Fair Play

Fair Play

by | Aug 12, 2022 | Alumni Stories, Athletics, Women of Auburn

Auburn Family | Media & Communications | Politics & Law | Women's Basketball

Fifty years ago, an abstract clause tucked inside new education legislation changed women’s sports forever. How Title IX transformed life at Auburn and opened doors for women beyond the playing fields and courts.

It happened almost by accident. Title IX and the growth of women’s collegiate sports. On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act. The law’s Title IX recognized gender equity as a right in education, at least in schools receiving federal financial aid. But nowhere in the 37-word clause are the words “sports” or “athletics.”

Nor were college athletics mentioned in the 1970 hearings on sex discrimination in education held by Oregon Democrat Edith Green, which many believe were the forerunner to the Education Amendments Act. But college athletic departments soon became the most visible proving ground for Title IX’s purpose, forever changing the landscape of college campuses.

In the summer that Title IX passed, women at Auburn had already been competing in athletics for 75 years. Beginning in 1897, they competed first in intramurals and then on club teams, often paying their own way on road trips. Title IX changed that as varsity programs were eventually created and supported.

Former team handball Olympian Reita Clanton, who graduated from Auburn in 1974, was a student when Title IX passed.

“I don’t know that we knew at the time the impact that it would have on athletics,” said Clanton, an Auburn standout in volleyball, basketball and softball whose athletic abilities would have been even further developed had she been afforded the opportunity to compete in high school sports. “Sports were a byproduct, because our sports are tied to our education system.”

One year before Title IX, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was founded to govern women’s sports and administer national championships. Within ten years after Title IX, the NCAA had taken over sponsorship of women’s athletics.

“That was a huge social change and people were just trying to figure it out,” Clanton said. “Looking back, it was a pivotal point in my life to be a part of structured athletics.”

“Looking back, it was a pivotal point in my life to be a part of structured athletics.”

A 40-year Auburn University faculty member, Sandra (Newkirk) Bridges served as Auburn’s first women’s athletics director from 1974-76 after serving unofficially in that capacity from 1967-73.

“I think she was the foundation,” Clanton said of Newkirk, who also directed Auburn’s intramurals program from 1966-75. “Without Sandra, I don’t know who would have led the program forward.”

Five years before the passage of Title IX, in 1967, Newkirk took Auburn’s intramurals volleyball team to Memphis for a tournament, leading to the formation of Auburn’s volleyball program. Other schools in the state and region looked to Auburn for Title IX integration leadership.

Director of Athletics Lee Hayley worked with Newkirk to determine how Auburn would comply.

“We talked about what we wanted to do, and then we took action,” recalled Susan Nunnelly ’70, who coached Auburn’s women’s basketball team to a 43-20 record from 1973-76. “I always took pride that at Auburn, Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics worked together with everything.”

Auburn’s cooperation in sharing facilities among athletics, recreation and academics served as an example to other universities, Nunnelly explained.

“I was very proud of Auburn,” she said. “Auburn made a significant difference in other programs when they saw that we made it work. Why can’t you? One advantage we had at Auburn was that all departments worked together to make it happen.”

For their roles in advancing women’s athletics at Auburn, the Southeastern Conference honored Nunnelly and administrators Dr. Jane B. Moore and Meredith Jenkins as SEC Trailblazers during the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville in March, part of the conference’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. 

Sandra Newkirk Bridges and the 1971 Volleyball team.

Olympian and Auburn sports standout, Reita Clanton ‘74, coached the team, which was the first softball team in school history.

The 1975 Auburn Women’s Basketball team, coached by Susan Nunnelly (top right). Nunnelly led the team to a 43-20 record from 1973-76.

Champions

In 2002, 30 years after Title IX, swimming & diving won Auburn’s first women’s national championship, the start of a three-peat in the pool.

Women’s teams have produced 12 of Auburn’s 22 national championships: six in equestrian, five in swimming & diving, and one in track & field.

