of fame, including the UCM Athletic Hall of Fame, Boston University Women’s Basketball, United States Lacrosse and Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. She is also an accomplished author, having written several books on the sports of basketball and lacrosse.

Barnes retired from Central Missouri in 1991 as professor emeritus of physical education, following 22 years of service to the university.

Central Oklahoma’s Title IX Champion – Dr. Gerry Pinkston
Dr. Gerry Pinkston had an impactful career at the University of Central Oklahoma. Pinkston served 31 years as professor, led the softball program for 22 seasons and assisted with the transition of women’s athletics to the NCAA. Her Broncho teams tallied 455 victories with 16 winning seasons and three national tournament appearances. She coached 12 All-Americans, 22 Academic All-Americans and was named FCA College Coach of the Year in 1985.
 
A well-respected speaker, clinician and committee member, Dr. Pinkston’s contributions and legacy extend well beyond the UCO campus, both in her service to various organizations and tutelage of former players who went on to coach and teach throughout the state of Oklahoma.
 
Pinkston is a Hall of Fame inductee of UCO Athletics, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, Oklahoma State University’s College of Education and Chickasha High School.
 
Given UCO’s AAUP Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003 and named a UCO Distinguished Alumni in 2016, Pinkston is a pioneer for women’s athletics, impacting multiple lives during a decorated career and contributing to additional opportunities through service and support in the years following her retirement in 2006.
 
Emporia State’s Title IX Champion – Carmen Leeds
A native of Black Mountain, North Carolina, Carmen Leeds began her collegiate career in athletics at Clemson University as an assistant women's basketball coach and then served as the head women's basketball coach at Brevard College from 1992-95. She was the head women's basketball coach and Senior Woman Administrator at South Carolina-Upstate from 1995-99. She coordinated the Athletes Can Educate program and implemented the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. As a basketball coach, she had a 100 percent graduate rate among four-year players.
 
She came to Emporia State in the fall of 2000 as the first full-time female associate athletic director and senior woman administrator for the Hornets.  In her 17 years she oversaw NCAA compliance, student-athlete services, game management, and athletic training.  She served on the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics and NCAA Student-Athlete Affairs Advisory Committee and was an NCAA Pathways Program participant.
 
At the MIAA level, she was the chair of the Legislation and Handbook Committee, Student Athlete Advisory Committee liaison and was the volleyball coach’s liaison. She is a past member of the NCAA Division II National Women's Basketball Committee and NCAA Softball Regional Advisory Committee. Leeds also has been asked to be a facilitator at the NCAA Student Athlete Affairs Symposia, NCAA Leadership Conference, the NCAA Division II Regional Leadership Conference, and the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills Orientation Conference.
 
She was named the National Association for Athletics Compliance Division II Excellence Award Winner in 2012 and in her final year with the Hornet Athletic Department she was named the NCAA Division II Administrator of the Year Award by Women Leaders in College Sports.
 
She became the director of the ESU Memorial Union in 2017 but has stayed involved in athletics. She is currently the president of the ESU Athletics Hall of Honor Electors Committee and is a member of the MIAA Hall of Fame Selection committee.  Carmen continues to actively participate in athletics as the team captain, player and coach of the Hot Flashes Granny Basketball team.
 
Fort Hays State’s Title IX Champion – Helen Miles
Dr. Helen Miles was instrumental in the early success of women’s athletic programs at Fort Hays State University as a coach, while being a member of organizations and committees to help the advancement of women’s sports.
 
Miles was the head coach of Fort Hays State Women’s Basketball for 15 years from 1971 to 1986, compiling a career record of 219-155. She guided Fort Hays State to Central States Intercollegiate Conference Championships in 1978, 1980, and 1986, and AIAW regional titles in 1977, 1978, and 1980. She was named the CSIC Coach of the Year in 1980. Miles held the record for most women’s basketball coaching wins at FHSU until current head coach Tony Hobson passed the mark during the 2018-19 season. She also coached the Tiger Softball team from 1971 to 1974, and then again in 1980.
 
Dr. Miles has been a faculty member in the Health and Human Performance Department at Fort Hays State University for 53 years from 1970 to the present. She was inducted into the Tiger Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and she was also named Fort Hays State University Advisor of the Year in 2007, NACADA Advisor of the Year in 2008, and the Fort Hays State University Faculty Member of the Year in 2017. A special thanks to Dr. Helen Miles for being a Champion of Title IX at Fort Hays State University.
 
Lincoln’s Title IX Champion – Betty Villalobos
Lincoln University Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Senior Women’s Administrator Betty Villalobos, a lifelong Blue Tiger, has spent over 25 years championing LU’s female student-athletes. A 1996 graduate of Lincoln, Villalobos stayed at her alma mater as an assistant softball coach before taking over the head coaching duties in 1997. In 2003, she was promoted to compliance coordinator, and later served as the athletic director at Lincoln from 2009-2015.
 
