Where’s Cortland?
Opening Scene….
It is late afternoon and it’s snowing to beat the band. We are traveling on 81south heading home to Cortland. We are caravanning with 2 Cortland State Vans, red of course for the Red Dragons. The snow is making it hard to see when all of a sudden, there are flashing lights behind me as I drive 10 very tired Athletes heading home from Colorado. It is the police. All the girls in the van start to wake from all the commotion . I role the window down and the police officer tells me to follow him. I ask if there was anything wrong, but he just insist that I do as he says. Behind our van is the second van with a police car flashing us both off 81 south. All you can see is the backs of our vans, soccer balls in the back window and a very faint sign that says Cortland….
Historical Events……
The year was 1980. President Ronald Reagan was in office and the Cold War was very much alive. It was the year we would boycott the Olympics in Moscow and John Lennon was assassinated. Parachute pants, Jordache Jeans, Vans and Mohawk hair cuts were all the rage. Journey, REO and Thriller keep us moving and dancing. Rubric Cubes, MTV, cabbage patch dolls and ET entertained us. Don’t worry be happy was our montra and life was pretty good. But what a lot of people didn’t know was what was happening in Women’s sport. Since Title IX was passed in 1972, Women’s sports teams were flourishing. Soccer particularly. Only 77 women’s soccer teams existed in 1981, but there were 318 by the end of the decade. But it was 1980 that really put Women’s soccer on the map. More history to follow…
Next Scene
It’s pouring out and the Cortland State Women’s Soccer team is practicing diving headers in the rain and mud. No one leaves until everyone puts the ball in the back of the net. The girl’s are cover in mud as they head into the PER building to change. All must enter through the football room to change. We just lost to University of Connecticut and Brown University and no one was smiling. The year was 1980. We were off to a rough start after tieing the AIAW championship the previous year with Harvard in 1979 . We had to do better, work harder, get our groove back.
As with any Athletic team, especially women, there was always drama going on. We had a couple of gay women on the team which was cool, an assistant coach who was male and hitting on a couple of the players and half of us drank too much. 18 was the legal drinking age so just about everyone on the team was allowed to drink. Every road trip we’d find ourselves filing up a bath tub with alcohol and having parties. It’s a wonder we could play at all but we didn’t like to lose so I guess it made it easy somehow. But…that another story for another day…
We were constantly on the road that season to find good competition. Not a lot of local teams or even other SUNY schools had program or could keep up with us so declaring a Division 1 status helped us get the competition we needed. As the season progressed, we went onto beat Hartwick, St. Lawrence, Mass, Colgate, Penn State, George Washington, Cazenovia, Rochester, and Vermont putting us in the EAIAW tournament as the bottom seed. We then proceeded to go on and beat Princeton 2-0, Harvard 2-1 and University of Connecticut (our nemisis) 5-2. It was a great finish to a rather frustrating start to the season….or so we thought…
Scene….
Coach had called a end of the season practice to get everyone together for the last time. It was early November, cold, dark and often snowy. We were brought into the PER building for a meeting on the lobby floor when both coaches Anna Rush and Ron Hansen, asked if we wanted the good news or the bad news. We didn’t understand what they were talking about thinking the season was pretty much over. If memory serves me correct however, we said the bad news first. Anna (Coach Rush) said we have no money. We didn’t think anything of it, we never had any money. We asked what the good news was and they both shouted out, we have been invited to Nationals in Colorado, do you want to go??? The team went wild. What do you mean Nationals? When did Nationals happen, what’s going on? Apparently, a gentleman named Steven Paul and his assistant Tito Fuentes were inviting the top regional teams in the United States to participate in Colorado for the first ever women’s soccer nationals tournament. Teams were divided between East and West. Cortland was top-seeded for the east, followed by North Carolina and Harvard. Representing western regions were top-seeded UCLA, University of Northern Colorado,
Texas A & M and Colorado State University.
After a lot of celebration and screaming in disbelief, the sobering fact was that we had no post – season money. Mostly because there was no post-season National tournament. Flying was out of the question so what else could we do but raise some money and drive. So we begged and pleaded with the administration and some how we came up with enough money to go West. So, off we went, 20 players, 2 coaches, 2 red vans, tons of gear, soccer balls, pillows and red jackets and of course, uugly.
On the road again took on a whole new meaning as we packed up two red vans and headed to Colorado. It was the Fall of 1980. Cortland had already seen it’s first snow fall. The 2-3 day journey was greeted with much anticipation, excitement and pure adenaline. With no cell phones or GPS’s to guide us, we outlined all the maps and coordinates we could think to use. Many of us had traveled distances before but never to the likes of this. Knowing the weather might be cold in Colorado, we also packed all the long underwear, hats, gloves and warm clothes we could fit into our bags. In addition; bags of soccer balls, cleats, uniforms and sweats. Training on the road was part of the plan so we always had to be ready.
Because we spent a lot of time over the years on the road as a team we had created a communication system that worked pretty well when we were on the road playing. If one van had to go to the bathroom, the van would put a sign up in the window like: we have to pee , then pass the other van to let them know they had to stop. It was always the next stop for a break and that’s how we communicated. The other thing we would often do is put an Izod alligator in the window with Princeton or Yale written on it. This was our reminder of beating them in previous games. It was motivation to beat as many teams as we could. One of the other signs that accompanied us on the entire drive that was plastered on the windows was Colorado or Bust….
So, off we went, signs in the van windows, heat blaring but it was never enough, music playing on the radio repeatedly with Willie Nelson “On the Road Again”, or “Don’t stop Believing” by REO or some other awesome 80‘s hit like; “Hit me with your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar.
St. Louis, Missouri, tumbleweeds that felt like we were in twilight zone. Every 100 miles or so, we would get out and practice in a parking lot, elementary school, random hotel that we would crash at. All the while each of us secretly wondering what we were getting ourselves into. Could we really beat teams like Carolina, Texas A & M and UCLA? How would we match up. Those nerves carried us all the way to Colorado.
Along the way we also found time for some fun. When we came into a town where there was some traffic and we had to stop, all the girl’s would get out of the van and do a Chinese Fire Drill and run around the vans until the light changed. It was our way of saying, “remember us, we are Cortland”. As soon as the light turned green, we were back in the van and ready to roll. Then the day finally came when we saw it; that huge wooden sign, “Welcome to Colorful Colorado”. We were ecstatic! Some 1700 hundred miles later, there it was; Colorado. We had made it. We pulled the vans right up to the sign, climbed up the posts and posed for pictures. All the while wearing our red jackets, black sweats and sneakers. What a sight. All we could think about was how much more fun we were having then Harvard, Princeton, Carolina and all the other teams that were flying into Colorado Springs. That was the first good omen.
More to come…..please add and make suggestions. I am rambling with memories…..