Auburn women have won Olympic medals, including double golds for swimmer Kirsty Coventry ’06 and basketball’s Ruthie Bolton ’90. Most recently, gymnast Suni Lee claimed gold in the all-around in Tokyo in 2021.

“We definitely made history here,” said Bolton, who played at Auburn from 1985-89 and returned this season to celebrate the program’s 50th anniversary. “We’ve been reminiscing. I’m so happy to share this with my former teammates. We’re passing it to the next generation.”

Auburn women’s basketball reached national prominence, advancing to the NCAA Tournament championship game in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Auburn’s 12 women’s programs have played on their sports’ biggest stages, from the Final Four to the Women’s College World Series.

Women’s basketball has reached national prominence, advancing to the NCAA Tournament championship game in 1989 and 1990. In 2022, women’s golf and gymnastics each reached the Final Four.

Three current Auburn student-athletes have won individual NCAA championships: track & field’s Joyce Kimeli and gymnasts Derrian Gobourne and Lee.

With 250 current women student-athletes and an ever-expanding roster of alumni athletes that numbers in the thousands, Auburn Athletics has showcased and saluted its female competitors—past and present—throughout 2022 with on-campus events, in-venue recognitions and on social media.

Careers in Coaching

When Auburn soccer coach Karen Hoppa graduated from high school in 1987, 82 women’s soccer programs competed in a combination of divisions one and two. Now there are 340 in D-I alone.

“When I graduated college in 1991, coaching was not a career, especially not for a woman,” Hoppa said. “My parents didn’t want me to do it. They said, ‘That’s not really a career, that’s a hobby.’

“Now, there’s a career path and there are opportunities to be a graduate assistant, then get an assistant coaching job and work their way up.”

Bitten by the coaching bug while coaching high school soccer as a college student, Hoppa persevered in the profession, becoming in 1993 the youngest D-I coach in the country at age 23 at her alma mater, Central Florida.

“Title IX opened that door for me,” said Hoppa, whose success at UCF led her to Auburn, where she’s coached since 1999. “I got that shot and made the most of it.”

Auburn added women’s soccer in 1993 and softball in 1997, while Barbara Camp served as Auburn’s senior woman administrator.

“Those are the two big sports that benefited once Title IX was starting to be enforced in the mid- 1990s,” said Hoppa, who is embarking on her 24th season on the Plains.

Former Auburn women’s golf coach Kim Evans ’81 first recalls becoming aware of Title IX when she qualified for the Alabama girls’ state high school tournament, even though she played on the boys’ team because there was no team for girls in Decatur at the time.

“One of my teachers said, ‘Not only can you go, but this school will pay for it,’” said Evans, who recalls being reimbursed $47 for her mileage to the tournament. “That was pretty impactful for me.”

Evans competed at Auburn from 1977-81, then became the coach in 1994, leading the Tigers to eight SEC championships in 21 seasons.

“We bought our own uniforms,” Evans said, recalling her playing days. “We were happy, we competed and I had a great enough experience that I wanted to coach when I left here.

“You got your education, you played golf and you walked out debt free with memories of a lifetime and possibly a championship.”

Increased investment in women’s athletics has brought additional exposure, compensation and expectations, especially in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference, where regardless of sport or gender, coaches who don’t win don’t last.

“With Title IX creating that opportunity, it also creates more pressure,” said Evans, a five-time SEC Coach of the Year and National Golf Coaches Hall of Fame inductee.

Title IX helped helped many women compete and work at Auburn, including (l-r) former women’s golf coach Kim Evans ‘81, Olympian and former women’s basketball player Vickie Orr ‘93, track and field athlete Madi Malone, women’s soccer coach Karen Hoppa and former softball coach and Olympian Reita Clanton ‘74.

The Team Behind The Team

More women competing in athletics has created ancillary careers, including in areas like coaching, administration, media relations, training, equipment and video operations, for both women and men, says Shelly Poe, Auburn’s assistant athletic director for communications. 

