Nancy Hogshead-Makar: Swimming

American Star of the Women’s International Sports Hall of Fame

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SI: The Most Important People in Title IX History

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I met Nancy Hogshead-Makar in 1984 after the Los Angeles Olympic Games. We were in Boston at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport and Society shortly after it opened. I was immediately struck by more than the amazing accomplishments of this great swimmer to which her three gold and one silver medals attest. She immediately displayed intelligence, confidence, poise, and leadership skills that would propel her to be one of the most influential people in the world of sport, especially on the issue of gender equity.

In the immediate months after the Olympics, she was highly sought after as a speaker and an endorser of commercial products. However, her passion for social justice led her quickly to move into the area of supporting Title IX.

But that amazing athletic career gave her the platform. She spent eight years as a world champion swimmer, culminating in the 1984 Olympics, where she won more medals than any other swimmer. She was undefeated in high school and college. She was named Florida’s Outstanding Athlete and the best all-around swimmer nationally. To date, she has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in addition to nine other halls. I now live in Florida and realize how important sports are here so it was no small feat that Hogshead-Makar was named as one of the 13 greatest athletes of the 20th century in the State of Florida by Sports Illustrated in their Millennium Issue.

While a student-athlete at Duke University, she set Duke records for all nine events she swam. One remains on the books more than two decades later. Nancy Hogshead-Makar was the first female inducted into Duke’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

She became a regular commentator for the networks as a swimming analyst, but then became a commentator on social justice issues more than swimming.

When she retired from swimming, she started speaking to more than 100 groups each year about asthma management and sports. She wrote the highly acclaimed Asthma and Exercise in 1990 and became the national spokesperson for the American Lung Association. Her book was the first about the relationship between asthma and sports.

Hogshead-Makar earned her law degree at Georgetown University. She served as the president of the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) between 1992 and 1994, and still serves the WSF as a legal advisor. She has spoken and testified before numerous important gatherings, including Congress and in the courts. The media has turned to her as a regulator commentator on social issues in sport.

After getting her law degree, Hogshead-Makar moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and started representing student-athletes regarding Title IX. She was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the most influential people in the 35-year history of Title IX. Her voice is loud and strong. She has always faced down those challenging Title IX. CBS did a special on it for 60 Minutes. She was ready for what turned out to be a two-hour interview. When Hogshead-Makar saw the final product, she wrote a letter to CBS about its biased reporting. She believes in standing up for justice and does not back down. One of the reasons she feels so strongly about Title IX is how it will help little girls develop character. She advocates that children’s participation in exercise of all kinds not only builds character, but also develops leadership skills and enriches the health of all children. She did not need to become a mother to be such an advocate but now has twin daughters who may motivate her on an even more personal level.

She married Scott Makar in 1999. At the time they were both lawyers at the firm of Holland and Knight. Scott is currently Florida’s solicitor general while Nancy is a professor of law. They have a son in addition to their daughters.

Hogshead-Makar’s new book, Equal Pay: Title IX and Social Change, came out in 2007, written with the distinguished scholar, Andrew Zimbalist. On Title IX, not only has she testified in Congress, but she has also presented amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. She became a law professor in the 1990s, trying to transmit her courage and passion for social justice to the next generation. She is a professor of law at the Florida Coastal School of Law, where she teaches torts, amateur sports law, and a seminar on gender equity in athletics.

When I started the DeVos Sport Business Management graduate program in 2001, the first person I asked to teach our sport law course was Nancy Hogshead-Makar. She instantly became one of our students’ favorite professors. She has been a speaker in our program many times since then and the students always love her. Hogshead-Makar has been named to the International Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame and received an honorary doctorate from Springfield College in 2002. There are too many other honors to mention, but it must be said that this extraordinary swimmer took the platform she had as a high school and college student-athlete and later as an Olympian to be able to give her the grounding to use sport as a vehicle for social change in ways that will have an everlasting impact even though it has been 25 years since she took her last stroke in an Olympic competition.

Hogshead-Makar had a life-changing experience that she shared with our students. She was raped in the early 1980s as a sophomoreat Duke where she did her undergraduate degree. She told the students, “Before I got raped, my thinking was that I understood there was sexism out there, that people didn’t think very highly of women in certain contexts but I didn’t think it was ever going to affect me because I was a great athlete and I was smart. After the rape,I went into Women’s Studies and have been trying to make this a better world for men and women ever since. I applaud the efforts of organizations like the National Consortium for Academics and Sports that take such a pro-active stand on the issue of men’s violence against women.”

As part of a settlement of a controversial case where numerous rape and sexual assault charges were brought against Colorado University football players and recruits, Hogshead-Makar was appointed as a Title IX advisor to the university. People who are concerned with the case at the University of Colorado were pleased that somebody with Hogshead-Makar’s commitment, passion, and drive to do the right thing was appointed in this role to influence a campus that had serious problems over a long period of time on the issue of men’s violence against women.

I consider it a blessing that Nancy Hogshead-Makar has been associated with our program at the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate School. I am especially grateful that she is a close personal friend.