State College, Pa., Jan. 3, 2002 -- For me, a female who grew up in an era when competition for girls in sports was frowned upon, the recognition for State College's historic 500th win in girls' basketball was another dream come true.

I am Mary Jo Haverbeck, a retired Penn State Sports Information employee and current webmaster for State College Girls' Basketball.

When I begged my P.E. teacher for even one varsity basketball game with another high school in 1956, she turned me down.

My teacher was Miss Hay, a professional educator who thought competition for girls was unladylike.

I'd love to see Miss Hay's reaction to the Women's Final Four and the PIAA's Girls' Basketball Championship today.

Richie Hamill, State College's first girls' basketball coach and a P.E. teacher who had no qualms about pushing for girls' interscholastic competition, is one of several heroines in this story. She coached varsity girls' basketball as well as field hockey and softball in the beginning years.

I don't know what motivated Mrs. Hamill to overcome the old phobias and philosophies. As far as I'm concerned, an award should be presented in this community in her name.

Mrs. Hamill brought the Lady Little Lion basketball team its first victory and its first winning season in 1967.

That was a year when a former member of the State College band suggested girls' basketball was pretty much a novelty.

The 1967 girls' varsity basketball team defeated Rothrock 40-29 in its opener and finished 4-2 led by high scorer Sue Heckendorn averaging 14 points a game.

The 1967 JV team also was a winner with a 5-1 record. The single loss was to Huntingdon by one point (13-12). Kathy Suhey was a sophomore on that JV team.

Suhey heads up an insurance investigation department in Madison, Wisc., and doesn't recall being part of a new era in State College High School sports. "I never really questioned that we played other teams," she said. "I thought we always had it."

"Her brothers always thought Kathy was the best athlete in the family," Kathy's mother Ginger Suhey said. Ginger Suhey's reference is to her sons Matt, Larry and Paul who were Penn State football standouts.

Kathy's niece Emily is playing 9th grade basketball at Mount Nittany Middle School in the State College School District. "Isn't that great," she said. "I wish I had her height. We always tell her that the sky's the limit for her."

Limitless opportunities were not available to Frank Zook, the program's third coach from 1973 to 1977, who said he took the job because, "No one wanted it. The cheerleaders would be practicing in the gym when we practiced, but they never cheered at our games."

Zook said his salary was $150 while the boys' coach was paid $1,500. "They used a formula to figure out the salary," Zook said. "They awarded points for crowd pressure and the boys typically sold out."

The year before Zook took over from Mary Trostle, who coached for one season in 1971, Congresswomen Patsy Mink from Hawaii and Edith Green from Oregon authored and co-sponsored Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972.

"At the time, Mink and other Title IX supporters were thinking of opening and expanding educational opportunities for women," ESPN columnist Michelle Voepel wrote. "But how Title IX affects women and girls in athletics will become a revolutionary part of the latter 20th century."

To its credit, State College High School already had an interscholastic girls' program five years ahead of Title IX's passage.

The varsity program came too late for State College High School assistant principal Joyce Sipple, a 1955 State College grad.

The full court game girls play today was years away from reality at that time but Sipple does remember Lady Little Lions at least seeing competitors from other schools.

"In basketball we had play days where we invited Shamokin and I think Bellefonte to come and play. That was a big deal. We only played Shamokin home and away. I don't know how we made that connection. It must have been because Mrs. Hamill knew somebody.

"We got out there in cars. Our parents drove us. It was a half court game and there was no rover then, just three forwards and three guards" she said.

Sipple played the center back position with her back towards the basket "because I was tall," she said. "My job was to prevent anybody from shooting. If somebody fouled me, someone on my team, a forward, would shoot the foul shot." During Sipple's high school career, she never shot a basket or a free throw.

Sipple was part of the State College staff when Title IX became law in 1972. "That was exciting," she said. "Finally some recognition and girls' teams being supported and being publicized.

"When I was teaching at Park Forest in the 80's we were still not integrated as far as boys' and girls' physical education," Sipple said. "I would say it was probably the mid 80's before we became fully compliant in terms of physical education."

Cheryl Speakman, now a Diversified Occupations Teacher and Co-op Coordinator at the high school, coached State College girls' basketball from 1981 to 1986. She led the Lady Little Lions out of the Tri-Valley League and into a league that included Altoona and Hollidaysburg.

"That first year (1985) I did not think we'd win one game," she said.

It was a gutsy move that resulted in a 1-21 season for her Lady Little Lions but the program caught up to its neighbors in the west defeating Altoona under coach Frank Guerra in 1988 during a 22-6 campaign.

Jen Kretchmar played in that historic triumph. "Playing Altoona, Hollidaysburg or Bishop Guilfoyle was significant, every time," Kretchmar said. "But that game was probably my most vivid memory. The score was 48-42." Kretchmar played for Penn State and last year earned her PhD. at North Carolina. She's now working in undergraduate admissions at UNC.

Both Sipple and Speakman feel that the march toward equality in girls' high school sports was worth the effort. "If they only knew how much we had to fight just to get them on the floor," Speakman said.

Speakman and others like her should have been with me at the 500-win game on Dec. 28 when I met Dee Marrara.

By chance, Marrara, a 1981 State College grad, had stumbled upon radio coverage of the Dec. 27 game with Abington and knew the Lady Little Lions were on the verge of getting the program's historic 500th win.

Marrarra teaches in an alternative education program at the high school level in Alexandria, Va., and was home for the holidays with her family.

"Playing in the Tri-Valley League was always good competition," she said. "But then when we'd go into District 6 competition and play Altoona, it was a different world. Trying to climb that ladder to get to where they were kept my teammates and myself working to get better."

After graduating from Towson University, Marrara coached for a year at Dartmouth and two years at St. Bonaventure. She then moved to basketball officiating starting at the high school ranks, then to Division III and to Division I. She's currently rehabbing a knee injury but plans to be back officiating next year.

"I have great memories of playing here," she says of her State College scholastic basketball career. "This is where I developed my passion for basketball."

I recall reading a letter to the editor in a weekly newspaper in Delaware from a father whose daughter played for a local sports team. He complained that the only time he saw coverage of females on the sports page was when a female race horse crossed the finish line.

That was my cue to get involved in publicity for girls' and women's sports.

And it's been a challenging and exciting ride -- from the sparse crowds at Penn State's early women's basketball games in White Building on campus to 10 consecutive sellouts working with hundreds of media at the women's Final Four.

To all those who cleared the pathways for today's games and those taking girls and women's hoops to a new level in the 21st century, here's a thank you from me. To those girls just beginning their basketball careers, here's a salute to your future.

"Someone needs to be a positive role model and set an example for young boys and girls to teach them that sports isn't just about money," former Connecticut point guard and now WNBA player Jen Rizzotti said.

Take it from me, someone who had no opportunity to play interscholastic or intercollegiate sports. Being in the games is worth millions. You only have to live without those experiences to know how priceless they really are.

Story by Mary Jo Haverbeck (mjh11@psu.edu)