General 9/3/2020 12:31:00 PM - Tyler McIntosh, Athletic Communication

Looking Back at 10 Pioneers of Women's Athletics at SRU

For our first “Throwback Thursday” we’ll look back at 10 pioneers for women’s sports at Slippery Rock.

Women’s Athletics at Slippery Rock University has existed in one form or another since 1898. Over that time, women’s sports at The Rock have grown from their humble beginnings of strictly participating in sports via physical education classes, to playing intramural style basketball in 1910 (women were not permitted to play games against other colleges until 1922), to the formation of the Women’s Recreation Association that put an emphasis on getting female students to participate in various activities, to having women’s sports earn varsity status in 1958, all the way to present day, where 10 Rock women’s teams compete at the NCAA Division II level.

The evolution of women’s collegiate athletics has often been a slow process that has required true leaders and pioneers to forge a path previously uncharted and often break through boundaries of their time in the name of equality. Along the way there have been thousands of student-athletes, coaches, administrators and professors at SRU that have done just that.

As a result of the hard work and dedication of countless people spanning generations, Slippery Rock has come to enjoy a rich history of success in women’s athletics. To date, Slippery Rock women varsity teams have combined to produce one team national championship, eight individual national champions, 45 team conference titles, 267 All-America honorees and 44 Academic All-Americans.

It would be impossible to profile every individual who has helped shape women’s athletics at SRU, but the following 10 women have been true trailblazers, leaders and great ambassadors for women’s athletics at Slippery Rock.

Wilma Cavill

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1948 (student), 1958 (professional)
Years at SRU: 58 years professionally (1958-15) - 62 total
Sports Coached: Gymnastics (1958-64), Swimming (1964-76)
Affectionately titled the "elder statesperson" of SRU later in her career, Cavill witnessed firsthand, and played a major role in, the transformation of women’s athletics at Slippery Rock over a 67-year stretch from her arrival on campus as a student in 1948 to her death in 2019.

A physical education major, Cavill competed in gymnastics as an undergrad and captained the team in 1950. Following her graduation from Slippery Rock, Cavill taught at Ben Franklin Junior High School in New Castle for six years before returning to SRU. Originally, Cavill planned to only teach, but just two weeks into her tenure then-President Norman Weisenfluh assigned her to coach the gymnastics team, a role that Cavill was initially not excited for.

“We had a lovely chat, and he remembered when I was on the gymnastics team and called me “Willie,” as everybody did while I was in college and some people do today,” Cavill recalled in an interview with Sarah Meleski in 2008.”I began to get the impression that he was inquiring as to whether or not I would be interested in coaching gymnastics. I wasn’t, but I eventually figured out that he wasn’t asking, he was telling me that I was going to coach gymnastics. That was going to be an assignment in addition to being the student teaching supervisor and an aquatic specialist.”

Cavill went on to coach gymnastics at SRU for six seasons before being tabbed to start the swimming program at The Rock, a post she held for 12 years (1964-76). Under her tutelage, Slippery Rock was one of the first women’s swimming programs in the state of Pennsylvania to compete on a national level.

In addition to coaching, Cavill was instrumental in the development of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), the organization that represents faculty and coaches. She served as the local APSCUF president for four consecutive one-year terms (1974-78).

One of her major accomplishments was helping secure additional compensation for coaches. Prior to the advent of the union she had coached 13 years with no extra compensation. She also helped in leading the charge to make sure that Morrow Field House did not exclude women’s athletes.

“When I came here we were planning the field house, it hadn’t been built yet,” said Cavill. “It was interesting because it was the first time faculty had been asked to be involved in the planning, to be included. There were a lot of obstacles to overcome. For one thing, they didn’t think they were going to have women’s locker rooms in the field house and we said, Yes you will.”

