Mighty Macs star, Penn State coach Portland dies
The first time Judy (Marra) Martelli met Rene (Muth) Portland it fittingly came on a basketball court, when Martelli was an eighth-grader at St. Dorothy’s in Drexel Hill and Portland was in the same grade at St. Anastasia in Newtown Square.
“For some reason we played them at the Don Guanella (School), right up the street from (Cardinal) O’Hara,” Martelli said. “I believe the final score was 10-9. We won 10-9.”
A year later, Martelli and Portland became classmates, teammates and best friends when they enrolled at Villa Maria Academy in Malvern. They would go on to basketball glory as teammates at Immaculata where they, along with Theresa (Shank) Grentz and Marianne (Crawford) Stanley, led the Mighty Macs to the first three AIAW championships from 1972-74. The AIAW tournament was the precursor to the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Portland, who grew up in Broomall, went on to become a highly successful women’s college basketball coach where she built Penn State into a national power during her 27-year tenure in State College. She won 693 games overall, 606 at Penn State, and was the WBCA Coach of the Year in 1991 and 2004.
Portland died Sunday after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 65.
“In some ways, you’re at peace knowing that she’s not suffering anymore, but it still leaves a little bit of a hole in your heart,” said Martelli, the wife of Saint Joseph’s men’s coach Phil Martelli. “Even though you know it’s coming it’s still hard.”
Portland’s passing came eight months after she was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame
“It’s very heartbreaking,” added former Immaculata teammate Theresa Grentz, a Cardinal O’Hara grad. “My condolences go out to John (Portland’s husband) and her children.”
Portland, Grentz and Stanley all went on to highly successful coaching careers at the collegiate and professional levels, but it all started at tiny Immaculata where they joined forces to lead the Mighty Macs to three straight national titles.
“I think our playing days were Camelot,” Grentz said. “We were all local kids who did well and that’s what made it so special.”
One of the things both Grentz and Martelli remember from those days are the buckets the nuns used to bang on during games.
“Rene’s father (Lou Muth) provided the buckets,” Grentz said.
“He owned a hardware store (in the 69th Street area of Upper Darby),” Martelli said. “It started with a few buckets and became a couple of hundred buckets. It just became a thing.”
Portland wasted no time getting into coaching. She spent a year as an assistant at Immaculata under coach Cathy Rush, and was hired a year later by Saint Joseph’s, where she coached Muffet McGraw, who has won two national championships as the coach at Notre Dame.
“She was ahead of her time,” said former SJU athletic director Don DiJulia, who hired Portland. “Rene was a natural leader as a player and that transformed into her coaching career. She represented us very well.”
Portland left Hawk Hill after two seasons for Colorado, where she spent two seasons before becoming the head coach at Penn State.
Portland went 19-9 in her first season and guided the Lady Lions to a 24-6 record and an invitation to the first NCAA women’s basketball tournament a year later. The Lady Lions qualified for the NCAA tournament 21 times and that included a trip to the Final Four in Philadelphia in 2000, where Penn State fell to eventual champion Connecticut in the semifinals.
Portland also was one of the women’s coaches who were asked to help the NBA develop its first women’s professional league, the WNBA, in 1997. That same year, she coached the U.S. national junior team to its first gold medal at the World Championships.
“She was a terrific coach,” Grentz said. “She did a lot to grow the game.”
Portland’s career, though, was not without controversy. She faced accusations that she discriminated against players whom she perceived to be gay, with a former player suing Portland and the school in 2005.
An internal school investigation led to a one-game suspension and $10,000 fine, though Portland disputed the findings. The lawsuit was settled confidentially.
She resigned as coach of Penn State in 2007. After leaving coaching, Portland devoted her time to her family, Martelli said. She is survived by her husband, John, daughters Christine Mori and DeLisa, sons John Jr. and Steven and seven grandchildren.
“She babysat her four granddaughters for years in Indiana,” Martelli said. “She was always, always traveling to see her son, John, in North Carolina. They did the whole family to Disney several times, even her extended family, her siblings and their families. They would get together down the shore.
“I said to her husband and her daughter today in a text that she lived her life at the end the way we all hope we can, quality time with family. She did and they will have so many memories of the fun times, hopefully when the tears are done and the heartache is over. They can all sit around and smile about the day we did this with Rene or the day we did that, just the wonderful memories they had with her.
“In the end, family is the most important thing. You can win all those games and all those championships, and they’re wonderful and at the time they’re special. I’ve seen it with my own husband. Winning an Atlantic 10 championship two out of three years was really great, but when that last moment comes, it’s your family and the time you had with your family that’s going to be remembered.”
Funeral arrangements are pending. The Associated Press contributed to this report.