By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
In the early years of Baylor volleyball, luxury was not an option. Traveling throughout Texas and out of state for tournaments, it was up to the Bears and their staff to drive the vans.
“I would go pick up a van, pick up the stuff that we needed for the trip, get all of that together because there just wasn’t a huge coaching staff,” former Baylor student athletic trainer Pam Rast said.
The players packed into motels on the road, excited for the opportunity to watch TV.
“We would stay at Motel 6, three or four of us to a room,” said Rast, who was at Baylor from 1978-83. “We got all excited when the coach would come out to the van and hand us all keys because we knew that those were the keys to the TV set.”
Even at home, Baylor did not have facilities of their own on campus, playing at Spenco Aerobics Center and working out in the football weight room.
“We never played on campus,” said Ann Blockhus Martin, who played on the Bears’ first NCAA volleyball team. “We played at Spenco … it was a big gymnastics gym, and then they had the volleyball court, and then they had the tennis.”
Starting in 1981, multiple women’s sports, including volleyball, moved from the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to the NCAA. While the facilities and revenue took more time to grow, the shift marked a new chance for female collegiate athletes.
“It was all about the opportunity to compete,” Rast said. “The opportunities that have been made available for women in athletics as a result of the move to NCAA … It’s given women the same opportunities, essentially, in life and in business that the men had.”
The landmark enactment of Title IX in 1972 and the move to the NCAA in 1981 created new openings for athletes and other women working with teams, including athletic trainers like Rast, who is now a professor, program director and kinesiology department chair at Texas Wesleyan University.
“It opened a lot of doors for me,” Rast said. “If it hadn’t been for Title IX … from an athletic perspective, I wouldn’t have the career that I have today.”
Some athletes were less consciously focused on making history or being a part of the progress in women’s athletics — they just wanted to play and compete against some of the best programs.
“We were kids, we were in school, we were playing volleyball,” Martin said. “We were playing other huge programs who already had a huge program, like UT.”
College volleyball’s landscape contained a variety of programs competing. New, up-and-coming teams like Baylor played against more proven and financially supported programs, such as Texas.
“There was quite a diverse group of teams that we played versus now,” Martin said.
Baylor’s 1981 volleyball team has appreciated the strides that have been made over the 44 years since moving to the NCAA. The volleyball program now shares the Ferrell Center and its facilities only with acrobatics and tumbling. Women’s basketball moved into Foster Pavilion with the men’s team. Softball presides at its own Getterman Stadium.
“Women in sports have come leaps and bounds as to where we were,” Martin said. “We were in a gymnastics gym, and our girls now have their own arena to play in.”
It took the Bears 18 years to make the tournament after joining the NCAA. They made three more tournament appearances in 2001, 2009 and 2011 before becoming a powerhouse under current head coach Ryan McGuyre. Baylor has reached nine consecutive NCAA tournaments, along with a semifinal appearance in 2019 as the No. 1 overall seed.
“He’s a great role model for these girls, and he builds leaders,” Martin said. “We were just playing, versus Ryan has a mission.”
There is still a strong connection between different generations of Baylor volleyball players. Martin and her 1981 teammates have been able to form bonds with players who have reached other milestones to continue supporting the program they helped build.
“Being an athlete at Baylor puts you in a special group, because I could reach out to other Baylor volleyball people,” Martin said. “They have had reunions in the past, and we have seen people from other timeframes — the 2000s, the 1990s — so I’m friends with some of them only because we’re Baylor alum and Baylor volleyball alum.”
The Bears will continue their run for a 10th straight NCAA tournament appearance when they take on Colorado at 8 p.m. Friday at CU Events Center in Boulder, Colo.
