In 1975, three years after the passage of Title IX, Clemson began to lay the foundation for women’s varsity sports, recruiting promising coaches and athletes to build the women’s basketball and tennis programs. Nearly 50 years later, that foundation is stronger than ever as women’s athletics has grown from an uncertain start to successful programs with a dedicated and spirited fan base.
On a Friday night in early March, the energy is palpable from a crowd of 8,631 inside Clemson University’s Littlejohn Coliseum as the inaugural Clemson Gymnastics team concludes its home slate with a fourth consecutive sellout. Once you locate an open seat in the packed arena and absorb your surroundings, it becomes clear why fans have come out in droves for Clemson’s newest varsity women’s sport.
Those who have watched gymnastics primarily through the Summer Olympics may not anticipate the stimuli that characterize collegiate gymnastics meets. Bright lights are flashing. Upbeat music is continuously blaring. And it’s not only the spectators who erupt in cheers and applause during competition. Alongside the crowd, the Clemson Gymnastics team and coaches are just as animated, celebrating a well-executed transition on the uneven bars or a stuck vault landing.
This joyful atmosphere is what head coach Amy Smith envisioned when Clemson hired her in 2022, but even she did not anticipate this kind of reception from fans in the team’s first season.
“There are (gymnastics) programs that have been around for a very long time and have done very well and have not seen that level of support,” Smith says.
“Having that much enthusiasm around our sport means everything,” says gymnast Brie Clark ’24. “That’s not something that you can get everywhere. It’s a truly spectacular feeling to be able to compete in Littlejohn.”
In January, Clemson Gymnastics was the final team to debut among the trio of recently added varsity women’s sports, following softball (2020) and lacrosse (2023). Impressively, all three teams have finished every season with winning records.
“The runway we gave those programs and coaches was kind of an extended year and a half to two years to build the program,” says athletic director Graham Neff. “All three came in with facility needs that our head coaches and staff were very much invested in from day one. … Balanced with the changing college athletics landscape was the ability to have those rosters have talent from all different levels. … (They were) able to stitch those rosters together competitively very quickly.”
Establishing a solid foundation that empowers women’s teams to compete immediately is not a new approach for Clemson Athletics. It’s embedded within its tradition and history, beginning 50 years ago when the University introduced varsity women’s sports.
A NEW ERA
Modern-day women’s collegiate sports are inseparable from the 1972 passage of Title IX, the civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal government funding. Although Title IX’s principal legacy in the public consciousness is its impact on sports, the 37-word law does not explicitly mention athletics.
“The initial supporters (of Title IX) were just as surprised as the athletic departments when it became clear that this law would also apply to sports programs,” Susan Ware, author of Title IX: A Brief History with Documents, told Sports Illustrated in May 2022.
Athletic administrators viewed Title IX as an existential threat to men’s sports, arguing that fielding women’s teams would financially jeopardize men’s. Before federal regulations for athletics were released in July 1975, Clemson affirmed it would follow all requirements of Title IX: “We don’t know yet what we will do, but when the guidelines come out, we will comply,” Adm. Joseph B. McDevitt, vice president for academic affairs and University legal counsel, told The Tiger student newspaper in April 1974.
Clemson took a different approach from other schools when the University added basketball, tennis, fencing and swimming as its first varsity women’s sports in 1975–1976. Instead of hiring a women’s athletic director, all sports fell within the purview of athletic director Bill McLellan ’54, M ’56. Men’s and women’s teams also shared facilities.
Bobby Robinson, who joined Clemson Athletics in 1973 and succeeded McLellan as athletic director in 1985, attributes those decisions to cost due to the department’s small staff and tight budget. However, the organizational structure ensured that women’s sports were not sidelined from the larger athletics program, which helped achieve a degree of parity.
“The people that we had in place … worked for (men’s and women’s sports), so we tried to treat them all the same and within reason,” Robinson says.