At the time of her retirement in 2015, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service and was recognized as the longest serving faculty member in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. Cavill passed away in 2019 at the age of 88.
Photo 1: Cavill (second from left) as a gymnast at Slippery Rock in 1950.
Photo 2: Cavill (first from left) in her first year as Slippery Rock's gymnastics coach.
Photo 3: Cavill as Slippery Rock's women's swimming coach.
Photo 4: Cavill as Slippery Rock's women's swimming coach.
Photo 5: Cavill receiving her honorary doctorate from president Norton in 2015.

Anne Griffiths

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1965
Years at SRU: 35 (1965-99)
Sports Coached: Basketball (1966-79)
With its roots going all the way back to the early 1900's, basketball is the oldest sport that women have played at Slippery Rock, but it was Anne Griffiths who oversaw the growth of the sport at The Rock to varsity status.

How successful was Griffiths in her 13 seasons in charge of the women’s basketball program? She is still The Rock’s all-time leader in coaching wins (111) and winning percentage (.665).

Originally a product of East Stroudsburg University where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Griffiths would go on to receive a doctorate from the University of Iowa prior to teaching at Southern Lehigh High School for three years before eventually accepting a position with the Slippery Rock faculty in 1965. She remained at SRU until her retirement in 1999.

More important than all of her documented on-court success was the effect she had on the lives of all the women she coached, taught and mentored at SRU including C. Vivian Stringer, one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches in collegiate history.

“Dr. Griffiths taught me that it is okay to be a strong woman,” Stringer said in an interview with ROCK magazine in 2009. “I loved the way she spoke, the way men responded to her with admiration. I tried to emulate her when I was a young head coach at Cheyney. Both she and Dr. Zimmerman are my professional best friends. I can’t think of doing anything without talking to them. I can name on one hand the people I talked to during the Imus affair, and that includes them.”

In what should be a surprise to no one, Griffiths was also a champion of Title IX legislation both behind the scenes and publicly at Slippery Rock in the years leading up to the passing of the now-historic civil rights law that was adopted in 1972.

“It was more than equality on the playing field, it was the responsibility I felt for standing up and speaking for young women and coaches,” Griffiths told ROCK Magazine in 2009. “When Title IX was having trouble getting through Congress, we got a van and hauled our students and athletes to Washington D.C. to protest. We had to educate them about their rights, make them believe and teach them to stand up for themselves. That was my goal. As a faculty member and administrator, I wanted to mentor young women to take our places one day.”

Before her career at Slippery Rock concluded Griffiths would become The Rock’s first woman chair for the department of physical education and eventually earn the title of provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Martha Haverstick

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1962
Years at SRU: 24 (1962-85)
Sports Coached: Tennis (1963-74) Coordinator of Women’s Programs
A life-long educator, Martha Haverstick came to Slippery Rock in 1962 after beginning her education career teaching in public schools across New York and Pennsylvania followed by spending 12 years as a faculty member at the University of Maryland.

In addition to coaching tennis at Slippery Rock from 1963-74 Haverstick was also named the first coordinator of women’s programs in physical education at Slippery Rock before retiring in 1985.

“The women had requested to hire a woman who would be in charge of the women's program, although there wasn't a separate program, but so that they would feel that they had someone to go to,” Haverstick said to Joseph Riggs in a 1999 interview. ”I think up to that point Slippery Rock was basically a men's institution. There were many more men than there were women. In fact, I was the third, just the third woman doctorate that they hired.”

As the coordinator of women’s programs, Haverstick aimed for women’s activities on campus to be more inclusive to the student-body as a whole.

“When I came we had what we called the W.A.A. - the Women's Athletic Association,” said Haverstick. “I came from a background where recreation was emphasized more than athletics. We were to provide activities for every woman on campus, not just the talented ones. So I changed that to W.RA. – the Women's Recreation Association, in the hopes that there were women who would participate in more varied activities, not only team sports because that's about all we had then.

We established a student-run organization with officers and our own constitution and all of the scheduling of intramural and interest groups and so on was done by the students. Even though it was slower and less efficient probably, we felt that the experience that the students had gotten in organizing that was a very valuable one.”

