‘Strong Like A Woman’: Alex Morgan, Diana Taurasi, Billie Jean King & 97 other game-changing women

By Laken Litman
FOX Sports Writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of FOX Sports’ series commemorating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which was enacted into law on June 23, 1972. The series tells the stories of significant women in sports today, both celebrating the progress that has been made and recognizing the barriers that still remain.

When I spoke with Tara VanDerveer for a recent story, the legendary Stanford women’s basketball coach said something that we all know but that can’t be repeated enough.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Title IX, I had asked her what she thinks we all need to do to ensure that women’s sports keep moving in the right direction.

“I think it’s the job of parents with younger children, the job of coaches, athletic directors and conference commissioners. It’s one of the biggest challenges in the media,” VanDerveer said. “There’s not the same coverage of girls’ and women’s sports that there is for boys’ and men’s sports. Every day, there needs to be articles about women playing sports, whether it’s professional soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball.

“Young girls need these role models and heroines to aspire to.”

Tara VanDerveer has led the Stanford Cardinal to three national championships, 13 Final Fours and 14 Pac-12 Tournament titles. (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Her comments couldn’t be truer. And “Strong Like A Woman,” a book I wrote in conjunction with my former employer, Sports Illustrated, and Rizzoli, is for those young girls who need role models and heroines to aspire to.

This book chronicles and celebrates 100 of the greatest female athletes since 1954 (when SI began). No, they are not ranked, but rather, they are listed in alphabetical order. It would be impossible and unfair to categorize these athletes in a list from No. 1 to 100. They played different sports in different eras and accomplished different things.

The pages are filled with stories about extraordinary, trailblazing, influential athletes, including Simone Biles, Lisa Leslie, Janet Guthrie and Mia Hamm. Althea Gibson, Megan Rapinoe, Ann Meyers Drysdale and Susan Butcher. Wilma Rudolph, Serena Williams, Peggy Flemming and Trischa Zorn. 

Below, we’ve included three excerpts highlighting the lives and careers of Billie Jean King, Alex Morgan and Diana Taurasi.

As King wrote in the foreword to “Strong Like A Woman,” a theme that has woven itself into the fabric of women’s sports is equal pay. As she recalled, “It began in 1970 with the Original Nine of women’s tennis, who not only started women’s professional tennis as we know it today but also opened the door on the equal pay discussion — eventually achieving equal pay at all four major tournaments in 2007. Women’s tennis was — and is — the leader in women’s sports. Today, the equal pay conversation is alive and well in soccer and hockey; it’s part of the dialogue of all women’s sports in the 21st century.”

Without the passage of Title IX, who knows if that conversation would exist today. There’s a good chance it wouldn’t. Women who grew up in a pre-Title IX era or in the early days of the law’s passing could only dream about playing team sports, earning scholarships and competing in professional leagues. VanDerveer said she and her teammates at Indiana back in the 1970s used to fantasize about it over dinner.

“Someone would say, ‘Someday, there’s gonna be professional [women’s basketball], and Tara, you’ll be a GM,’” she said. “Then someone would slap the table and be like, ‘Haha wouldn’t that be so funny? Someday games will be on television!’

“You could not even imagine. Like, it was beyond our imagination.”

Today, young girls grow up in a world where they might not even know about Title IX because they can reap the benefits their sports godmothers worked so hard to achieve. Earning a scholarship, playing on national TV and competing in the WNBA is no longer such a wild idea.

Make no mistake: There’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s why “Strong Like A Woman” is an opportunity to not just reflect on how far women have come in 50 years but also inspire the next generation to keep going.

“Strong Like A Woman: 100 Game-Changing Female Athletes” is available for purchase at Amazon.com and other booksellers.

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It seems like there’s nothing Alex Morgan hasn’t done or can’t do. While most people know her as the captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, she is so much more than that. For starters, Morgan is a superstar goal-scoring machine who is a two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist. But her legacy will encompass even more. She has taken a stand for gender equality and is fighting for equal pay. She has created a media company geared toward women with other female Olympic athletes. She has appeared on countless magazine covers and posed in body paint for the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue because, as she told the magazine then, “I wanted to help young women feel comfortable in whatever body type they have.” She has brought her baby girl with her to every single game and tournament around the world, showing how women can be professional athletes and mothers too.

USWNT’s Alex Morgan scores first goal since becoming a mom

Alex Morgan scores off a beautiful assist from Sophia Smith to put the USWNT up 5-0 over Argentina in the 2021 SheBelieves Cup.

In 2019, Morgan was a Time top 100 most influential person of the year. She’s friends with Taylor Swift. She has more than a dozen sponsors, including Nike, Coca-Cola and AT&T, and there’s even an Alex Morgan Barbie doll. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of “The Kicks,” a children’s book series about a young female soccer player. As Grant Wahl wrote for Sports Illustrated in 2013, before she became the household name she is today, “One of Morgan’s most remarkable achievements … may be that she’s done all of this without generating open resentment from her peers.”

Everything she does has purpose, from her ventures in business and marketing to being one of the greatest soccer players of all time. Morgan was the youngest member of the national team at the 2011 World Cup, where she scored goals in the semifinals and the final loss to Japan. Somewhat of an unknown 21-year-old then, Morgan’s Twitter following boomed from 15,000 to 135,000. A decade later, after becoming a USWNT leader, an international role model for young girls and women everywhere, and winning the Silver Boot at the 2019 World Cup, Morgan has nearly four million followers, which is considerably more than any other U.S. soccer star, including the likes of Abby Wambach, Christian Pulisic or Landon Donovan. 

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