Friday, April 18. 1980
University Daily Kansan
11
Washington's career shines on and off court
By PAM CLARK Sports Writer
Most sports fans at the University of Kansas are aware of the athletic accociations of the University of Kansas' best-of-5 tournament, Owens and football coach Don Fambrough.
But few realize that one of these coaches' lesser known colleagues, women's basketball coach Marion Washington, has a brother named that rivals those of Owens and Fambrough.
Washington's powness on the basketball court was probably to be expected, but the West Chester, Pa., native also excelled in the offense and shot in pat in team handball.
"IN HIGH SCHOOL, track and field was really the sport in which I set goals on making the Olympic team," Washington said. "Basketball came later."
"Actually, I thought of myself as a world-class athlete," he said. "I put a disc in our hands and the one who threw it farthest was the disc threer. I never got back to track after."
So, Washington stumbled unintentionally into the world of disc throwing, but as it turned out, she had a real talent for it.
Washington was the Middle Atlantic Amateur Athletic Union champion from 1872 to 1913, and the United Championship in 1972 and 1973, and the United Championship and record holder in 1972.
the AAU National Junior Olympic champion in 1972, for which she still holds the record. She participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1964, 1968 and 1972.
Washington also was the Middle Atlantic AAU shot-put champion from 1964 to 1970.
"IT WAS AN individual sport," it wrote. "I was not a measuring stick-performance." It was the first time that I experienced something where I was judged by what I did and not by what I saw.
"Track became a whole different kind of arena for me. I was able to be at the same starting line as everyone else, which is what we all strive for in life."
Washington's talent in the discus may have been good enough to get her to the Olympic Trials three times, but not quite as well. She won 12 games. But Washington was disappointed.
"I was young and hopeful," she said.
"And the people beating me were more experienced than I was.
"My successes were on raw talent. I was very much aware of the thing that kept me from getting any farther in that sport and that was coaching. I never had a coach."
"AT THE TIME, the United States didn't have great field coaches. They didn't want to spend the time. And outside of the pole and the most of the most difficult field sports to learn.
former KU men's track coach. Soon after, Washington was at KU, jugging a hectic schedule as an athlete, ad-hoc for the team. The joyous Drosie Josie is now a freshman at KU.
Washington did not meet a good field coach, she said, until she met Bill Easton.
Washington just completed her seventh season as coach of the women's basketball team. The Jayhawks finished the season with a 948 record and the nation's No.11 ranking.
She has a 124-80 won-loss record and is 165 in the five years that Kansas has awarded athletic scholarships to women. KU has won six national VI championships the past two years.
AND UP ITIL this year. Washington also was the director of women's athletics. But she gave up that post when the men's athletic department merged last summer.
Competing nationally and internationally in her basketball career has helped Washington in her coaching duties, she said. Having her basketball career, Washington was:
- A member of the U.S. Women's National Team in 1969, 1970 and 1971.
- A member of the AAU All-America team in 1972 and 1974 and an honorable mention in 1971.
- A member of the AAU Raytown, Mo., Piperettes from 1970 to 1973.
- a member of the West Chester State, Pa., team that was second in the U.S. National College Women's Championships in 1969.
While Washington's failure to make the Olympic team as a discus player, it is limited by limitations Washington's muffed shot at the Olympic basketball team had nothing to do with her
- A MEMBER OF THE U.S. team that toured the Soviet Union in 1975.
Women's basketball did not become an official Olympic sport until 1976, but it was supposed to be a part of the 1972 Games in Munich.
"I was supposed to have on the first basketball team to participate in the Olympics in 1972." Washington said. "He coach's home when they broke the news to us."
"YOU TALK ABOUT carrying your heart on your tonte and threat—it was there."
"The people responsible for coordinating the number of events forgot to sign the necessary papers for basketball to be in the Games. They forgot to finalize it.
Because of that experience, Washington, perhaps as much as anyone else in the country can empathize with what KU star Lynne Lynch is going through, the Olympic team is going through right now.
Woodward made the women's Olympic basketball team and is at the Olympic center in northern Springs, Colorado, now working with the CIF to travel to Bulgaria May $17 for the Olympic Games.
qualifying tournament, even though President Carter has said the U.S. would not send a team to Moscow for the Summer Games.
Washington was with Woodard when the junior point guard tried out for the team.
"I THINK SHE felt good about the fact that I was there and about the fact she could look to me for reinforcement," Washington said.
Woodard was lucky to have someone like Washington with her, someone she respected and who could help her. Washington was not so lucky.
Marian Washington is 33 years old. She is intelligent and personable. She is straightforward and articulate, yet soft-spoken. And she is black.
"When you are successful at this level, young people read about you," Washington said. "We are models that they can identify we are really didn't have any black models."
WASHINGTON IS very much aware of her status as one of the few black women's coaches in the country. She and Vivian Cunningham, the women's basketball coach at Cheyenne State, Pa., were the first female brachychoes to win the tournament and teams that were ranked in the top 10.
In the August 1977 issue of Ebony
Marian Washington
Magazine, Washington was named the Outstanding Black Woman in Sports.
"I do take very seriously what gifts I have and that I may share them with others," she said. "I don't have to sit back and live vicariously through anyone."
"I've been lucky to have been involved as an athlete in so many areas," she said. "The national competition in three different sports, at the world class level in three sports, and I was one of them."
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