“We’ve doubled the opportunities for people to be involved in athletics,” said Poe. “And that’s a good thing. If we’re able to make the setting more representative of the people who are competing, that’s a win-win.” 

Women have made a quicker entry into some positions in athletics than in other industries, Poe says, because of the competitive nature of sports. 

“People in athletics want to win,” she said, characterizing the mindset she’s observed in her 40-year career. “If you can help me win, I will find a spot for you.”

Legacy And Impact

Title IX’s impact has extended well beyond courts, pools and fields of play. A half-century ago, approximately one of every 10 law degrees, medical degrees and doctorates were earned by women. Now, women earn more than half of such degrees.

“It opened so many doors, not just in athletics,” said Clanton, still considered one of Auburn’s greatest all-time athletes more than 50 years after enrolling on the Plains.

“It opened a chance for all of the positives we gain from participating in athletics—teamwork, discipline and dedication—while allowing women to test themselves at the highest level,” said Poe, the first woman to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Football Writers Association of America. “That sets them on a different path for the rest of their lives.”

“It opened a chance for all of the positives we gain from participating in athletics—teamwork, discipline and dedication—while allowing women to test themselves at the highest level.”

“I love watching them come in as teenagers and leave as young adults,” said Hoppa, a first-generation college graduate. “Those first-gen kids who wouldn’t have an opportunity to attend Auburn had it not been for a soccer scholarship are really special. It’s neat that women’s soccer can give them that opportunity. The quality of an Auburn degree is elite.

“If it weren’t for soccer and Title IX, I wouldn’t have gotten the same degree I got and certainly not the opportunities to have this profession.”

“We are adding not only numbers but opportunity for our young women to thrive,” said Evans, the hall of fame coach. “To excel, to be Olympians, to be national champions. We all have to start from somewhere, and at least we did, and at least we grew.”

“Auburn’s women’s athletics now has its own culture, history and heroes, of which we are very proud,” said Clanton, summarizing the fairness intrinsic in Title IX’s purpose. “People should have the opportunity to pursue excellence in things for which they have gifts and talents.”

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Winning a New Game: Joanne P. McCallie ’90

Winning a New Game: Joanne P. McCallie ’90

by | Mar 11, 2021 | Alumni Stories, Women of Auburn

She was one of college basketball’s greatest coaches—but she was carrying a secret.

Joanne McCallie with MSU Basketball Team

Despite the prevalence of women’s basketball around the country, certain coaching names inevitably stand out.

Pat Summit. Geno Auriemma. Joanne Palombo-McCallie.

As “Coach P” to the generations of women who have played under her, McCallie was—and is—recognized for her passion for the game, for an indomitable spirit and a commitment to developing people, not just players. Three-time NCAA Women’s Coach of the Year, her 628 wins places her in the all-time Top 40 women’s basketball coaches.

But throughout her career, McCallie was hiding a secret—a secret that at times threatened to disrupt her career and upend her life: besides battling opponents on the court, McCallie was battling her own mental health issues.

For the first time, McCallie is opening up about that battle through her new book, “Secret Warrior: A Coach and Fighter, On and Off the Court.”

“The timing of this book just sort of happened,” said McCallie from her home. “We had a great team [at Duke], we were going to go to the NCAA tournament, we finished third in a great league, all excited like everybody else, and then the pandemic hit.”

McCallie stepped away from basketball after more than 25 years as player and coach following the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

She gave up more than just her job—a berth in the NCAA tournament, a shot at the title, another make-or-break run with the team—but it has given her things, too. Peace and quiet, for one, but also room to breathe.

Freed from the confines of a relentless schedule that begins once the season ends, she found a rare moment of reflection. She began to write a story she waited her whole life to tell.

“I thought at age 39 that I might write the story, because we were in the national title and that, perhaps, we had the proper stage in which to share such information, but I was counseled against that,” she remembers.

“At that time, I wanted to coach so badly, the reaction to that information could not be trusted.”

