Sidelined No Longer: The Untold Story of Women's College Sports Paperback – November 17, 2025

While today's women athletes fill stadiums and arenas and sign multimillion-dollar contracts, the architects of their opportunity remain largely unknown. Sidelined No Longer reveals the battle waged by eleven women administrators in the late 1970s who recognized that the very organizations meant to advance women's athletics were sometimes holding them back.At the story's center is Jean Cerra, the University of Missouri's women's athletic director. Cerra and her allies at major universities challenged the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women's limiting vision. Cerra, herself, fought for a pragmatic approach that would truly deliver on Title IX's promise of equality.Karen Rudolph masterfully connects these groundbreaking "hidden figures" to today's explosion in women's sports—from Nebraska's 92,000 volleyball fans to the first privately financed women's soccer stadium. This essential history illuminates how yesterday's unsung heroes paved the way for women to compete, lead, and inspire based on competence "from the neck up" rather than gender. Read more