WAKE FOREST, N.C. — Today marks 50 years since President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, paving the way for countless women in education and athletics.

What You Need To Know

  • Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX being signed into law

  • Wake Forest woman says the civil rights law paved the way for her career

  • Dee Todd was the first female athletics director at N.C. A&T

One Wake Forest woman says Title IX allowed her to live the life she dreamed of.

Dee Todd is a retired athletic administrator who graduated high school in 1966.

As she flips through the delicate pages of her high school yearbook, she pauses at one section.

“We had one page, it was called 'Girls AA,'" Todd said. “We didn't have coaches or anything like that." 

In the '60s, female high school athletes like Todd didn't have much opportunity to grow in sports.

But that changed in 1972 with the passage of Title IX.

“I just think that it opened the door for so many of us to get our foot in," Todd said. “I was in charge of student athlete welfare, I had the trainers, senior women administrator, what else you want to name?"

She had several roles as the first woman to work in the ACC front office.

“The former commissioner called the ACC the all-Caucasian conference, so he hired me,” Todd said.

She worked for the ACC from 1988 to 2005, when she became the first female and African American to be named N.C. A&T’s director of athletics.

“I was most proud of the fact that I was able to bring the first east regional Division 1 track and field meet to A&T, first year they had it, so when I go back and look at that track, I'm like, this is my baby," Todd said.

But she was a trailblazer long before then — she was the head coach for Northwestern’s track and field team from 1981 to 1985.

“I am still the only female of color that has ever coached at Northwestern University," Todd said.

And if that weren’t enough, Todd is on the cover of a 1980s Kellogg's cereal box.

She was a model then and was the first African American woman featured on a Kellogg's box.

"They were giving us the actual cereal. It kept getting really soggy, so they ended up putting a bowl of Elmer's glue in the bowl and put shellac over it," Todd said.

It was an undeniably decorated career, which Todd says may never have happened if it weren't for Title IX.

“Probably not, probably not, I was sort of blind to the fact that this was Title IX. I was taking opportunities as they presented themselves," Todd said.

Todd says there is still a long way to go before men and women are on a true equal playing field.

Right now, she's part of an organization called We Coach, which helps women get into coaching at all levels.