Basketball has always been the vehicle that transported McCallie. It began in junior high school, then continued as a scholarship athlete at Northwestern University. After graduating, McCallie tried working in sales for a telemarketing firm, but found an emptiness that made her long for collegiate athletics.

In 1988, she took a chance and flew to Tacoma, Wash. on her own dime to interview for an assistant coaching position with Joe Ciampi, head coach of Auburn Women’s Basketball. It wasn’t the only school she interviewed with at the time, but there was a connection to the southern school she couldn’t shake.

“I was told to always follow good people—find good people that can make a difference in your life. Joe [Ciampi] is pretty remarkable coach, and so I followed, except I didn’t realize exactly what I was following.”

McCallie’s arrival on the Plains coincided with some of the best years in program history. Ciampi led a team that had only won a combined 17 games the past two seasons to an unprecedented three consecutive appearances in the finals of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Besides transitioning from Chicago to the Deep South, the learning curve from player to coach is what she remembers most.

“Coaching is a craft; I had no exposure to that level of coaching whatsoever. All I did was learn—I’m quite sure I added very little to the equation in year one—but I was very enthusiastic, and I loved the team and coaches.”

After her first year, coaching seemed impossible. But in year two, she began to understand coaching as a lifestyle and “the business of developing people.” She became a critical asset in recruiting, helping to make Auburn a top destination for star players around the country.

Some of those players, like Chantel Tremitiere and Ruthie Bolton—both future Auburn icons—helped her grown into her role.

“They taught me more than I could ever need to know in coaching and kept me humble. Really, they were the two people, besides coach Ciampi, that made me [believe] I could perhaps be a coach someday.”

McCallie met her husband John McCallie ’90 while at Auburn. She also was part of the cohort of Auburn graduates to earn a master’s in business administration the first year it was offered.

When she was offered the head coaching position at the University of Maine in 1991, it was the obvious next step, the culmination of the first stage of her career and the beginning of the next.

It didn’t matter that, at 26, she was coaching a player only four years younger, or that she only had been coaching at all for less than five, or even that she was up against storied programs like Texas, Rutgers and Florida.

McCallie with the Auburn Women's Basketball Team
McCallie (back row, second from right) with the Auburn Women’s Basketball Coach 

In short order, the University of Maine became an ascendant powerhouse. Under “Coach P,” the Black Bears earned five regular-season conference titles, four conference championships and made six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. She remains Maine’s all-time winningest women’s basketball coach with 167 victories and was named conference coach of the year three times.

But there was a shadow on the rise. Looking back, with so much happening so quickly, it seems inevitable there would be a breakdown.

“My brain health was like everyone else’s until age 30. I mean, I was an excitable person. A first-time head coach at 26. I’d just given birth to my daughter. Life was incredibly busy, and full, and exciting. Then, at 30 years old, I had my first episode, and, you know, it’s shocking—there’s nothing you can say to really prepare anyone for your mind deciding to take its own path.”

McCallie had suffered her first mental collapse in October 1995, the first of two singular events that contributed to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

She was hospitalized for two nights and spent two weeks away from the team getting treatment for “exhaustion.” She concealed the truth from everyone but her family, but rather than question their coach’s commitment, the team coalesced around her. They won their conference tournament in 1995 and again in 1996.

It wasn’t until she began writing “Secret Warrior” that she told her former players the truth about her condition.

“There were issues, and [the players] understood all that. They understood I had a mental health issue, [but] that’s where the language at that point stopped. And for them, I think, as they reported back to me, that was all they needed to know at that time, because we wanted to win championships and pursue things together, which we did. But later in life, many of them didn’t know the whole story.”

McCallie learned to trust her doctors, and to not be so hard on herself—a challenge on par with building a successful basketball program. But the newfound sense of balance helped ease her transition to head coach of Michigan State.

In seven fast-paced years, the Michigan State Spartans made the NCAA Tournament five consecutive times, winning a Big 10 Conference Title in 2005. That same year, the Spartans faced coaching legend Pat Summit’s Tennessee Volunteers in the Final Four, overcoming a 16-point deficit to reach the National Championship in only her fifth year.