An early advocate for women’s sports at Slippery Rock, Haverstick found that she had to be true to herself when it came to fighting for what was best for herself, her sport and her students.

“I remember I was on one committee when I was first there and some man said ‘well, you just don't understand that,’ Haverstick recalled. “I said ‘don't tell me whether I understand something or not.’ “That took care of that relationship from then on. That's how I felt though. You couldn't serve in groups when they were telling you how to think or what you understood and what you didn't understand. I couldn't stand for that.”

Outside of Slippery Rock, Haverstick, who obtained her bachelor’s degree from Penn State University, master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and doctorate from Boston University, was a board member and past president of the Keystone Tall Trees Girl Scout Council.
Haverstick passed away in 2006 at the age of 84.

Noreen Herlihy

Noreen Herlihy regional Coach of the Year

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1995
Years at SRU: 20 (1995-2014)
Sports Coached: Women’s Soccer (1995-14), Men’s Soccer (1997-01)
One of the most successful coaches in not only Slippery Rock history, but all of Division II women’s soccer, Noreen Herlihy took over a program that was still in its infancy and turned it into one of the most formidable teams in the country on a yearly basis.

A native of Cork, Ireland, Herlihy began her undergrad work at Massasoit Community College in Massachusetts, where she played basketball and soccer before transferring to Mercyhurst University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine. Following her graduation from Mercyhurst, Herlihy remained at the school for two seasons as an assistant coach before taking over the SRU women’s soccer program that was only in its third year of existence on the varsity level.

What Herlihy accomplished at Slippery Rock over the next 20 years was nothing short of spectacular. Laying the foundation for what we know Rock women’s soccer to be today, Herlihy suffered just one losing season at SRU, her first year, followed by 19 consecutive winning seasons and a multitude of both individual and team accolades along the way.

Herlihy compiled an overall record of 250-113-30 (.674) at The Rock. She led SRU to the postseason on 13 occasions, earned nine NCAA Tournament berths, won three PSAC Tournament titles and guided Slippery Rock to three Atlantic Region championship matches.

Eight Herlihy-led teams finished the season ranked in the final National Soccer Coaches Association of American top-25 poll, including the 2013 team which concluded the year as the sixth-ranked team in the country. Herlihy coached 14 All-Americans, four PSAC Athlete of the Year honorees while earning three PSAC Coach of the Year accolades of her own.

In addition to her success coaching the women’s soccer team, Herlihy also led the men’s soccer program to 41 wins over five years (1997-01).

Off the field, Herlihy oversaw the SRU Athletes for Forgotten Angels group. The Forgotten Angels project was an impressive community service group made up of student-athletes from all of Slippery Rock's sports teams. The group traveled to Haiti twice to deliver school supplies and teach youth sports clinics. It also traveled to New Orleans to help with the fallout of Hurricane Katrina and taught sports camps in St. Lucia on another trip.

Herlihy left Slippery Rock following the 2014 season to become the head coach at the University of Akron, a Division I school that competes in the Mid-American Conference.

Jan Kasnevich

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1964 (student), 1976 (professional)
Years at SRU: 29 years professionally (1976-04) - 33 total
Sports Coached: Softball (1977-86), Field Hockey (1985-88, 1990-97), Basketball (Assistant)
Jan Kasnevich basically did it all during her 33 years at Slippery Rock. A stellar athlete in her own right, Kasnevich was a four-year member SRU’s basketball, volleyball, tennis and field hockey teams during her undergraduate years as well as an assistant women’s basketball coach, head softball coach, head field hockey coach and a professor upon returning to SRU as a professional.

After graduating from Slippery Rock, Kasnevich spent two years as a member of the U.S. Field Hockey National Team while teaching and coaching at Montour High School as well as obtaining her master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

She returned to Slippery Rock to join the physical education department and coach softball in 1976. The next decade was arguably the best the program has ever been. Kasnevich won 64.8 percent of her games, 127 victories overall, in her 10 years in charge of SRU softball. Highlights of the Kasnevich era included three Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national tournament appearances and winning a PSAC championship in 1981.

