I remember sharing your selection committee. Um we had a group of our
coaches in and athletics and I was the assistant athletic structure in
charge of academic and student services and was very fortunate to be able
to lead the search um when you came to us, it was real apparent the depth
of your experience and the deep care you had for the sport itself,
softball, but also the history um was really unparalleled. I mean it was
such a delight to hear about your commitment and we weren't sure you would
come, but we're very excited that you accepted the offer um and moved from
the cold winters of Minnesota to Arizona state. And as I recall when you
moved here, it started sort of a domino effect because there weren't that
many head coaches of women's sports um available who were at the top level.
And so as I recall you came here, the Oregon coach maybe went to
Minnesota to fill that position and then I think you were assistant. I I
happen to know the Oregon director and this is how so many of the leads
started on who, who was the best candidate out there to hire. I happened
to play golf with the director of athletics at Oregon and I told him about
, I believe Tammie Brown
who was here and she took the Oregon jobs. So our hiring of, of linda
wells as a head softball coach. I believe only the second softball coach
in NHL history um really transformed softball at four universities. It was
kind of amazing how how it works. Yes, it was that domino of um yeah, kind
of merry go round tammy Brown who played here in a great athlete for coach
Littlewood was going to be my assistant and then went to Oregon and by now
um there has been the starting gate of the National Fastpitch Coaches
Association, the Professional Association of Coaches for Softball. It's
true, the vast majority of coaching positions in volleyball, basketball
and softball were filled by women. I coached um those three sports at
Minnesota until um 1981, I in 78 I gave up basketball in 81, I gave up
volleyball, so when I came here I was only coaching one sport at Minnesota
and came here to coach one sport at um Arizona State, I had been by then
the past president of the Coaches association and was very engaged with
also the International Softball Federation, who is the International MGB.
So the olympic arm then, And that's in 1989 and then I do my 16 years, I
can I remember to this day coming to the campus and just kind of feeling
the fit, just kind of knowing. Um and having said that of course I had, I
loved Minnesota, I go back there, great life, friends and All the alumni,
I'm so appreciative to them and for the opportunity to be there, but it
was out of the cold and it was also, I had coached there for 18 years and
I'm now asking myself, am I going to finish my career there, which would
be probable or am I gonna just give it the old college try and try
somewhere else because I hadn't been somewhere else. Was I going to finish
my career and wonder what it would have been like to be somewhere else.
And I fly into phoenix and I meet you in Tempe and
it's just um a beautiful place. The colors are the same maroon and gold,
you don't have to change my colors, you know, need a little different
embroidery, but you know, and I'm sure that you knew coach Littlewood
through the many associations that coaches and the competitions that you
had over the years. Um the idea of following such a legendary inaugural
coach, the founding coach of women's softball, who really started when it
was more of an intramural kind of club sort of sport. Um It must have been
Incredibly exciting at the time. I mean I am fortunate because I came here
in 1974 in many different roles, but I had the opportunity to know coach
Littlewood along with moral packer, who coached multiple sports, one was
badminton, um Mona Plummer um and Pittman, the weekly beginnings of
women's coaching at Arizona state and they too did everything they taught
physical education classes, they supervise student teachers, they coached
2 to 3 sports. Um they were on all the committees because every committee
had to have a woman and we didn't go very far because there weren't very
many of us. Um, everyone was in faculty women's association. Even if you
weren't a faculty member, it's just the only women's organization that was
here at Arizona State before university career women started for the staff.
So I mean, it was a privilege for me to be in the same building and, and
, and many people may not know at Arizona state that the building now
called PE West used to be called the men's chip and P East was the women's
gym and uh our athletic department um didn't really even merge until the
mid seventies. It was the men's athletic department which was athletics
and then women's athletics was in the physical education department. So
that history is something that, you know, released, it's important to
capture and you came within about a decade of now. Yes. And so I'm having
that same experience Minnesota now I come in here and it's upscale. I mean
, you've just moved into the Carson building. You know, the many of the
facilities have been upgraded and renovated and there's plans for softball
and um, some of the other sports to really have an opportunity and coach
Littlewood is, I mean she's already a legend. So the opportunity to come
in and be a part of this program, especially um you know, I loved my years
in the big 10, but coming to the pac 10, it's the premier conference for
softball. Mhm. If the weather is so attractive after battling the snowy
spring potential and and really being on the road to be competitive at at
Minnesota and so loved all those times and now I'm ready. You know, here's
the bougainvillea, you know, it's here. So, you know, I think I think it's
fair to say we just we became friends and you know, your boys are teeny
tiny and it was really just coming along, I think what was Danny was here
and Tommy, yes, and then here comes Joey. And so um yeah, it was just um a
great place.