Beilue column: Fugate scholarship shows growth of women’s sports at WT

Judy Fugate had a friend whose granddaughter played basketball for the Lady Buffs in Mark Kellogg’s first year at West Texas A&M University in 2013. She was invited to a game to watch her play.

Sure, why not? She had been to a couple of games in years past, but Fugate was not what anyone would call a loyal fan—yet. But in a year when WT would finish 32-3 and NCAA Division II national runner-up, that quickly changed.

“I thought, ‘Well, that was kind of fun,’” she said. “I think I’ll go back again.”

Very quickly, she got season tickets to the Lady Buffs. Then, she reasoned, if the other women’s teams are anything like basketball, both as people and players, why not support them? That led to season tickets in volleyball and softball.

“And I don’t know a thing about soccer,” Fugate said, “but I plan to get out and watch it, too.”

Nearly 10 years later, on the 50th anniversary of the Title IX federal civil rights law preventing discrimination based on sex, Fugate did more than purchase season tickets to cheer for the Lady Buff teams, did more than help serve breakfast to the softball team over spring break.

She made a historic gift to WT women’s athletics.

On April 26, before a large gathering of friends, WT administration and Lady Buff athletes, the Judy Fugate Lady Buff Scholarship endowment was announced. It is a $1.85 million legacy gift to the One West comprehensive fundraising campaign.

In its inaugural year, at least one athlete in every women’s sport will receive a scholarship. Also, as a planned gift, the money will allow for the creation of the J. Fugate Fund for Lady Buffs Athletics, which will provide support for the seven women’s athletic teams.

“This gift is so beautifully thought out and constructed and it will help ensure that we can continue to provide our Lady Buffs opportunities to compete on the national level and opportunities that were almost non-existent when Judy was in school,” WT athletics director Michael McBroom said.

“This ensures that success and opportunities for women’s athletics at WT will continue into perpetuity and provides the only compensation that truly matters in college athletics – scholarship assistance that helps defray the cost of a student-athlete’s college education. The end result will be future generations of empowered and educated women. Judy is their champion in more ways than one.”

When women’s athletic was glorified intramurals

To ask Fugate to compare women’s intercollegiate athletics of today with that of when she was at WT in the late 1960s/early 1970s is like asking to compare a rock to a painting. There’s no remote resemblance.

“There’s no comparison,” she said. “I don’t know where you would even start to try to compare because there’s really no common ground.”

Fugate arrived at WT in 1968 after graduating from Pampa. There was little in the way of organized sports for girls in the 1960s in her hometown—or anywhere, for that matter.

Fugate swam a lot since her mother was a water safety instructor. She shot baskets in the driveways of friends, and had a ball and glove in case they were needed. The only organized sport she can recall in high school was volleyball.

“I was just short enough not to be any good at that,” she said.

She went to WT to study physical education. A few years before her arrival in 1963, physical education instructor Allene Stovall organized the first true women’s volleyball and basketball teams. The women’s athletics director until 1981, Stovall also originated the nickname of “Lady Buffs.”

At WT, Fugate was among some women who decided to form a bowling team under physical education instructor Jane Meredith. The men had an established team and established schedule. The women?

“If the men were in a tournament or bowling against another school and there were some women’s teams there too, we tagged along,” Fugate said.

Fugate also spent a year playing badminton. There were four on the team in what was essentially glorified intramurals, and not all that glorified. Suzanne Blair of the physical education department was the coach.

They thought they were big time when they bought shorts with matching T-shirts with their own money. They traveled to a couple of tournaments, including one at Abilene Christian with all of them piled into Blair’s car.

“She provided all the equipment and she must have paid for the hotel rooms because none of us did,” Fugate said. “We took care of our own meals if we could. Not everyone could, and I’m sure the coach took care of that without anyone knowing.”

Blair left for Northern Colorado the next year to obtain her doctorate. Badminton was on hold until she returned. By then, Fugate graduated with a physical education degree in 1972.

‘Just seemed like the thing to do’

That was the same year as the birth of Title IX legislation that prevented discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. It moved at a glacier pace for years before eventually preventing the huge inequities that existed with established men’s sports and women’s sports that were in their infancy in the 1970s.

“We didn’t know any better,” Fugate said. “There was nothing organized. If you had a PE teacher who could put together enough kids to make a team, great. We just enjoyed participating. We didn’t know we were getting cheated at anything. We just accepted it for what it was and went on.”

Fugate got a master’s degree at Texas Tech. She was also certified in special education and spent a few years coaching and teaching special education in Amarillo Independent School District.

In 1978, she made an abrupt career change. She got on with Pantex, starting in the yard, “baling tumbleweeds and scraping dead bunnies off the road,” she said. In 15 months, because of her college hours, she was a quality inspector.

That later led to working in the engineering department, doing statistical reports and later in records management. All told, it was 28 years at Pantex, retiring in 2006. During that time, she also did very well in investments and her financial portfolio.

That would prove crucial. As Fugate would later immerse herself into the support of the WT women, she saw that athletes were appreciative of any help and many used athletics as a springboard to a career.

“During spring break, the cafeteria was closed and we took breakfast to the softball team one morning,” she said. “They come in, they hug you, they seem to have an interest in you, and talk with you. Then when they get ready to leave, they thank you again.”

At the most recent WT volleyball banquet, Fugate noted that when coach Kendra Potts asked for all those associated with the team with a 3.0 GPA or higher to stand, half stood. And those with a 4.0 to remain standing, three stood.

That’s about typical. WT President Walter V. Wendler said at the April 26 press conference to announce the Fugate scholarship that 45 percent of the 199 athletes carried at 3.3 GPA or higher. Graduation rates among athletes were up 17 percent over the last three years, and now stand at 61 percent, which is higher than the general student population.

On the court, field, pitch and track, WT ranks fourth among 311 Division II teams nationally in the tracking of the overall athletic program. In the last 12 months, every women’s program has been ranked at one time in the top 20, led by the national championship softball team.

Taking all of that in, Fugate, 72, believed she had the means to help, and the time seemed right to do so. In recent discussion with Casey Lish, associate athletic director of development, and Keith Brown, major gift officer of the WT Foundation, a plan was developed. Fugate has no children, but has two nephews and a niece in upstate New York.

“What am I going to do with everything I own?” she said. “I want to do something here locally. Initially, I thought I’d leave the money in my will to WT. By doing it now, I can enjoy the fruits of my labor by watching these athletes grow and knowing I helped them. It just seemed like the thing to do.”

Potts, who was a three-time All-American for the Lady Buffs in the early 2000s, knew then what an additional scholarship can mean for a student and knows now what scholarships mean for a head coach and recruiter.

“People like you are the reason we’re able to do what we do,” Potts said at the scholarship announcement. “I got to wind it all the way back to when you were at WT. Just that work ethic that nothing is given, but we earn it.

“The irony is that you worked for everything you got and you can tell us those stories with a smile on your face. You earned that and you give us this generous gift. That is the perfect example of servant-leadership.”

Editor's note: This column originally appeared on the WT website.

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Beilue: Fugate scholarship shows growth of women’s sports at WT