Kasnevich then took on a reclamation project of sorts in 1985 when she assumed control of a Slippery Rock field hockey program that had won just 10 games over the previous five seasons. As she did with the softball program, Kasnevich quickly brought the field hockey team to respectability by posting a record of 33-22-3 (.595) in her first four years with the pinnacle being the 1987 season when Kasnevich led The Rock to a school-record 14 wins and the program’s lone NCAA Tournament appearance.

After taking a year sabbatical to earn her doctorate from Pittsburgh in 1989, Kasnevich spent eight more seasons as The Rock’s head coach before stepping down prior to the 1998 season. She officially retired as a faculty member from Slippery Rock in 2004 according to university records.

Following all of her years coaching and educating, Kasnevich reminisced on just how much her and her contemporaries had to overcome in the early years, including changing the mindsets, ideas and practices that today we know to be completely illogical.

“Some women in physical education were responsible for holding women back,” Kasnevich said in an interview with The Rocket in 2000. “It wasn’t just the ‘old boys network’ that was responsible. Sometimes early educators thought that a foolish girl who ran up and down the basketball court would expend all this energy and later in life when she was supposed to have children would have problems with their pregnancies. Now we know the reverse is true.”

Helen Knierim

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1973
Years at SRU: 24 (1973-94)
Sports Coached: Tennis (1974-77)
Coming to the Slippery Rock physical education department in 1973 thanks in no small part to past relationships with fellow pioneers Anne Griffiths and Patricia Zimmerman, Helen Knierim would spend the next 24 years of her life at Slippery Rock.

A graduate of Illinois State (bachelor’s degree) and the University of Iowa (master’s degree and doctorate), Knierim took over tennis coaching duties from Martha Haverstick in 1974. Previously, Knierim had coached tennis at Hanover College, Iowa and the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.

Just as important as her impressive resume as a tennis coach at The Rock, which included a stellar 34-16 (.680) record during her tenure, was her role in fighting for equality in athletics, the physical education department and in developing the gerontology program at Slippery Rock.

In an interview with the Bailey Library Archives Department in 1993, Knierim spoke of the continued struggle for equality in both athletics and physical education for women that was happening when she first arrived at SRU.

“There was a lot of gender conflict and separation,” Knierim said. “They weren't only separated physically, they were separated philosophically. The women tended to be much more, even in athletics, what we called athletics then, women were much more educationally focused. Far more focused on the learning aspects. In the early seventies, we were all forced to meld into one department and it was major conflict. Because in all cases with very, very few exceptions, men were put into the leadership role and men dominated the programs.”

While recognizing the importance of Title IX legislation and that it did go a long way towards fixing many of the wrongs in collegiate athletics, Knierim was quick to point out that it wasn’t then, or now, a cure all for equality in collegiate sports and that it continues to take people advocating on local, state and national levels to bring about change.

“That's what's so sad. It takes legislation to make people change,” said Knierim. “Because the attitudes didn't change and a lot of the men resented the fact that they were forced to give women some money for athletic teams and they were forced to let women be on some of the key committees.”

Knierim spent much of her time outside of Slippery Rock continuing to advocate for equality in sports as she served on the National Association of Girls and Women in Sports (NAGWS) as acting executive director in 1978-79 and president in 1981-82.

Knierim passed away in 2009 at the age of 84.

Laurie Lokash

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1984
Years at SRU: 37 (1984-Still Active)
Sports Coached: Volleyball (1984-Still Active), Softball (1987-96)
The true successor to the program established by Marie Wheaton, Laurie Lokash was named the Slippery Rock head volleyball coach in 1984. To say she has provided stability and success to a position that went through five different head coaches in the five seasons following Wheaton’s retirement is an understatement.