Though they would fall to Baylor in that game, the next year she led the USA Basketball Under-20 National Team to the 2006 FIBA Americas Championship and a gold medal.

Coincidentally, McCallie also developed a close friendship with MSU’s then-head football coach Nick Saban.

“I’m the only woman ever to shadow Nick for a day,” she says proudly. “I went from the meetings to the practice, and the way in which he operates and executes organization was an experience to just absorb and take in.”

McCallie readily admits to seeking inspiration in books written by esteemed colleagues, friends and, occasionally, rivals. The books written by legendary Duke University head coach Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski were extremely valuable to developing her coaching identity early on.

When she made the difficult decision to leave Michigan State for Duke, the increased proximity to Coach K was just one part of the school’s appeal. But with his own program to run, and with added duties as head coach of USA Basketball, she wasn’t sure when, or if, they would ever meet.

Then she heard a knock on her door. Or, a loud bang, to be specific.

“At one point, he just came to me—he banged on the door aggressively—that’s something he had ever done before or again.

“I wanted to find something to express the way I felt about coaching, and it began as a quote, ‘choice not chance determines your destiny—choose to become a champion in life.’ Life can throw us a lot of curveballs, but we try to we try to teach that you still though have control of the choices you make, despite all the difficulty that you can face.”

McCallie at a speaking engagement

 

A year since she stepped away from basketball, the uncertainty and stress caused by the pandemic have made mental health issues a rising national crisis. The difference between now and 25 years ago is that, freed from the stigma of mental health disorders, people are talking about their experiences more.

McCallie is one of them. Through hashtags like “#StoriesOverStigmas” and “#BeGoodToYou,” she’s showing others how to cope and eventually overcome the issues that almost derailed her own career. But these days, her legacy is secured.

She is the only head coach in Division I history to win a conference title and be named coach of the year in four separate conferences, the ACC, Big Ten, America East and North Atlantic. Two of her MSU assistant coaches, Katie Abrahamson and Felisha Legette-Jack, each became head coaches at the University of Central Florida and the University of Buffalo, respectively. A former player at Maine, Amy Vachon, is currently that team’s head coach.

While McCallie isn’t sure she’s left basketball for good, she’s loving her new role as mental health advocate, coaching for a much broader team against much less understood opponent.

“I miss my team very much, I miss coaching, I miss the practices a lot, that incredible focus you have; the travel and all the other things, not so much,” said McCallie. “But I also feel like I can do more, coaching from this angle—this is a different kind of stage that I’m on, and I’m enjoying it. I’m learning a lot and hoping to help.”

Margaret “Cutie” Brown Lee ’26

Margaret “Cutie” Brown Lee ’26

by | Aug 10, 2017 | Women of Auburn

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”2/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”14837″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Auburn women athletics’ first genuine star was Margaret “Cutie” Brown, an electrifying basketball player and captain at a time when women’s sports were anything but regular.

 

 

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]“The 1920s was the “Golden Decade of Sport” and reflected the Progressive era’s belief that exercise for women was “a means of achieving their ‘natural beauty.'” A Women’s Athletic Association was organized on campus, and a coed basketball team began playing an intercollegiate schedule.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Auburn’s male sports writers for the Orange and Blue outdid themselves in describing the court play of Margaret “Cutie” Brown, who was “the main cog in the Auburn machine,” along with Annie Creel.   Caroline Elizabeth Drake remembered Cutie, a teammate of her sister Rosa, as a popular girl and a great point shooter. The team did well the winter of 1921, playing a number of area college and high school teams, but the spotlight at A.P.I. was not on women’s athletic endeavors but men’s, especially football, a sport that began at Auburn the same year women arrived.”

Margaret Brown was born in Kellyton, Ala. in 1902, the baby of 7.  There were 4 boys and 3 girls.The child just older by two years to her was John Morgan Brown ’23.  In 1915, her father Julian Alford Brown died, leaving Annie Hester Brown a widow with at least 3 children at home.

