February 2008
Lucy Sale ’74 was a multi-sport athlete at Longwood before co-education, Willett Hall and NCAA-sanctioned women’s sports. She sat down with Rohn Brown ’84 to share her experiences as a Longwood College student-athlete.
LS: I am truly flattered to be interviewed for an article in The Lance newsletter. There are far more prominent athletes from my era than me! I chose Longwood partly because of the varsity sports program. I grew up in Arlington County, Va., and our junior and high schools (Yorktown) did not have varsity sports for girls. We had “play days” with the other schools. I do remember the mother of one of my junior high classmates. (She) tried so very hard to convince the Arlington County school board to start varsity sport programs for girls but to no avail until long after we had graduated. So I was pretty hell-bent on trying out for anything that interested me.
RB: You played several sports at Longwood, including field hockey.
LS: So the first thing that came along was field hockey in the fall. I played for three years, ’70, ‘71, and ‘72. I had learned the basics in high school but was not quite as skilled as many of the people trying out; however, I was very fast. I think that may have gotten me on the varsity squad. I was thrilled to make the team and I played on the forward line as a left inner. I’m not sure what the position names may be now. Dianne Davis was the coach for my first two years and then I think Carolyn Hodges came in for my junior year. We played all our home games on Barlow Field and rode a bus or on some occasions, state cars, to all the away games. I believe we were in the AIAW and in Virginia, we were in the Tidewater district and the Southeastern Region as far as hockey was concerned. I know we won a lot of games (5-1-2 in 1972, no records before 1972) and several of our players were always on an all-Tidewater team or all-Southeastern team. I don’t think I was. (There was) always a great group of women, fun to be around, hard working at practices and excellent coaching. I’m sure you know that Nancy Fowlkes, ’72, was a great field hockey player from the Tidewater area. She went on to teach and coach hockey at a school in Virginia Beach and eventually coached the boy’s junior varsity football team. It may have been varsity, not sure, but there’s a story! I decided to forgo my senior year in hockey because of student teaching.
RB: From what I understand, you played basketball as well; what position? Did you play any other sports?
LS: I played basketball all four years, 1970-74. I was a forward, but again, everyone else that made the team had come from high school programs. I was okay but not good enough to start. As I remember, our head coach, Jean Smith, gave me the option to stay on varsity and probably not play a lot or be on JV and probably play more. My decision to stay was based on what I would learn from her as a coach. It may come in handy after graduation in a teaching position. So I may have some statistics on record but not many! Several of my classmates were starters on the team, one being Debby Carneal, a point guard and Nanette Fisher our center. I also played lacrosse for two years, 1971 and 1972. Several of my classmates also went out for the team, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Something new and different! I played first home, which was the position just in front of the goalie. This was a pretty rough sport, and we didn’t wear any headgear or gloves like they do now. I remember getting bonked on the head by a shot on goal at Bridgewater College. Our coach was Ann Huffman; I don’t remember how well we did those two years but after playing fall, winter and spring for two years, I stopped the lacrosse.
RB: The women’s basketball team was 37-15 over your four years. At that time, was Longwood ahead of most Virginia schools in women's athletics?
LS: I think we were on par with schools our size and we may have had more teams to try out for also. For instance, golf, gymnastics and archery and we had a very good swim team as I recall. We might have been ahead of some in athletics, but we were far behind in new facilities. I heard all through my four years how we were going to have a new gym built. “Oh, it will be done by your junior year.” So we played basketball in the “cracker box” (French Hall), one of two schools that had a balcony in the gym. I think Lynchburg College had a “cracker box” kind of gym also. One sport that was not offered was softball. I’m not sure if any of the colleges were offering it then. Softball was my sport, that’s where I excelled. To this day, I still play softball but in a senior league and travel on a team that plays all over the country in senior tournaments including the National Senior Olympics. We have won numerous national titles in the 50+ age group. I was also inducted into the Washington Metropolitan Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame in the Master Player category in 2005.
RB: When you look at college women's basketball now and compare it to what you played, what differences jump out at you?
LS: The skill level is incredible. It’s a bigger, faster game. People coming off the bench are just as good as many starters. Of course the ball is smaller too. The uniforms are new every year. The shoes may be donated (from a shoe company). They don’t have bagged lunches on away games!! We had a set of uniforms that were all blue and the numbers were painted on the back and LC on the front. Painted on!! We finally got a second set that was pretty nice. Our warm-ups were like heavy fleece snow suits except with short sleeves. You can’t tell how heavy they are in the pictures that were taken at the time. And the women coaches are making big money like the men and that’s all they do. (They don’t) teach classes.
RB: What was your major at Longwood and what do you do in your professional career?
LS: I majored in Health and Physical Education and minored in Biology. I taught and coached JV basketball and track for one year in the City of Charlottesville. Then, I was drawn to working at the University of Virginia Medical Center in the pharmacy and clinical chemistry labs. Currently, I work for the Virginia Department of Forensic Science in the toxicology section of the Northern Laboratory. I have been doing that for 21 years. We work in conjunction with the Medical Examiners Office to help determine cause of death in autopsy cases. We also have submissions from police departments concerning rape cases.
RB: Why is it a good investment to support Longwood intercollegiate athletics, now that you can see it from both an athlete's and an alumna’s point of view?
LS: Although I’ve always felt I was born just a tad too early to reap some of the benefits of things that came to pass after my time, I give to Longwood because I had a terrific experience there. It was a transition time for the school from many old rules to more modern ones. It was a transition time for women in general. Sure, I would have liked to play in the new gym, play on a varsity softball team or have a field just for hockey and lacrosse, but that’s not what happened. It’s important that colleges and universities keep up with technology, facilities and good teachers to attract students who may become potential leaders in all areas of life. You can’t do that just with state and federal money. That’s why it’s important to try and give a little back. In my case it’s to athletics, specifically women’s basketball and women’s golf. I got into golf about 13 years ago. I love it. I know in some athletic programs that golf might not receive some of the big bucks that are budgeted for the programs that actually bring in money. Every little bit of outside money helps in some way, and it may just keep a program going that would otherwise be dropped. For some, athletics during college is an important part of the overall experience. It should be the best that it can be at the time.