SPORTS STORIES:
SPORTS INFORMATION—2009
Gray was university's first women's basketball coach...
CLEVELAND, OH (January 28, 2009) - Back in 1968, Nancy Gray left Muskingum College for a bigger city and a bigger school. And once she got to Case Western Reserve University she was given a bigger task – help advance women’s sports.
“When I came the women’s program was just in its formative stages,” Gray explained. “We were in the department of physical education and funded by the women’s recreation association which was student run.”
Well, recreation turned into reality for Gray as she was soon picked to head up the University’s first varsity women’s basketball team in 1971, just a few years after her arrival to University Circle.
After Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University federated in 1967, the Mather College women left the recreation association and Mather Gym, where they had to put their foot on the wall to inbound the ball and dribble around pillars, for the Case Western Reserve Athletic Department and Adelbert Gym.
Adelbert Gym will play host to a fourth annual Throwback Weekend this Friday and Sunday as the modern era Spartan men’s and women’ basketball teams face the University of Rochester and Carnegie Mellon University. Click here for more information.
“Our team then had a better place to practice and play,” Gray said. “But we were not in the President’s Athletic Conference (PAC), like the men, we were governed by the Ohio Intercollegiate Sports Council For Women (OAISW). It was the state organization of the AIAW, which was the national organization the women had at that time.”
Under that umbrella, schools in Northeast Ohio formed the Western Reserve Athletic Conference, which was a scheduling conference. The Spartans played many of the same schools they face today, like John Carroll University, Baldwin-Wallace College and Notre Dame College. They started out playing just eight to ten games, but upped the ante when they joined the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) with the men in 1984.
“We had to add a sport in order to gain membership,” Gray explained. “That’s how [women’s sports] really grew. When I look back, to me it’s kind of mind boggling. When I first came to the university I saw the disparity, but then equality eventually came and it was great.”
That sport, women’s soccer, took Gray off the basketball court. For the second time during her tenure she was asked to start-up an intercollegiate program from scratch.
Gray posted a 73-71 record in 12 seasons as Case Western Reserve’s original women’s basketball coach and until 2000, she was the school’s all-time winningest coach. But one of her proudest accomplishments is the fact three of her former players are members the Case Reserve Athletic Club Hall of Fame - Billie Navojosky (1972), Beth Bickford (1981) and Peggie Musser (1983).
“They were all very good,” Gray said. “They could have played basketball at a lot of places.”
Playing basketball or any sports, at least on a varsity and or intercollegiate level, is something the women of Mather College never had the opportunity to do. That didn’t stop Gray from making sure her fellow female pioneers weren’t forgotten. In fact she was a driving force behind many Mather women entering the Hall of Fame.
“I felt like there were athletes who were forgotten,” Gray explained. “When the schools federated there was no more Mather College. Western Reserve and Case Tech men were being inducted into the Hall of Fame and I felt there were some Mather athletes that should be honored.”
Gray served Case Western Reserve for 32 years, including as an associate professor of physical education, tennis coach, associate athletic director, and coordinator of physical education. She broke new ground and continues to commend the evolution of women’s athletics.
“I’m amazed when I come down and see them play and that’s not just basketball,” said Gray. “When you look at it – it’s happened over time. Now look at the opportunity women have in high school that they didn’t have and the emphasis now on the conditioning and weight training. It’s a much different animal now and we are seeing the benefits of that.”
LET’S HERE IT FOR THE BOYS … Nancy Gray is also quick to point out she couldn’t have accomplished what she did without the help of the other sex. “I feel very fortunate to be able to have worked with Athletic Directors that were there during my time because they were all open to having positive experiences for women. Starting with Nip Heim, then Bill Grice and Dave Hutter, they were all open to it and that’s not always the case.”
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