During her time as athletic director, Villalobos added the sports of women’s golf and women’s bowling. She also fought with budget officers to increase the scholarship amounts for women’s basketball to make them even with the men’s team and led the charge to get the women’s basketball program a locker room of equal size to the men’s. As a softball coach, she lobbied to get the team equal access to a field, and her advocation led to a new softball field being built on campus.
 
During her years at Lincoln, Villalobos had an impact on a multitude of Blue Tiger female student-athletes, and her name has become synonymous with leadership. In 2021-22, the leadership award given to the top male and female leaders among Lincoln’s student-athletes was renamed after her. She has paved the way as a student, coach, administrator and athletic director for countless Blue Tigers.
 
Missouri Southern’s Title IX Champion – Sallie Beard
Sallie Beard graduated from MSSU in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Education. She served as both coach and Athletics Director at MSSU for a combined 37 years.
 
Beard created women’s athletics at Missouri Southern in 1974, and coached the first women’s basketball, softball, and tennis teams, and two years later she added women’s track and field. Beard was twice named the NAIA District 16 Women’s Track & Field Coach of the Year, first in 1981, and again in 1983, when she led Southern to the district outdoor title.
 
In 2001 she was named the Athletics Director at MSSU to oversee both men’s and women’s athletic programs; the first woman at MSSU and the first in the MIAA conference to serve in that capacity. Beard served on numerous NCAA Division II committees and most notably she served on the association-wide NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, developing Title IX interpretive language for the Civil Rights Division of the Federal Department of Justice. From 1991 to 2001, she served as the MIAA Conference president, the first Athletics Director to be chosen for that position.
 
Beard was inducted into the Joplin Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, the MIAA Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 among several additional achievements. She currently serves on the MSSU Alumni Board and as a MSSU Foundation Board Member and is the most current past President.
 
Missouri Western’s Title IX Champion – Patsy Smith
Patsy Smith came to Missouri Western in 1990 as a non-traditional student and joined the Griffon tennis team. She and her daughter, Wendy, were teammates – as the dynamic mother-daughter duo was Missouri Western’s number one doubles tandem. As her playing days came to an end, Smith moved from competition to coaching, taking over as the head coach of the Griffons tennis program before earning her bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1995. 

Smith led to the team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament in 1998, the same year she took on the role of athletics business manager.

As her career progressed, so did her sphere of influence, as she took on responsibility for compliance and academics, moving from assistant athletic director to associate athletic director. At the time of her retirement from Missouri Western in 2014, she served as the senior associate athletic director and the department’s senior woman administrator. 

Smith’s her leadership was not limited to the Missouri Western campus. She was a proud member of the NCAA Division II Championships Committee, multiple NCAA regional advisory committees, and several other MIAA and NCAA leadership positions – including a stint as the MIAA Chairman of the Institutional Representative Council. 

Smith remains a fixture at Missouri Western athletic events and MIAA championships. She remains involved in both entities, serving as a proud member of the hall of fame committees for both Missouri Western and the MIAA. 

A trailblazer in every sense of the word, Smith has been recognized with induction into the Missouri Western Hall of Fame, and in 2017 was honored with the Herb and Peggy Iffert Award for outstanding service to the university, recognizing an alumna, retiree, or other friend of the university who has shown outstanding and continuous commitment to Missouri Western’s mission, vision, and legacy. 
 
Nebraska Kearney’s Title IX Champion – Martha “Joan” Bailey
The late Martha “Joan” Bailey is considered one of the pioneers of women’s athletics at Kearney State College/UNK. The Emporia State and New York University graduate was a native to Emporia and came to Kearney in 1963 as an assistant swimming coach for both the men’s and women’s program. At the time, swimming was the only women’s intercollegiate sport at KSC. 
 
Bailey became head coach of the women’s swim team in 1964, a position she held for the next 34 years. She turned the Aqualopers into a national power and was named the 1989 NAIA National Swim Coach of the Year. Inducted into the UNK Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003, Bailey was the Lopers first-ever head softball coach and also worked with several other women’s teams as they began competing in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. 
 
Nebraska Kearney created the Joan Bailey Award for the Advancement of Women’s Athletics in 2014. The award honors individuals who have made significant and lasting difference for women’s athletics at UNK.
 
Newman’s Title IX Champion – Sister Diane Leary
The late Sister Diane was considered a “trailblazer” over her three-decade career as coach and athletic director. Prior to her time at Newman, Sister Diane worked in the Athletics Department at St. Mary of the Plains in Dodge City, Kansas. In 1983, she was named Director of Athletics and was the first woman to hold that title at the college level in the state of Kansas.
 
In the 1991-92 season, five of the seven teams at St. Mary’s of the plains won or shared KCAC titles and Sister Diane was named in NAIA Administrator of the Year.
St. Mary’s closed in 1996, bringing Sister to Kansas Newman College, now Newman University, where she coached volleyball, taught history and later was named Director of Athletics. Sister Diane coached until 1992, posting a record of 150-61 and 724-323 overall. She served as athletics director from 1999-2002.
 
Wichita Eagle sportswriter, Adam Knapp wrote, “Perhaps no individual in Kansas has done more for women’s athletics than Sr. Diane Leary.” Sister Diane Leary was named to the Newman Athletics Hall of Fame Inaugural Class in 2007 and received the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa at the Newman University Fall 2012 Commencement.
 
