UCLA's Title IX 40: Amy Acuff, Leah Homma
September 18, 2012 | Bruin Athletics
Sept. 18, 2012
Celebrating 40 Years of Title IX
UCLA Athletics continues its celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Title IX with a series of profiles of UCLA's Title IX 40. This group of 40 Bruin women were game-changers in the Title IX era. Next up are UCLA Hall of Famers Amy Acuff and Leah Homma.
Amy Acuff, Track & Field (1994-97)
Amy Acuff is one of the great women's high jumpers in the history of UCLA and USA Track & Field. A five-time NCAA champion as a Bruin, Acuff recently competed in her fifth consecutive Olympic Games, becoming only the fifth U. S. woman to do so.
Acuff won at least one NCAA title in each of her four years at UCLA. As a freshman in 1994, she won the NCAA indoor high jump crown with a leap of 6-2.25. She pulled off the double in 1995, winning both the NCAA indoor (6-5.50) and outdoor titles (6-5). As a junior in 1996, she won the NCAA outdoor (6-4.25) crown, and in her senior campaign in 1997, Acuff high jumped her way to the NCAA indoor championship (6-3.25).
At the conference level, Acuff was simply dominant as well as the first woman in Pac-10 history to win four consecutive track and field individual titles. In 1995 and 1996, she was the conference's Female Athlete of the Year, and in 1997, she established the collegiate record in the high jump with a mark of 6-6.75.
A standout in the classroom, Acuff was a two-time GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American and a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner.
Acuff's highest Olympic finish was fourth at the 2004 Games. At the national level, she is a six-time U.S. outdoor winner (1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007) and a five-time U.S. indoor champion (2001, 2004, 2007-09). At the 2003 USA outdoor championships, she set a personal-best mark of 6-7 to win the title and establish the best clearance by an American woman since 1998.
All told, Acuff was ranked in the world's Top 10 seven times, and, from 1993-2007, was rated No. 1 on six occasions in the U.S rankings.
Acuff took a break from competition in 2010 and 2011 during her pregnancy, but returned to the sport following the birth of her daughter and cleared 6-4.75 to finish in third place at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify for her fifth consecutive Olympic Games.
Acuff was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Leah Homma, Gymnastics (1994-97)
Two-time Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year Leah Homma led UCLA to its first-ever NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship team title in 1997 as a senior captain. Homma placed fourth in the 1997 NCAA all-around to help bring the national championship to Westwood.
Homma's UCLA honors included the 1994 and 1997 Pac-10 all-around titles, along with the 1996 and 1997 conference uneven bar crowns. She twice earned the Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year Award (1995, 1997) and captured eight All-America honors.
During her Bruin career, she set and reset Bruin records in the all-around with a career-high and then-school record of 39.75, set in 1996. In 1997, she made history by becoming the first UCLA gymnast to score perfect 10s on two different events in one season, earning perfect marks on vault and uneven bars. Her 10.0 on uneven bars came at the 1997 Pac-10 Championships, where she set a meet record to win the all-around with a score of 39.725.
In 1997, Homma was named the UCLA All-University Female Athlete of the Year and was a Honda Award nominee. She also excelled in the classroom, earning Pac-10 All-Academic honors on three occasions.
Prior to her arrival at UCLA, Homma was a member of the Canadian National team and was the 1991 Canadian champion in the floor exercise. She left her eternal mark on the world of women's gymnastics with three moves named after her in the international code of points: the Homma Flip on balance beam and the Homma Flairs on beam and floor exercise.
Homma was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
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Previous Title IX 40 Profiles
Karen Moe/Janet Coles
Terry Condon/Jan Palchikoff
Sue Enquist/Ann Meyers Drysdale
Evelyn Ashford/Anita Ortega
Carol Bower/Denise Corlett
Denise Curry/Sharon Shapiro
Jackie Joyner-Kersee/Dot Richardson
Florence Griffith-Joyner/Liz Masakayan
Kay Cockerill/Gail Devers
Kim Hamilton Anthony/ Stella Sampras Webster
Natalie Williams/Lisa Fernandez
Annette Salmeen/Keri Phebus