In the first year of varsity women’s sports, Clemson’s financial commitment to the programs was small. According to budget records, of the $2.71 million in athletic department expenditures for 1975–1976, Clemson disbursed $14,189 to women’s basketball and $8,836 to women’s tennis. In comparison, men’s basketball and men’s tennis had expenditures of $369,399 and $27,686, respectively. Such an imbalance, as stark as it was, was common at the time.
But it was the people tasked with getting these programs off the ground who would ultimately make the most significant impact despite the budget disparity.
THE TRAILBLAZERS
“We had some coaches who were very well respected and brought credibility to the (varsity women’s sports) program,” says former sports information director Tim Bourret (1989–2018), whose time at Clemson began in 1978.
Among them was Mary Kennerty ’73, M ’77, the first head coach for both women’s basketball and women’s tennis.
As an undergraduate, Kennerty was chair of the Central Spirit athletics organization and president of the Panhellenic Council. She had previous experience as a tennis instructor and had coached a high school girls basketball team in Atlanta after graduation.
“I don’t think that most collegiate programs for women across the U.S. had a situation like we had (at Clemson) where I took the first basketball team … and I said, ‘Where are we going to practice?’” Kennerty says. “And they said, ‘Mary, you’re going to practice in (Littlejohn Coliseum).’ … Women were fighting for facilities back then, and most of them did not have that advantage.”
Although Kennerty recalls receiving pushback from one coach about needing an office in Jervey Athletic Center and initial resistance to her players using the training and weight rooms, other male colleagues were cordial and welcoming.
Lt. Col. Rick Robbins, an academic advisor for athletics (1967–1980), was an invaluable resource and advocate for the women’s teams.
“He took me under his wing because there were no women around who were coaching,” Kennerty says. “He was instrumental in helping me stay on course with what the athletic department wanted and what I wanted. … It was great to lean on him. He was definitely on the women’s side.”
Men’s head basketball coach Bill Foster (1975–1984) provided Kennerty with his full practice schedule, leading her to model her practices after the men’s. Foster also connected her with former player Van Gregg ’76, who served as an assistant coach.
“I just really worked players hard,” Kennerty says. “We knew exactly what we were doing because we had the men’s (practice) schedule. It was great.”
The first women’s basketball team finished 14-11, and women’s tennis went 9-6. Kennerty transitioned to coaching only tennis for the 1977–1982 seasons.
“She was an excellent recruiter,” says former tennis player Susan Hill-Whitson ’81, a four-time ACC Player of the Year and the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship to Clemson. “The class she brought in with me, she had some very (highly ranked) recruits that year, and she continued to recruit at a very high level. She fought for us for everything. … She got us a contract that gave us our tennis apparel.”
In seven seasons, Kennerty led women’s tennis to a 133-47 record, and four of her teams finished with a top 20 ranking.
And her time with women’s basketball laid the groundwork for Annie Tribble ’66, M ’69 to take over in the 1976–1977 season.
“With getting everything started, I know that first year, compared to the next year, I feel like we learned a lot — just with traveling and expense accounts and using the different facilities at the University,” says Talula Weathers Adams ’76, M ’78, a student manager for women’s basketball from 1975–1977.
As head coach at Anderson Junior College (now Anderson University), Tribble won three women’s junior college national championships, and her reputation lent further legitimacy to the growth of Clemson Women’s Basketball. She intentionally scheduled out-of-conference powerhouse opponents, such as Tennessee and Old Dominion, to push her teams competitively.
“That was very important that she had the vision to play a tough and challenging schedule,” Bourret says.
In 11 seasons, Tribble led the Tigers to a 200-135 record, seven postseason appearances, an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship in 1980–1981, and 22 wins over top 25 teams.
“She was just such a good coach,” says Al Adams ’75, a former student publicity assistant (1973–1975) and assistant sports information director (1975–1978). “The girls loved playing for her, but she was just such a great person. We were just so fortunate to have her come in and stay as long as she did because it just made the women’s basketball program so much fun to be around.”