Northeastern State’s Title IX Champion – Willa Faye Mason
Willa Faye Mason was a trailblazer in women's basketball and played an important role in advancing women's sports through her accomplishments as a player and coach at Northeastern State University, as well as her time with the All-American Redheads.
 
As a player, Mason was one of the first Native American women to be named an NAIA All-American in 1953 and 1954. She also holds several records for NSU women's basketball, including the highest career scoring average and most points in a single game.
 
Mason made significant contributions as a coach, leading the NSU women's basketball team to a 43-19 record over three seasons and guiding them to the AIAW regional tournament in her first year as head coach.
 
As a member of the All-American Redheads, Mason helped to popularize women's basketball and elevate its status as a legitimate sport for women. The team played over 3,500 games in all 50 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines, and was known for their unique style of play and success on the court. Mason was a member of the team in the 1950s and 60s.
 
Mason's accomplishments as a player, coach, and member of the All-American Redheads paved the way for future generations of female athletes and helped to advance the cause of gender equity in sports, as embodied by the passage of Title IX in 1972.
 
Northwest Missouri’s Title IX Champion – Sherri Reeves
Sherri Reeve was the first women’s basketball coach at Northwest Missouri, posting a record of 61-15 over four seasons and capturing the MAIAW title during the 1971-72 season. She is the women’s basketball program’s all-time leader with an .802 winning percentage. She ranks third in wins with 61 and fourth in games coaches at 76.
 
In 1973, Reeves helped jump start the Northwest women’s cross country program while serving as women’s athletic director. In 1976, the time Title IX mandated sports sponsorships for female students, Northwest was already sponsoring women’s athletic programs in basketball, tennis, volleyball, track & field, cross country, softball and gymnastics. She was named senior women’s athletics administrator emeritus upon her retirement in 2001.

 
Pittsburg State’s Title IX Champion – Dr. Joann Rutherford
A native of Arma, Kansas, and a 1971 graduate of Pittsburg State University, Dr. Joann Rutherford took over as head coach at the University of Missouri just one year after the program was established at the varsity level. Mizzou enjoyed winning seasons under her direction in 19 of her 23 years at the helm between 1975 and 1993 as she compiled 422 career coaching wins.
 
Rutherford’s squads claimed big eight conference championships in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1990. Her teams also won conference tournament titles in 1978, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1994. She was named big eight coach of the year three times; and Rutherford was tabbed as big eight coach of the decade for the 1980s.
 
Rutherford-led teams won 20 or more games 11 times and Mizzou reached six NCAA tournaments under her direction, reaching the elite eight in 1982.
 
Highly regarded among her peers, Rutherford served on many high-level national committees and coached the south team in 1986 to a gold medal in the U.S. Olympic festival. Rutherford also coached team U.S.A. to the gold medal at the William Jones Cup Competition in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1987.
 
She was the 1996 recipient of the WBCA’s Carol Eckman Award that honors the coach that best demonstrates the character of the late Carol Eckman, the mother of the collegiate women’s basketball national championship.
 
In addition to her coaching duties, Rutherford also served the University of Missouri as the department’s senior woman administrator during the latter part of her career. Pittsburg State has honored Dr. Rutherford as an outstanding young alum in 1978 and presented her with the school’s Meritorious Achievement Award in 1990.
 
Rogers State’s Title IX Champion – Dr. Susan Willis
Dr. Susan Willis earned her doctorate from Texas Women’s University in Exercise Physiology. She came to RSU in 2007, becoming the Department Head of Sport Management for Sport Management. In 2015, Dr. Willis was promoted to the Dean of Professional Studies.
 
Prior to her time at RSU, Dr. Willis was a Professor and Chair, of the Department of Kinesiology at East Central University where she published several papers and presentations of notoriety. Also, while at ECU she was the head cross country coach and received several accolades including Coach of the Year in the Lone Star Conference and Coach of the Year for the South-Central Region. She led the men’s and women’s cross country teams to a national championship appearance along with coaching five runners to All-American status.
 
Dr. Willis was inducted into the East Central University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022 for her accomplishments during her time as a coach. 
 
Washburn’s Title IX Champion – Janet Nuzman
The late Jan Nuzman graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Physical Education in 1953 and later obtained her Master’s degree from the University of Kansas in 1967.

After marrying her husband, Carl E. Nuzman, Nuzman taught physical education at the high school level in Topeka for several years before beginning her 33-year teaching career at Washburn, ultimately retiring as Assistant Professor of Physical Education Emeriti.

During her time at Washburn, Nuzman kick-started the women’s athletic program in the late 1960’s and was the school’s first coach in several women’s sports, including gymnastics, field hockey, basketball, softball, and volleyball. She also served as the Women’s Athletic Coordinator and Washburn’s representative to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

In 1988, Nuzman was inducted into the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame. After her retirement, Nuzman continued to impact her community, serving in a variety of roles at Washburn and with numerous organizations in Topeka.