Sports at State Normal

While competitive athletics are a major part of campus life at UNCG today, early students had to fight for their right to play ball. From its founding, the school (known at the time as the State Normal) emphasized physical activity and personal health. Curriculum in the first year of the school’s existence (1892-1893) included the Department of Physiology and Heath, which had two objectives: instruction in hygiene and an individualized program of exercise. A course in Physical Culture was actually required of all students. The work included gymnastics, calisthenics, and other exercises that were meant to promote the student’s general health and strength. 

Letter from a student to President McIver asking permission
to start a campus Athletic Association, 1898

Students, however, wanted opportunities for athletic competition, not just physical activity. The graduating class of 1900 convinced school president Charles Duncan McIver of the need for a campus Athletic Association and purposefully-built athletic grounds. The campus Athletic Association was formally established in 1900 (15 years before the students established their own student government). By 1902, it had adopted the motto “Athletics and active college work go hand in hand.” In a space that is now the site of the Petty Science Building, the women of the Athletic Association cleared and prepared playing grounds, marked the fields, and installed nets on four tennis courts and basketball goals.

The early Athletic Association, however, was purely intramural, with sponsored tournaments between the freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior classes. As a student noted, “We were taught very strongly the evils that would come from interscholastic sports. This emphasis on winning at any cost was the worst.”

But, in spite of potential evils, a “College Team” was created in 1905 to bring together the best athletes regardless of class. That team, however, didn’t play outside of campus until 1907. Then, they traveled across town for basketball and tennis match-ups against teams from the Greensboro Female College (now Greensboro College). According to the student newspaper, “Fine playing was done by both teams … [but] both the games of Basket Ball and of Tennis resulted in victories for our teams.” This, however, was a one-time event.

Freshman hockey team, 1913

For the most part, team sports were limited to on-campus competitions between the classes. And the Athletic Association led the way in sponsoring these activities. By 1914, the group offered events in basketball, tennis, field hockey, baseball, cricket, golf, camping, and gymnastics. They also sponsored May Day, Field Day, and various sports tournaments throughout the year. Through their dedication and persistence, the women of the Athletic Association ensured that athletics would be a strong component of their college life.

Dorothy "Dot" Casey (class of 1948): Champion for Women's Athletics

For much of her time at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, Dudley, NC native Dorothy "Dot" Casey spent her time involved in athletics, both in the classroom and in club sports (she was involved in more than a dozen club sports in her Junior and Senior years). Casey graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education.

Her love of athletics and physical education led her next to UNC Chapel Hill where she worked as a graduate assistant while completing her Master’s degree. Even before she received that degree in 1951, she joined the faculty of the Physical Education Department at Wake Forest University.

Casey participated in many club sports at WCUNC

When Casey arrived at Wake Forest in 1949, women’s athletics were strictly intramural only. Part of her job was to encourage the female students to play sports. In the late 60s, Casey organized and coached a tennis team. In 1970, fellow Physical Education faculty member Marge Crisp asked WFU President James R. Scales for a budget for women’s athletics. He gave her $500. During this pre-Title IX era, female students and coaches often had to provide everything for themselves or make do with what little they had. Female student athletes were responsible for their own transportation, food, and often, uniforms and equipment. Important organizations for female athletes like the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in which Casey served, helped to bring women’s sports up to par with their male counterparts.

Dot Casey with Dr. Jack Sawyer, 1988

While Title IX, passed in 1972, required equal opportunities for both sexes at all institutions receiving any federal funds, it took many years to implement fully. Still, at institutions like Wake Forest University where Casey became Director of Women’s Athletics in 1974, the passage of the law meant that women’s athletics would be rapidly expanding. The change from intramural sports to intercollegiate competition had arrived. Casey was a large part of that transition as she headed the women’s athletics program at WFU for 14 years, ending with her retirement in 1988.

Casey served in various capacities as teacher, coach, and Director of Women’s Athletics over her distinguished career of 39 years at Wake Forest University.  Casey won an Honor Award from the North Carolina Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance in 1984. In 1993, she was one of the first two women inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame. Dorothy “Dot” Casey passed away July 16, 2013, having devoted a majority of her 87 years of life to the cause of Women’s Athletics.

Lynne Agee: UNCG Women's Basketball Head Coach (1981-2011)

Six Hundred and Two. That’s the number of wins UNCG Women’s Basketball Head Coach Lynne Agee accumulated over her 33 years as a collegiate head coach. As of April 2015, she ranked 54th in all-time wins across all women's basketball coaches (NCAA, AIAW, and NAIA levels).

Agee found success in her very first coaching job at William Fleming High School in Roanoke, Va -- her alma mater. In seven years, her team’s record was 94-16 -- good enough for seven league titles, four district championships, and one regional title.

In 1978, Agee began her collegiate career at Roanoke College, accepting the head coaching position for the women’s basketball program. In three years at Roanoke, the team achieved a 46-23 record that included an outstanding effort in the 1980-81 season. The Lady Maroons went 21-6, won the Virginia Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Division III state title and qualified for the AIAW national playoffs.

In 1981, Agee arrived at UNCG and had an amazing first season. The team finished with a 25-3 record and a trip to the inaugural NCAA Division III tournament, finishing as runners-up to Elizabethtown in a close 67-66 overtime loss.

The 1986-87 season brought a 27-3 record, which included a historic 24 game winning streak. A 27-6 record in the following season ended with UNCG finishing third in the national tournament.

UNCG next moved up to Division II for three years. Under Agee’s leadership, UNCG achieved a 55-24 record and was ranked nationally each year.

Agee found success at every level. In her first year at Division I (1991-92), UNCG’s record was 21-6. She was named Big South Conference Co-Coach of the Year for the 1992-93 season. Under Agee’s coaching, the Spartans were dominant in the Big South Conference for 5 years, boasting an impressive 70-12 conference record.

In 1997-98, UNCG earned its first appearance in the NCAA Division I tournament after achieving a 21-9 record and winning the Southern Conference tournament championship.

Agee’s accomplishments are many. She was the first women’s basketball coach to lead a team to the NCAA tournament in all three divisions. She led UNCG to nine NCAA berths and one WNIT appearance. UNCG won 13 regular season conference titles, seven league tournament titles, and won 20 games or more in 16 of Agee’s 30 seasons. She won Southern Conference Coach of the year two times, in 1998-99 and 2001-02. She coached six All-Americans while at UNCG. She was the first active coach to be enshrined in UNCG’s Athletics Hall of Fame (2004) and was inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Agee retired in 2011. Her 602 collegiate wins made her, at that time, just the 21st NCAA Division I coach to reach the 600-win plateau. UNCG also named the court in Fleming Gymnasium in Agee's honor in 2011.

In announcing her retirement, Agee stated, "I never intended to stay 30 years. I honestly thought that I would try to move on up the ladder and applied at several places and interviewed at several places. But then we hit the point where the university decided to elevate our program. When it started, I was presented with incredible opportunities and challenges as a basketball coach to take my program from Division III immediately into Division II and that scholarship structure, and then within three years, we took our program into a Division I level. So that challenge to do that and to try and be successful in that scenario in a five-year period was just a challenge I couldn't refuse. I decided to stay and commit to it because I could create my own personal Division I program, with my name on it. I was not going somewhere else and taking over someone else's program. That was really special to me. To be able to do that successfully was just incredible."