June 23rd, 1972, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." 
 
The law, known as Title IX, was instituted 50 years ago and continues to fight to bring equity for men and women. It gives women the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that receive federal funds, from elementary schools to colleges and universities.
 
Now 50 years later, the University of North Georgia marches forward as a symbol of what Title IX can make possible. Since the enactment of Title IX, North Georgia has solidified itself as one of the premier institutions for women's athletics. 

Athletics Director Mary Rob Plunkett said the hard work of previous decades of North Georgia coaches, players, and administrators are what has made North Georgia into what it is today.

"There's such a respect for the tradition and what has been, we're all striving as a unit to be better than we were before and to continue to chase championships and live up to the standard and the excellence that are expected here." 

The North Georgia women's teams boast a proud history with six National Player of the Year winners, two National Championships, 36 Conference Championships, 87 All-Americans, 77 postseason appearances and 18 UNG Hall of Famers. 
 
The 1980s
 
The first of these awards came in the 1986-87 season when a transfer from Auburn stepped onto campus and brought the blueprint for what North Georgia Athletics would soon become. The transfer from Auburn may have had second thoughts about moving to the heart of the Georgia Mountains. But today there is no doubt where she was meant to be,

"I feel that God placed me at UNG for a reason. It's funny how God knows what you need when you don't even know what you need. North Georgia has blessed me in so many ways."
 
Brenda Hill, now Brenda Hill Gilmore, scored 885 points during that single season as a member of the then Saints, averaging 28.8 points per game on her way to leading North Georgia to an NAIA Division I National Championship runner-up finish. 
 
Hill Gilmore is among the school record holders for points in a season, scoring average in a season, field goals in a game, and blocks in a game. She was named NAIA All-American, became the first North Georgia athlete to be named National Player of the Year in 1987, and was among the first class of UNG Hall of Fame inductees in 2011.
 
Eight years after Hill Gilmore showed the blueprint, a new coach hired from Shorter University came to Dahlonega and made that blueprint the standard. Coach Buffie Burson took over a program that had been struggling to find the magic Brenda Hill brought to Dahlonega in 1987. 
 
After three years at North Georgia and ten years after the NAIA National Finals appearance, Burson and the women's basketball team would return to the National Tournament in 1997 for the first time since that season. 
 
The 1990s
 
The women's basketball team would be the first women's program to return to national prominence, but it would be one of many programs to build a standard of excellence for North Georgia.
 
North Georgia's second National Player of the Year would emerge in the 1999 season. Galina Dimitrova Courson was a member of the North Georgia women's tennis team from 1998-2000 and helped lead the Saints to a top-25 ranking in all three seasons. 
 
Dimitrova Courson was crowned the Southern States Athletic Conference Champion in both 1998 and 1999 and would advance to represent North Georgia in the NAIA National Tournament, eventually garnering the association's National Player of the Year honor in 1999. Dimitrova Courson was inducted into the UNG Athletics Hall of Fame in in 2014.
 
The 1999 season was the first emergence of a tennis program that would later establish itself as a perennial postseason contender. 
 
The late 1990s continued to be a catalyst for women's athletics at North Georgia as another program came onto the scene that same year and established itself as one of the top programs in the country. North Georgia softball went 48-19 in 1999 and was the runner-up in the NAIA Regional Tournament, that appearance in the postseason would begin one of the most dominant runs in North Georgia's history.
 
The 2000s
 
UNG would make the regional in 2000 after winning the conference championship before missing out on the postseason in 2001. After the 2001 season, UNG would make the National Tournament four straight seasons, culminating in an Elite Eight appearance in 2005.
 
The 2005 year would begin a massive transition for North Georgia as UNG would begin its move into the NCAA Division II ranks. North Georgia was hoping to translate its success onto a bigger and brighter stage. 
 
After two seasons as an NCAA Provisional Member in 2006 and 2007, North Georgia would again be eligible for the postseason. UNG softball would make their first NCAA postseason appearance in 2008, coming up just short in the NCAA Regional round.
 
North Georgia softball never looked back, qualifying for the postseason every year since, and from 2009-12 UNG made it to the NCAA Division II championships three consecutive years. 
 
 The 2010s
 
North Georgia softball won three straight Peach Belt Conference championships in the process, highlighted by a 2010 season where they went 51-2 in the regular season and 20-0 in the conference.
 