Mary Anne Cubelic-Grant ’83, M ’84, who played for Tribble as a shooting guard and point guard from 1979–1983, praises her former coach as a “pioneer at Clemson for the women’s game.”
“She really cared for her players and took an interest in our well-being other than just on the basketball court,” Cubelic-Grant says. “She was a wonderful woman. I really made the right decision when I went to Clemson.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, schools often scheduled women’s and men’s basketball doubleheaders. Fans would arrive early for the upcoming men’s game during the women’s game.
“That was kind of cool because it helped us draw a larger crowd in the second half of all our games,” Cubelic-Grant says. For rivalry games, “by halftime, the place was packed. Of course, that wasn’t the case when we stood alone, but it was a lot of fun. It created a better environment for us.”
‘AN INCREDIBLE PLACE TO BE’
Today, women’s athletics at Clemson are a popular draw on their own, especially after expanding to sports that are gaining traction in the Southeast. Home attendance for gymnastics, softball and lacrosse all rank in the top 10 in the country.
“It’s a huge part of what we talk about in the recruiting cycle,” says women’s head lacrosse coach Allison Kwolek. “The fans here are so supportive and want you to be successful, and they show up to games. It’s a really special environment to play in and unlike any other.”
Softball has competed in McWhorter Stadium since the team’s inaugural season, and fans clad in orange and purple have consistently packed the seats and outfield berm seating area — so much so that, after the 2022 season, the latter had to be expanded to increase capacity by 500.
For softball infielder Maddie Moore ’25, the strong support validates her and her teammates’ dedication to their sport.
“It makes all the work that we’re doing worth it,” Moore says. “And it makes us want … to do better. It puts everything into perspective. Our work isn’t going unnoticed.”
“You can’t have success without the support of the University, our (athletic) administration and the community,” says head softball coach John Rittman, who, through five seasons, has led the Tigers to a 189-64 record and four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. “It’s all tied together. And when I took the job here, one of the things that I wanted to make sure is that number one, we were going to be funded properly. And number two, we were going to have things in place to build a championship program. And certainly, all those things came together, and it was a great fit.”
This past winter, Clemson unveiled the lakefront women’s sports complex, which serves the lacrosse, gymnastics and rowing teams. The lacrosse facility — the only one in the country exclusively for a women’s collegiate lacrosse program — includes a 9,000-square-foot operations space and an artificial turf stadium with bleacher seating for 1,000. The 21,000-square-foot gymnastics facility houses the team’s state-of-the-art practice gym.
Both Kwolek and gymnastics’ Smith recognize the importance of being able to show recruits the completed facilities during on-campus visits.
“Now that they can walk through it, they can really see how much Clemson truly supports female student-athletes,” Kwolek says. “I think it opens up the conversation for us to talk about … the support for your academic success and growing you as a leader and all the different ways that Clemson will invest in you.”
“We’re very excited for this upcoming year to really fully show off the investment that Clemson has in women’s athletics, and it’s not only the facilities,” Smith says. “The level of development for young women leaders here is also on another level. It’s just an incredible place to be and to be a female athlete.”
While the framework of college athletics has considerably changed in the last half-century, for Robinson, the former athletic director, the blueprint for building strong athletic programs remains the same — whether it’s 1975 or 2024.
“Hire good coaches and give them the resources to be successful,” he says. “That’s the key.”
In a February 1981 article in The Tiger, sports editor Cobb Oxford ’81 argued that the women’s basketball team had been underrated all season, and he encouraged fans to watch them host the ACC Tournament in Littlejohn that weekend: “I hope you will get out to see it,” he wrote. “You do not know what you are missing.”
More than 40 years later, the enthusiasm behind Oxford’s words still holds true — but now, fans don’t need to be convinced. And with continued support from the University and the Tiger faithful, the best days for women’s athletics at Clemson are on the horizon.
Emily Pietras Baker ’14 is the associate editor and chief copy editor in the Division of Marketing and Communications.
