Call to the Hall
Reddies make plea to recognize former coach
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of three articles about a state pioneer in women’s athletics at Henderson State University and the former student-athletes who still celebrate her accomplishments, enterprise and leadership.
A group of former student-athletes at Henderson State University are leading an effort to afford a former coach and athletic director with the honor they believe she deserves in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Bettye’s Reddies member Sally Carder, former president of Quapaw Technical Institute and National Park College and current interim director for HSU-Hot Springs, described Bettye Wallace as a “trailblazer” for women’s athletics in Arkansas. The group submitted a nomination application to the Hall of Fame last month.
“She has brought honor and prestige to the state of Arkansas, and represents the type of person who should be recognized by the ASHOF,” members wrote. “She meets all criteria for ‘character and leadership, national significance, conduct following active participation in athletics, prestige to the Hall of Fame, representation of women, balance between old-timers and present generation, national publicity, honor and credit brought to the home state, and representation of all sports over the years.’”
The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame began in 1958
and five honorees were inducted in the inaugural class in 1959. About 150 candidates are nominated every year to be reviewed by the Board of Directors and Seniors Committee.
Ballots will be open to voters in the fall and each class is announced later in the year. Former Arkansas Razorbacks and current Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden headlined a group of nine inductees in the class of 2017. The
2016 class included 11 inductees. Wallace collaborated with three other female coaches in
1965 to better organize and coordinate sports competition for women at Arkansas colleges. She became the first female athletic director in Arkansas in
1980 when Henderson named her the Reddies’ first women’s athletic director. Dozens of former student-athletes connected through their appreciation of Wallace and gather each year in Arkadelphia for an annual reunion.
“Very few coaches have a following like she does,” Carder said. “To know she was one of the pioneer women that started this, we just feel it is time for her story to be told.”
Wallace, 87, is a native of Malvern and played tennis for Henderson State Teachers College in 1949-50 before she graduated in 1950. She coached basketball, tennis and volleyball at Malvern, Murfreesboro and Rison before she returned to Henderson as a physical education teacher in 1963.
Her Master of Science in Education was completed at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and she completed her postgraduate work at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Former Henderson coach and athletic director Duke Wells asked Wallace to coach the tennis team and she later took on coaching duties for the volleyball team despite limited resources and a full teaching schedule.
Wallace joined with Margaret Downing, Patricia Gordon and Betty Swift traveled to Arkadelphia from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, respectively, to organize the Arkansas Women’s Extramural Sports Association in 1965. Downing was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
AWESA’s constitution committee, which included Wallace, established guidelines for selected sports in 1966. Her knowledge and leadership garnered opportunities on local, regional, state and national organizations for women’s athletics.
Wallace was a member of the National Association of Girls and Women in Sports badminton committee and chaired a committee to revise the AWESA constitution in 1969-70 due to an increase in participation. AWESA became the Arkansas Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Association in 1973 due to the formation of a national intercollegiate association for women.
All four founding members of AWESA maintained full teaching schedules along with their coaching duties. Women’s teams at Henderson, and many other schools, were part of the physical education department instead of the athletic department.
The Arkansas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance presented the Honor Award to Wallace in 1973. Wallace served on the executive committee for high school volleyball for the Arkansas Activities Association and worked with Swift and Fran Moncrief to write the sport’s regulations.
Opportunities for female student-athletes in high school and college expanded in 1972 after the passage of Title IX. The federal act states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Wallace served as an ex officio committee member for another revision of the AWISA constitution and handbook in 1973-74 as national changes occurred in women’s sports. She met with representatives from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas in 1976 to organize the Southwest Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and the four-state regional competition for female student-athletes.
The SWAIAW elected Wallace as treasurer in 1976 and she served in the role until 1982. She helped revise AWISA guidelines again in 1976 and 1978-79 as women’s athletics continued to grow.
Tennis teams under Wallace included three first-place teams, four runners-up, two singles champions, two singles runners-up, two first-place doubles teams and two runners-up in doubles. Her volleyball record included two state champions, four runners-up, three consecutive south league championships from 1977-79 and four consecutive qualifiers from 1975-78 to represent Arkansas in the four-state regional volleyball tournament. Henderson was the first team from Arkansas to place in a SWAIAW regional tournament in 1976 when the Reddies placed third.
Wallace was honored in 1981 as the AWISA Tennis Coach of the Year. She was named AWISA Volleyball Coach of the Year in 1982.
The Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference did not sanction women’s athletics until 1983. Wallace was appointed to the District 17 board of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1983 after Henderson left the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.
The Downing-Swift-Wallace Award was presented to senior female athletes in the AIC with the highest grade-point average until the conference dissolved in 1995. She received a recognition award from the SWAIAW executive board in 1982.
Wallace retired from Henderson in 1988 and was named associate professor emeritus of health, physical education and recreation. She was the only woman inducted into the inaugural class of the HSU Reddie Hall of Honor in 1997.
Henderson presented Wallace with the “H” Award for Meritorious Services in 1994 and she received the Pathfinder Award in 1999 from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports. The award recognizes women who demonstrate “continuous dedication to the advocacy, recruitment and enhancement of girls and women in sports.” The university dedicated the Bettye Wallace Tennis Center in her honor in 2006.
“Wallace was an award-winning coach who fostered decades of successful teams and notable individuals,” Bettye’s Reddies wrote to the Hall of Fame. “Her mentorship and teamwork philosophy impacted the lives of many extraordinary women. Her dedication and leadership helped establish a firm foundation for the growth and development of women’s sports in Arkansas.”
Carder said the Henderson community has taken up the charge to elect Wallace to the Hall of Fame. She said President Glen Jones, the HSU Foundation, the athletic department and other alumni have joined the effort with letters of recommendation.