Longwood University Athletics

Olive T. Iler ‘31 (Administration, 1925-66) is considered the matriarch of Longwood athletics and served the school for 41 years. She was an instructor and then assistant professor of health and physical education (1925-49), associate professor and chairperson of the health and physical education department (1949-62), and lastly an associate professor of health and physical education (1962-66). During Iler’s tenure, she coached women’s basketball, field hockey, and women’s tennis while very active and influential in State and National organizations, including service on innumerable committees for the State Department of Education. She was awarded the 1967 Virginia Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s Distinguished Service Award, the same year (March 18, 1967) that Longwood dedicated the Iler Building, its athletic field and tennis courts in her honor. Iler was inducted onto the 1979 Virginia Sports Wall of Fame, three years ahead of her death in 1982 at the age of 85. A native of New York, she graduated from Boston University’s Sargent School of Physical Education, was a 1931 Longwood graduate as a social science major with a minor in physical education, and earned her master’s degree from Columbia University.