Augsburg honors trailblazing female athletes

On her first day as a student at Augsburg College, Marilyn Florian headed for the athletic director's office to ask when volleyball practice would begin. She had no idea the school didn't have a team -- and Joyce Pfaff wasn't about to tell her.

Pfaff became Augsburg's director of women's athletics in 1972, when the Minneapolis college granted varsity status to its female athletes. Her own opportunities to play were limited during her college days in the 1960s. With the door now opened to full participation by women, Pfaff was determined to make the most of it, so she created a volleyball team on the spot and coached it herself with the aid of a how-to book.

That do-it-yourself spirit paved the way for hundreds of women to experience the camaraderie, challenge and fulfillment of varsity sports. Friday, Florian and Pfaff -- both still at Augsburg, supporting its female athletes -- received a tangible symbol of what sports had given them. They and 76 other Auggies athletic pioneers got varsity letters in an emotional ceremony on campus to celebrate 35 years of women's varsity sports.

The school did not award letters to its female athletes until 1988. Last Friday, its current women's teams -- some wearing their jerseys, some fresh off the practice field -- led a parade from Augsburg's athletic facilities to the Foss Chapel, where Pfaff presented the alumnae with the framed maroon A's that signified their place in the school's sports history.

"This is so special," said Elaine Nelson Bernards, who played for the famed Auggiettes basketball team in the late 1950s. "It was a wonderful experience to play sports here. It helped me realize that the sky is the limit, that young women should follow their heart's desire."

Pfaff, now a professor of health and physical education, was part of Augsburg's Women's Recreation Association from 1962 to '65 and served as women's athletic director from 1972 to '88. The volleyball team she started was the state runner-up to the Gophers in 1974 and helped build the athletic reputation of a women's program that now includes nine varsity sports.

"I cringe when one of our current athletes asks, 'What is Title IX?'" said Pfaff, referring to the 1972 federal law that ignited the women's sports movement by prohibiting gender discrimination at publicly funded schools. "All of the athletes here are standing on the shoulders of the women who came before them. By celebrating our past, we encourage our future."

The ceremony drew former Auggies from all over the nation. Many of them brought spouses, children and grandchildren, who marched alongside them and snapped photos as a brass band accompanied the parade down South 7 ½ St.

They began the evening at the LaVonne Johnson Peterson Health and Physical Education Center, named for the coach of the legendary Auggiettes. Before Title IX and varsity women's sports, Peterson's basketball team compiled a 125-5 record in Minneapolis Park Board play from 1950 to 1965. Several of her players, including 1945 graduate Agnes Larson, looked through fading photographs and newspaper clippings about the school's "girls sports" while greeting teammates they hadn't seen in years.

They told stories about the time the softball team ambushed some thieves in the locker room and held them until police arrived. They shared tales of long road trips in a coach's VW bus and laughs about the Quonset hut where the basketball team used to play.

Mostly, there was gratitude for the ability to participate in activities that transformed their lives.

"I came here to get a great education, and it just happened I was really good at sports," said Melanie Herrera Storlie, who became Augsburg's first female all-America when she won a national title in the shot put in 1987. "The athletic goals I reached taught me I could do whatever I wanted in life. I could handle anything and go after any dream. That's still with me."

That knowledge also lives within the women playing today. They formed a tunnel at the chapel door to welcome their forebears, who finally received their own letters after making it possible for younger women to earn theirs.

"I remember Joyce saying to me, 'If you want to play volleyball, we'll have a team,'" said Florian, a three-sport athlete and two-sport coach at Augsburg who now is the school's assistant athletic director. "She knew we had talent and desire. We just needed the opportunity, and we're all grateful we got it."

Rachel Blount • rblount@startribune.com