On its own, Trinity women’s tennis aced it
Of the many arguments I’ve read about history on these pages, one I find most compelling is that many of our stories are incomplete. One example is the often-overlooked contributions of women and minorities to our country’s history.
In that spirit, I’d like to add to our local sports story. Recently, Trinity’s 1972 men’s tennis team was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame. As a campus resident during those heady “Tennis Tech” days, I congratulate the men for this exceptional accomplishment and read with great interest Tom Orsborn’s article about coach Clarence Mabry and his national championship team (“Trinity ruled the courts; Talented roster with plenty of chemistry pushed Tigers to D-I men’s tennis title in ’72,” Sports, Sept. 23).
However, I must address Orsborn’s observation that Mabry’s squad was the only local college team to win an NCAA Division I title. While that is technically correct, it overlooks the accomplishments of the female players of the era, who — once again — were sidelined on a technicality.
Between 1968 and 1976, Trinity’s distaff netters brought home five national titles. But they couldn’t win an NCAA title, since that organization didn’t even host championships for women until fall of 1981. Even that step was a reluctant one, after the group failed in its multiple attempts to nullify Title IX.
That meant female players prior to 1981 competed under the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, or USLTA. When the group added a team competition in 1968, Trinity’s Emilie Burrer and Becky Vest brought home that first title without a coach — or even an official “team.”
Burrer was a local youth sports prodigy who played with adults on several city league teams, and in her senior year at Jefferson High School won the state 4A singles tennis championship. Unable to obtain a scholarship to a major program, she attended junior college before earning an academic scholarship to Trinity. Fortuitously, she transferred the same year as the talented Vest, a Mississippi product. Without instruction or courts to practice on (those were “reserved” for the men), the pair somehow found themselves in Northfield, Minn., vying for the 1968 championships. Burrer won the singles title and shared the doubles crown with Vest, defeating a heavily favored Arizona State team.
The two didn’t expect much attention, and they weren’t disappointed. On the day they won Trinity’s first national team title in any sport (men’s or women’s), the school was hosting the men’s NCAA tennis championship on its new courts, which were constructed for the occasion.
When the announcement of the women’s triumph was broadcast over the public address system, few attendees — including Mabry — even knew Trinity had females competing that day. This moment inspired a column published by this newspaper on Jan. 18, 1969. Condemning the lack of support for the champions, Sports Editor Karl O’quinn wrote about the “unique problem” of Trinity having a collegiate title but not an actual “girl’s tennis team.” The announcement of the women’s victory that day, wrote O’quinn, “came as somewhat of a surprise, to put it mildly.”
Burrer and Vest defended their titles in 1969, and Burrer remains one of only two female Trinity athletes to win four national championships. She would return to campus as Emilie Foster to coach the Division I women to multiple top-10 rankings between 1978 and 1990
Then, the arrival of Mary Hamm, Donna Stockton, Joanne Russell and Val Franta in 1972 set the stage for the next (female) dynasty, now under the supervision of a part-time coach. In what the Express-news called “an unbelievable comeback,” the unrecruited freshmen defeated UCLA for the 1973 USLTA title.
With their coach back in San Antonio, the unlikely victory was witnessed by sponsor Shirley Rushing. Knowing that financial aid rules had been relaxed that summer in response to Title IX, Rushing parlayed that title into athletic scholarships for the female players, opening the door for even more talent to flock to the Skyline Campus and leading to national titles in 1975 and 1976. The last was won under Marilyn Montgomery Rindfuss, Trinity’s first full-time women’s coach in any sport.
Five collegiate championships in eight years. Not bad.
Acknowledging these feats doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of Mabry’s men. I believe it gives us a richer, fuller — and truer — story. And I take solace in two facts: Many female names appear on the San Antonio Sports list of honorees, and all five women’s championship tennis teams were inducted into Trinity’s own Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.