Title IX of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights enforces and protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs for schools of all levels.

In 2022, women's athletics celebrate a half-century of equal rights to participate in sports. The Kansas State High School Activities Association embarked on a year-long celebration of people in Kansas who have influenced the growth of sports for female student-athletes.

Marilynn Smith, legendary golfer and native Kansan, was and would still be proud of the advancement of women's athletics since Title IX became law in 1972.

Smith, born in Topeka in 1929, was ahead of her time in so many ways.

First, she captured three consecutive Kansas Women's Amateur Championships when she was 17, 18 and 19 years of age in 1946-1947-1948. Upon graduation from high school, she attended the University of Kansas; well ahead of the NCAA bringing women's athletics into its fold after Title IX was passed.

Having started playing the game at age 12, Smith's development came quickly and swiftly. In her second year at the University of Kansas, Smith competed in and won the 1949 National Intercollegiate Golf Championship, the forerunner of today's NCAA Championship.

That prompted her to decide to turn professionally later that same year, where she signed a contract with the Spalding Sporting Goods, earning a $5,000 salary, a green Dodge automobile and paid travel expenses. She would conduct up to 100 clinics each year. She eventually landed her own signature line of golf clubs. 

Smith conducted more than 4,000 clinics during her tenure with Spalding, imparting her knowledge of the game to more than a quarter million young golfers. When the LPGA celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2000, she was recognized as one of its top 50 players and teachers.

After her playing career ended, she served the LPGA as a three-time president. In 1973, she became the first woman to work a PGA Tour event as a television broadcaster.

To another Kansas golf icon, Wichitan Judy Bell, the success of Smith was of no surprise.

Bell, the first women to serve as President of the United States Golf Association in 1995 and 1996, says Smith worked tirelessly not only to hone her playing skills, but also to help organize the women's pros in those early years.

"She was a hard worker, both on her game, and in everything else she put into the game," said Bell, who now resides in Colorado Springs and was born seven years after Smith. "She had this drive to be the best player and that took preference over everything else."

Bell, herself an accomplished amateur golfer in the 1950s and 1960s, says the biggest legacy Smith has left is the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She was a founding member, along with 12 other women professionals, of the LPGA in 1950, her first full year playing professionally.

"Her winning the National Collegiate was a big deal for all of us who followed her career," Bell said. "I was proud of her accomplishment and I remember calling her to congratulate her. We became close friends over the years and I have many cherished memories of my time with her. She used to send me Christmas cards every year along with other handwritten notes."

In Bell's mind, there is no doubt about the footprint that Smith has left on the game and the doors that were opened for female athletes to compete in all sports.

"She was a trailblazer with the other women," Bell said. "She was not only a great player (22 professional wins and two major titles), but she was a fantastic teacher of the game. She learned from the same teacher I had in Wichita (Mike Murra, Wichita Country Club head pro)."

Bell, who provided her own contributions to the game through the USGA and with joint programs with the LPGA and other national and international golf organizations, said she is amazed at the tenacity of those women in the early years.
"They raised the money for the prize purses, they organized the pairings, did the scoreboard, did just about everything there was to do to make a great tournament happen," Bell said. "And then, they'd just get in their cars and drive to the next tournament site and do it all over again."

Bell, an advocate for growing the game, credits Smith and her contemporaries for launching the early growth of the game before Title IX.

"I think everyone had the attitude of quit taking a back seat to others and just go out there and make something happen," she said. "Because of what they started, and the ongoing involvement of Marilynn through the years, there are a lot more number of girls and women playing golf at the top levels, both amateur and professionally."

Bell said she recalled her parents driving her to Chicago one year to watch Smith compete in a professional tournament and how that inspired her to play and then be involved as a volunteer.

"I think over the years as it developed, I became more aware of Title IX and how it worked," Bell said. "It has put more players into the game and has created more exposure for the sport."

 After her departure from the University of Kansas, Smith played on the LPGA Tour for more than two decades, winning two Titleholder major championships in 1963 and 1964 against another legend, Mickey Wright. Her last professional tour victory came in 1972.

Even though she resided in Arizona for much of career, Smith never forgot her Kansas roots.

She established the Marilynn Smith Scholarship and golf invitational. The scholarship was started in 1999 to provide postgraduate opportunities to female high school seniors who played golf in high school and plan to play at the collegiate level. She used her Pro-Am in Arizona to help raise money for the scholarship for nearly a decade, in one year alone providing 30 scholarships.

Her Invitational is played annually and changes venues between the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.

The honors that have been bestowed on her are long and prestigious. The most notable was her 2006 induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In addition to her success at KU in golf, Smith participated in softball and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She was a member of the inaugural class of inductees to the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1991, joining Bell among other Kansas golf greats.

Dottie Pepper, one of the premier players of the 1980s and 1990s, recalled Smith's "devotion to the LPGA and its members was infectious and she will forever embody what it meant to be a founder of an organization that was built on blood, sweat and tears of women just like her."

Smith died at the age of 89 on April 9, 2019, just four days shy of her 90^th birthday. However, she is one of the Kansas greats who will long be remembered for her trailblazing efforts to bring women into the world of competitive athletics.

We are grateful to partner with WIN for KC, an organization with the mission to empower the lives of girls and women by advocating and promoting the lifetime value of sports through opportunities for participation and leadership development. WIN for KC and the KSHSAA believe involvement in activities and sports lay the ground work for supporting well-rounded citizens in our communities and beyond. For more on WIN for KC visit: https://www.sportkc.org/win-for-kc