Not long after Julian Brown’s death, Margaret’s older brothers, Clyde Graham and Eugene McKinney, died within 6 weeks of each other — one 6, the other, 16.

Annie Brown struggled to make ends meet and soon after her husband died uprooted the family and moved to Auburn, Ala. Brown managed a boarding house for students.

Margaret enrolled at A.P.I., September 1921. While there, according to the year book, she was on the Co-ed basketball team 4 years, of which she was Captain for 2 years. The team was almost perfect the whole time she was on it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”2/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]“THESE STAR AUBURN CO-EDS HAVE HELPED TEAM TO GREAT CAGE RECORD DURING YEAR” (Leroy Simms, Huntsville Times) 

“Led by Cutey Brown, one of the best all round girl basketball players in the South, the Auburn coeds have made and enviable record on the court during the year and are claiming first honors among the girls teams that play by boys rules. Mary Tamplin is a wonder shot and plays a beautiful floor game, while the work of young at center and guard has been a big factor in determining the success of her school colors in a number of the games played.

The girls from the village of the plains have beaten Birmingham- Southern coeds and Howard girls, as well as a number of other good combinations and feel they are capable of taking on any and all comers. In fact, they challenge any claimant in the state all over the South to combat mortal.

The sport is young at the village and the girls are considered to have made a good mark for the year. “

“AUBURN CO-EDS WIN HARD GAME FROM PANTHERS — Captain Brown Wins Battle by Tossing Goal In Extra Period” (The Orange & Blue)

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18749″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]“Captain ‘Cutie’ Brown, star center of the Auburn Tigerettes won a place beside Kirk Newell, John Emmett Pitts, Ed Shirling, and other immortals of the village of the plains when she tossed in a field goal from the middle of the BAC floor Friday night, with hardly more than a minute of the Auburn-Birmingham Southern game left. Close guarding on the part of Williams and Green had held the Tigers in check for the greater part of the contest and an extra period was necessary, the score being knotted at 8 all when the second half ended.

The final score, 10-8, was the result of the excellent playing of the guard of both teams, rather than slow work on the part of the forwards. Few shots were made from under the basket and it seemed for some time as if the close guarding of the Southernites would give them a victory.

Time after time, the Auburn guards would pass the ball down the court only to have the ever alert Panther guards get the ball and send it back up the court.

In final desperation, the Auburn quint began trying long shots and managed to keep the score even for most of the game, the count being tied when the final whistle blew. the extra period was a carbon copy of the first of the game, neither team being able to get a shot under the basket. With the previous seconds becoming fewer each time the watch ticked, Captain Cutie Brown obtained the ball and tossed a pretty one in from the middle of the court.

Southern was unable to hit the basket for the remainder of the game and the Tigerettes had continued their winning streak of more than two years’ duration.  However, we venture to say, that in all their two years of playing the Auburn players have never had a harder, closer game than the one they finally copped Birmingham Athletic Club Friday night.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18733″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text]

Margaret “Cutie” Brown ’26

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”2/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Auburn Co-Eds Triumph Over Pantherettes — PANTHERETTES BEATEN IN THRILLING CAGE GAME (The Birmingham News)

Miss Margaret Brown is Star of First Intercollegiate Girls’ Tilt Here.

“Birmingham basketball fans have been vamped, that is those who were fortunate enough to find a place to park their dogs at the Central YMCA Saturday night.  When it comes to playing basketball, according to Brother Hoyle, the males will have to take a back seat and take lessons from the females.  Minus frills and other feminine decorations, Auburn’s co-eds waltzed away with a 24-9 victory over Big Hoss Gandy’s fair collection of Birmingham-Southern tossers in a real bang-up game.”

“A paragraph should be given to every girl on both fives, detailing just how she starred, but time is fleeting with the dead hour on our neck.”