Over the last 36 seasons Lokash has become not only one of the top volleyball coaches in PSAC history, but all of NCAA Division II all the while carrying on Wheaton’s mission of equality opportunity for athletics at Slippery Rock.

“It can’t be okay for one team to be getting x number of dollars a day to eat while maybe another team gets five dollars less,” said Lokash in an interview with The Rocket in 2019. “Whether that’s men’s or women’s, or vice versa, it doesn’t matter. An athlete is an athlete is an athlete and they should be treated that way.”

A gifted athlete as a youth competing in volleyball, softball and basketball, Lokash attended West Virginia University for one season before finishing her collegiate career at Penn State University following a prep career in which she helped lead Norwin High School to three straight Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state championships. Lokash took over The Rock volleyball program when she was only 22 years old, making her one of the youngest head coaches in the country.

To date, Lokash has led Slippery Rock to 643 victories, 19 winning seasons, 10 PSAC Tournament appearances, eight NCAA Tournament berths and two PSAC Tournament titles. Along the way, Lokash has mentored three academic All-Americans a pair of AVCA All-Americans and countless PSAC Scholar-Athletes.

Lokash’s 643 career wins are already the most of any coach in PSAC history. Along with being the eighth winningest active coach in Division II, Lokash also ranks 21st in Division II history in total victories. For Lokash, all of the success has always come second to helping with the personal growth of her players.

“I absolutely think the most rewarding aspect of coaching is seeing a player develop as an adult,” Loakash said in an interview with The Rocket in 2018. “I always said to people that volleyball or athletics in general is an internship for life. In life, and in college athletics more specifically, working hard is an expectation. So I have used my experience to not only coach players in volleyball but teach them valuable lessons about life.”

Along with coaching volleyball at Slippery Rock, Lokash also served as The Rock’s softball coach for 10 years (1987-96) where her 101 victories rank third in program history. In addition to her coaching duties, Lokash has served in various roles for the Slippery Rock chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF).

Marie Wheaton

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1943 (student), 1957 (professional)
Years at SRU: 27 years professionally (1957-1984) - 31 total
Sports Coached: Field Hockey (1957-63), Volleyball (1968-79)
Perhaps no one person had more to do with the foundation of women’s sports at Slippery Rock than Marie Wheaton.

A New Castle native, Wheaton followed up on her bachelor’s degree from Slippery Rock in 1947 with a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate from the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University.

Wheaton, who was a professor in the SRU physical education department for nearly a quarter century, not only helped launch the field hockey and volleyball programs at The Rock, but also led the charge to lift women’s sports as a whole to varsity status.

Despite a past history in the early 1920’s of women’s teams competing against other colleges, that practice had long been stopped at Slippery Rock by the time Wheaton came to The Rock as both a student and later a professor and coach. Wheaton explained to Leah Brown in an interview conducted in 1994 what caused the cease in intercollegiate events for women at Slippery Rock and what it meant to the students.

“Everyone was against women’s intercollegiate teams here,” said Wheaton. “Now we used to do it anyway, but they were against it and we were not allowed to officially say we were from Slippery Rock. Intercollegiate competition for women was not in the philosophy here at that time. The students at that time wanted sports, they were dying for intercollegiate activity.”

Along with colleague Nancy Barthelemy, Wheaton successfully petitioned then-president Weisenfluh to once again allow women to represent Slippery Rock in intercollegiate contests.

“All we were asking for was permission to take our team out and say that we were from Slippery Rock,” said Wheaton. “That’s it, we didn’t ask for money, we didn’t ask for uniforms, we didn’t ask for gas. We just wanted that one thing, to say we were from Slippery Rock. It’s a far cry from what they have now, but it was a big first step at the time.”

In a show of appreciation for Wheaton’s many contributions to Slippery Rock athletics throughout the years, the 2009 SRU volleyball team presented Wheaton with a signed game ball. Head coach Laurie Lokash explained why in an interview for ROCK Magazine in 2009.

