Alumni Spotlight: Mary Ann Myers

When North Carolina native Mary Ann Myers '82 had to choose between playing college basketball at Miami or the University of North Carolina, her father told her she had 15 minutes to go upstairs and come back down with a decision.

When Myers came back down and said she had picked Miami, he told her that she had 15 minutes to go back upstairs and make a better decision.

11 years later, she reminded her dad of this story as she became the first living female to be inducted into the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame.

"When I went into the Hall of Fame, I got to tell that story," said Myers. "Ara Parseghian came up to my dad and slapped him on the back and said, 'Hey Fred, I think she made the right choice.'

"My dad loved it."

According to Myers, her entire hometown of Asheville wanted her to play for UNC. However, while attending a yearly basketball camp, Myers met Miami head coach Pam Wettig and formed a relationship that prodded her to go to Miami.

College basketball was an adjustment for Myers during her freshman year. The Red and White played in the AIAW at the time, which held fewer rules about maximum practice times than the present-day NCAA. The intense schedule, which even included three-a-day practices at times, surprised Myers.

"I was in 100 percent shock because we practiced all the time, we played all the time, and we worked out all the time," she said. "I really did not have a life outside of basketball those years, which I don't regret. But it's a lot different now, just because the rules make it so."

But as she settled into the demanding schedule, she started to see her efforts pay off in the form of time on the court.

"I remember thinking that I'm never going to play," Myers said. "And then, I started playing. I got more and more playing time and ended up playing a lot as a freshman and as a young kid. I loved it. I loved every minute of it."

She attributed her individual and team success to the nonstop hard work demanded from the fierce practice routine.

"I'm so competitive that it was just where I needed to be," Myers said. "Our coach set it up to be competitive. Then our team kind of gelled a little bit more and we started winning [over the next few years]."

The 'gel' Myers described wasn't the stereotypical team bond that many fans might imagine. According to Myers, the team was hard-core on the court, and the genuine friendship developed later on. She believes this unique dynamic is what made the team so special.

"I don't think you have to be best friends on the team," she said. "You have to gel, but I don't think you have to be buddies off the court and do everything together. I think part of what made us special was our competitiveness during the practices, and maybe that we were not so close. I think that's the opposite of what every college coach in America would say."

As alumni, however, the women are incredibly close. Myers' teammate Kris Livingston was even one of the members of Myers' wedding party.

The distinctive complexion of the team led Miami to many successes over Myers' four-year career. In 1981, the Red and White won the conference tournament at Kent State and went on to finish in the quarterfinals in the AIAW national tournament.

"I always think there should be a banner in Millett Hall because we made it to the final 16 that year and that conference championship started it," said Myers. "It was just a huge deal. We felt like we were a very together program…we were a legitimate potential national contender and that was a blast."

Myers would go on to rewrite the record books during her career on the hardwood. She still ranks among the top 10 in program history in assists (ninth, 336), field goals (fifth, 594), free throws (fourth, 412), steals (first, 409) and 20-point games (sixth, 18). Myers is also sixth on Miami's all-time leaderboard for points scored (1600) despite playing before the three-point line came into existence. She was named Miami's female athlete of the year during her senior year in 1982.

"Mary Ann is one of a kind," said Miami women's basketball coach DeUnna Hendrix. "She did everything! She's somebody that we always look to when we're talking about what we need to get to as a program and the pride that we should take within it."

Myers' numerous broken records during her tenure as a player led her to be inducted into Miami's Hall of Fame in 1989. It also earned her the honor of being the first female athlete in school history to have her uniform retired.

"When I walk into Millett and see my jersey up there, I get choked up every time," Myers said.

After graduating, Myers became a head coach for the women's program at UNC Asheville and then went to Iowa State University to work for Wettig, who had become the head coach there.

Myers described coaching as an incredibly difficult and tiring journey. "If you're working 90 hours a week, someone else is working 100," she said. "I was so competitive that I wasn't mature enough to coach…I got a head job [very] young and I was not prepared. I couldn't handle my own emotions and my own competitiveness."

Mary Ann Myers

After about 10 years coaching, Myers changed gears and transitioned to a career as a State Farm fraud investigator. When she retired from State Farm nearly a quarter-century later, she rediscovered an old passion for tennis. Despite not having played since high school, where she competed on the boys' team, a neighbor encouraged her to pick up a racket. She advanced quickly, and now coaches players of all ages through a part-time role with the Asheville Tennis Association.

"You know what makes me the happiest? I'll teach some 30-year-olds –husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend– and they want to take lessons together," Myers said. "So they do, and I'm like, 'Hey, you guys need to play with this other couple.'

"I've hooked up people all over Asheville, which is the mission of the association: to grow the game," said Myers.

She also works to teach the game to underprivileged children, which she says started her mission to give back to her community.

"Tennis is an amazing sport and it's not just for the country-club people," Myers said. "I teach kids that would never play. Maybe they see Serena on TV, but they don't have rackets, they don't have balls, and they don't have nets.

"At my age, it should not be just playing. It should be: 'What can I do to give back?'"

Myers also frequently gives back to the RedHawk community through her involvement with the Miami Athletics. She was a member of the Red and White Club board and currently serves on the Hall of Fame committee.

"Mary Ann is the epitome of Love and Honor," said Hendrix. "Obviously she was a great player, but her continued show of pride and support has been unreal."

As Myers looked back over her lifelong journey in athletics, she reflected on the advancements she has seen for women in the world of sports, especially in the 50 years since Title IX legislation went into effect.

"Title IX started growing, then the gear got better, the practice times got more fair, and the travel conditions got so much better. We used to share a bus with the men's basketball team," she remembered.

"The food got better…the recruiting budgets got better. The workout facilities got better. Tutoring got better…the pay for college coaching for women got significantly better as time went on," she said.

"And now, still there's a way to go, but man, has the talent gotten crazy!"

Myers provided advice to young athletes embarking on the journey that she started when she made the initial decision to attend Miami.

"I knew Pam Wettig cared about me more than just dribbling," Myers said, explaining the ultimate reason she chose Miami over an offer from the home-state Tar Heels. "You should go where you feel the coaches, the staff and the school cares," she said.

Myers said that looking back at her journey, the only thing she would have changed was to slow down.

"I would say, 'Take your time and develop your coaching skills, because being a good player does not necessarily make you a good coach,'" she summarized.

Her lifelong success as an athlete, however, was built on the contrary.

"During my time as a player, I would say the opposite," she said. "Don't slow down. And I didn't. I did not slow down.

"All I wanted to do was play."

Find more Front Row Features at MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures.

Related News

Related Videos