“Miss Margaret (Cutie is what they called her at Auburn) Brown was the leading lady of the show.  She caged six field goals as neatly as any male performer ever looped a basket.  Anna Pavlova could take a few lessons from her in the art of being graceful.  The whole Auburn team seemed to work around her and not once did she fail to handle the ball like a young Apollo.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18752″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_large=”yes” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text]

Chi Omega sorority, 1926 — Margaret Brown is 6th from Right

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]She also joined the Dramatic Club 4 years; Home Economics Club 3 years; while a member of the Women’s Athletic Association 2 years, she was Vice President for one year; a member of the Chi Omega Sorority.  Because of her bowed-legs, she was known as “Cutie” and from dance cards and attendance at or appearances in different plays, she was very well liked.

She was All-SEC Center and API was ALL SEC while she was there.  She changed her major to Home Economics after a year or two. Brown graduated 1926 and went to teach at Thomasville High School in Georgia.  They knew she had played basketball in college and, their girls’ coach having left, they asked her to coach their girls, which she did.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Margaret Brown married Bradley Fowlkes Lee Sept. 3, 1930 (he always said they’d married on Labor Day).  She taught school in Perry County, Ala. and eventually became a Social Worker with the state of Alabama.  They moved to Montgomery after 1940 and she started working with Montgomery County.  Margaret and Bradley wanted children very much, but couldn’t seem to have them so they adopted ME September 21, 1945.

Margaret eventually went back to work as a social worker, then in the 1950’s, she worked both as a substitute teacher and a social worker.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”2/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18756″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_large=”yes” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text]

Coach Margaret Brown with the Thomasville H.S. Girl’s Basketball Team, 1927

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18759″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text]

Margaret Brown ’26, right, Pat Bayne, in 1967

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]During this time, she also helped start the United Way in Montgomery, was a member of the Garden Club, on the Board of the Humane Society and was a member of the Junior League.  She was also active in Trinity Presbyterian Church.

In 1960, her husband, Bradley Lee, died suddenly, and she realized she needed to provide for both herself and her daughter.

In 1962, Margaret spent the summer at FSU working towards her Master’s Degree.  She was 60 at the time, with a teenaged daughter.  During the school year, she returned to Montgomery for her daughter’s senior year at Lanier High School.  Summer of 1963, after her daughter’s graduation, Margaret returned to FSU and received her Graduate Certificate, enabling her to transfer from Montgomery County, Ala. to the State of Alabama, again placing children in foster homes and for adoption.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Her life’s work was making sure all children had clean, decent homes in which to live.

She always loved to watch basketball, baseball, and football on television.  At 69 she could still shoot basketball shots from 10 feet.

One story I love and saw – she went to Stone Mountain, GA, to visit her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, Margaret.  Margaret was 18 months old, still taking naps in the afternoon, and the neighbor boys wouldn’t stop playing basketball against the front door of the apartment.

Margaret or Ga-Ga, as she was known by her grandchildren, went outside and asked the boys if they would stop hitting the door with the ball if she made 20 shots from 10 feet away.  Now picture this, a 69 year old, 5’4” tall, 130 lb, woman telling kids she can rim 20 balls from 10 feet.  They said “sure” very sarcastically!  They agreed, thinking no way!  By the time she had hit 6 balls, their mouths were wide open and they applauded after the 20th one.  By the time she was through, she had moved back to 15 feet.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”18762″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_large=”yes” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]In 1970, she retired after 25 years with the State of Alabama, but still gathered with her workmates for lunch on Saturday. I grew up with those ladies and one man, and loved them dearly.

She dearly loved Auburn, but her life’s work was children.  In 1973, she went to the doctor about a cough and found out she had breast cancer.  By the time they discovered it, time was short.  My husband and I, with our daughter, Margaret, moved in with Mama.  Our second child was born March 29, 1974, and Mama asked us to name him after Daddy, which we did.

Margaret Brown Lee died Friday, April 11, 1974, just two weeks after her grandson’s birth.  She had lived 5 months after the cancer diagnosis.

As you can tell, we all loved Mama very much and we miss her still!

MaryBradley Lee Bayne — July 27, 2017[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]