“We gave her the game ball because of the difference she made,” said Lokash. “It was made very clear that she’s the reason why current women players have the opportunities they do today, because of her and the others’ pioneering leadership.”

While sports have changed drastically since Wheaton coached the core principles that make athletics great remained the same.

“It wasn’t as fierce competitively and I sometimes wonder if we had more fun, but even back then our goals as coaches were much the same,” Wheaton said in an interview conducted in 2009. “We pushed and motivated our athletes to work hard and do the best they could. It was gratifying to see them satisfy a desire to improve their skills and themselves.”

Wheaton passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. A true supporter of Slippery Rock volleyball until the very end, it was asked in Wheaton’s obituary that in lieu of flowers that memorial contributions be made to the Dr. Marie Wheaton Volleyball Fund.

Carolyn Williams

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1967
Years at SRU: 20 (1967-86)
Sports Coached: Coordinator of Women’s Athletics, Women’s Recreation Association Advisor
While never a head coach for one particular sport at Slippery Rock, Carolyn Williams’ impact on women’s athletics could be felt across all teams and many extracurricular activities at SRU.

Prior to arriving to the Slippery Rock physical education department in 1967, Williams earned her bachelor’s degree from Tufts College and her master’s degree from the University of Texas. She went on to make a name for herself as a faculty member at various colleges including Stephens College, Napa College, Texas, West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout her travels Williams coached nearly every sport available to women at the time.

At Slippery Rock, Williams served as the coordinator of women’s athletics for nearly a decade as well as being the faculty advisor to the Women’s Recreation Association in addition to her duties as a professor within the physical education department.

As the coordinator of women’s athletics, Williams worked closely with Director of Athletics Robert E. Raymond in handling scheduling, budgeting and purchasing of equipment for women’s athletics. A large amount of credit is owed to Williams for helping to bring stability to the expansion of women’s athletics at Slippery Rock.

In the 1974-75 Slippery Rock women’s sports guide, Williams attributed much of the success of women’s athletics at Slippery Rock to the coaches and student-athletes supporting each other.

“One of the most positive things about our program is the attitude and fine rapport that exists between our coaches and players,” said Williams.

Williams passed away in 2011 at the age of 84.

Patricia Zimmerman

Year Started At Slippery Rock: 1961
Years at SRU: 33 (1961-93)
Sports Coached: Field Hockey (1964-83)
Following a heralded career at East Stroudsburg University, where she was a standout member of the field hockey, basketball and tennis teams, Patricia Zimmerman was a member of the U.S. National Field Hockey team for five years and the reserve team for three years all the while obtaining a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from the University of Iowa.

Prior to accepting a position in the Slippery Rock physical education department in 1961, Zimmerman coached basketball and field hockey in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

At Slippery Rock, Zimmerman led the field hockey program for 20 seasons before spending her final decade at Slippery Rock focusing squarely on being a faculty member. Zimmerman holds the impeccable distinction of recording 18 consecutive winning seasons.

In guiding Slippery Rock field hockey into varsity competition, The inaugural varsity season culminated in an eighth-place finish at the 16-team Eastern Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships. During her time at Slippery Rock, Zimmerman coached three student-athletes who would play on the U.S. National Team.

Zimmerman’s experience playing on the U.S. National Team helped her provide Slippery Rock with a unique perspective that focused more on competition and less on recreation, a stark contrast to the general outlook on women’s athletics at the time.

“Having been on the U.S. team, I had a different outlook as to how sports should be played,” Zimmerman told ROCK Magazine in 2009.

Like so many others, Zimmerman served on the front lines of the early fight for equality following the initial passage of Title IX. She served as the director of SRU’s initiative for equal opportunity which investigated how the school stood in regard to Title IX at the time.

“The fellows were so used to getting what they needed for their teams that it was difficult for them to share facilities and equipment in the beginning,” Zimmerman said. “It was my job to remind them that just meeting the requirements wasn’t enough. It also meant providing women’s athletics with quality staff, transportation and facilities.”