Sherry Gillespie couldn’t have known what changes were in store when she picked up a ringing telephone in the fall of 1967.
The voice on the other end belonged to Ruth Morrow. She was busy looking for a scrimmage for her intramural women’s basketball team.
Gillespie, who had been hired as an associate professor in MSU’s Physical Education Department and also served as the girl’s intramural director, told Morrow she would have to get back with her.
“I knew we had a good intramural team and asked the girls if they wanted to play Texas Tech,” she said.
The girls accepted and promptly defeated the visiting Red Raiders marking the birth of Midwestern State women’s athletics.
“A lot of changes were happening at the time,” Gillespie said. “We got pretty enthusiastic after beating Tech and started going to tournaments every weekend.”
The changes were important to Gillespie, who didn’t have the same opportunities to play while attending Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth.
“I did not have a high school basketball experience, so I didn’t play in college,” she said. “I learned to officiate, so I could be a part of it.”
Gillespie, who would become a nationally rated volleyball official, wanted the girls to have the opportunity to participate in collegiate athletics, so she was willing to make sacrifices.
“Our first budget was $500,” she said. “We did quite well, but we did have to support ourselves quite a bit.”
But the Midwestern budget was about the same as larger schools in the pre-Title IX era of the early ‘70s.
“One time we were snowed-in in Lubbock and didn’t have money to stay another night,” Gillespie said. “Instead of risking the drive home, girls brought us blankets and pillows from out of the dorms, so we stayed in the gym.”
Gillespie would eventually coach volleyball, softball, badminton and eventually even gymnastics.
“I thought it was an opportunity the girls should have,” she said.
Gillespie would leave to pursue a PhD in 1974, but not before the seeds had been planted to further women’s athletics at Midwestern State.
“We may not have won a state championship, but we fielded good, competitive teams,” she said. “The girls went to (Athletics Director) Gerald (Stockton) and said he had to keep it going, and since we had a good program, it made it easy for us to go into Title IX requirements because the teams were already there.”
Midwestern State women’s athletics competed in the Texas Intercollegiate Athletics Association (TIAA) for Women before the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics began supporting women’s athletics in 1980.
“The TIAA made sure we were all on the same page and understanding of academic requirements,” Gillespie said. “They were doing a lot of the things we do now for eligibility. The structure and energy was important for the girls.”
Women at Midwestern State University now compete in six sports as a member of the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s Division II – all in part to Gillespie answering her call to be a pioneer in the field of women’s athletics.
Gillespie gained induction into the Midwestern State Athletics Hall of Honor in 2007.
