Opening doors: Local pioneers paved way for today’s athletes

In the decades following the passage of Title IX, countless individuals have made major contributions in the ongoing effort to create a level playing field for female athletes.

But in Johnson County, few have touched more lives or created more opportunities for girls and women than Jenny Johnson-Kappes, the late Cheryl Endicott-Weatherman, Carol Tumey and Ruth Callon.

Towering figures on the female athletics equality front, all four women worked tirelessly, for years on end, to ensure females enjoyed the same fully sanctioned, equally funded, organized competitive opportunities that they themselves were denied while growing up.

What follows is a look at the invaluable, enduring contributions of the efforts of each.

Jenny Johnson-Kappes

A 1972 gradaute of Franklin College, where she was a standout basketball, softball, volleyball, field hockey and track and field athlete, Johnson-Kappes returned to her alma mater in 1977 as a coach and faculty member.

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