In 2012, exactly 25 years after Brenda Hill had become NAIA National Player of the Year, Jaymee Acton relit a spark into the women's basketball program that would propel North Georgia to success in the NCAA era. 
 
After transferring to North Georgia from Wake Forest, the Gainesville, Georgia, native starred for Coach Burson's team for three seasons, including a record-breaking sophomore season. Acton averaged an NCAA-era school-record 25 points per game and won NCAA Division II national, Southeast Region and PBC Player of the Year honors in 2011-12.
 
If the 1990s were the foundation for future success, the 2010s culminated into that future success.
 
Three years after Acton's 2012 National Player of the Year award, another 2022 UNG Hall of Fame inductee and National Player of the Year, Courtney Poole would help lead the 2015 UNG Softball team to reach the mountain top and bring home North Georgia's first-ever National Championship.
 
Poole rewrote the record books as she led North Georgia to its National Championship. She finished her career ranked in the top five in every career pitching statistic in program history, including leading the way in most wins, complete games, and shutouts. 
 
She earned the National Pitcher of the Year honors in 2014. Poole was a three-time All-American and the MVP of the 2015 Division II Softball Championship; Poole was named PBC Pitcher of the Year twice and PBC Freshman of the Year during her career as a Nighthawk.
 
Once reaching the mountain top North Georgia softball would continue to be a mainstay in the hunt for their next National Championship. In 2018 the program put together one of its best seasons, winning the most games of any team in program history.
 
North Georgia won 62 games in the 2018 season, led by Kylee Smith, who became North Georgia's fifth National Player of the Year and the softball program's second National Pitcher of the Year in three years.
 
In Smith's 2018 season, she compiled a record of 36-3 and pitched 22 complete games. She holds records for lowest ERA and opponent batting average and ranks third in most strikeouts in program history. 
 
As basketball, softball and tennis became powerhouse programs, other women's programs began to follow suit.
 
The women's soccer program became a perennial postseason participant. The program made six trips to the NCAA Tournament, making a run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2016. The program ended the decade by going 16-3-2 in 2019 and going to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
The 2010s would be a leap forward for the athletics programs at North Georgia; now nicknamed the Nighthawks and built upon a history of success, North Georgia would have to try and replicate a golden decade of success in 2020.
 
 The 2020s
 
The decade began with an unprecedented start as a nationwide pandemic put college athletics at risk in 2020. North Georgia, through adversity, would find a way to build back and continue to be a shining example for athletic departments across the country.
 
Despite facing unprecedented adversity, another program emerged, and North Georgia would see its second National Championship with Journey Gurley vaulting the Track & Field program to national prominence in the 2021 season. She would win two Peach Belt Conference championships and three PBC All-Conference awards on her way to becoming a National Champion.
 
The Nighthawks would finish the 2021 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in a tie for 19th, the highest finish in program history. Bree Hammond, Abigail Kirkland, and National Champion Journey Gurley would become the program's first national qualifiers.
 
The 2022 season was a testament to the depth of the women's athletics programs at North Georgia. Both softball and women's basketball would make runs to the Final Four within the same semester.
 
It would be softball's second consecutive appearance in the Final Four and basketball's first appearance. On their way to the Final Four Julianne Sutton would become North Georgia's sixth National Player of the Year.
 
Sutton averaged 16.2 points per game and 9.5 rebounds per game in her 2022 season. She became the only player in PBC history to reach 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds and ranks fourth all-time in career points and seventh in career rebounds. 
 
She would join Brenda Hill-Gilmore and Jaymee Acton as the third women's basketball player to earn the honor and second in the NCAA era.
 
While Sutton and the Nighthawks were taking another step towards the quest for a National Championship, generations of Nighthawks before them, including Brenda Hill Gilmore, were watching closely cheering on a program they helped build.
 
"I love watching these ladies play, they play with great heart, determination, and grit. They are not afraid of hard work and take pride in the program and the program's history."
 
50 Years of Excellence 

Five decades of Title IX have allowed North Georgia women's athletics to produce five decades' worth of awards, championships and excellence. Whether their uniform said "Saints" or "Nighthawks" on the front, the standard at North Georgia has remained the same for all. 
 
The proud history and the standard of excellence at North Georgia would not be possible without the women that have worn its jersey and the law that allowed them to wear it.