Parade of Memories: The Nancy (Fry) Sturgeon Story

When Nancy (Fry) Sturgeon played sports at Miami University, things were a little different than they are today.

Basketball was a six-on-six sport. Postgame socials with the opponents were the norm, complete with pop, popcorn and potato chips. And there were no fans…or trainers…or uniforms...or scholarships…or…well, you get the idea.

Still, Sturgeon loved every minute of it.

The 1952 Miami graduate enjoyed a long and remarkable career in Oxford, both as an athlete during her college days and then as a teacher and coach afterward. Sturgeon played four years of field hockey, basketball and tennis at Miami from 1948-1952 and was inducted into the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2021, representing many of the female athletes from her era of competition.

The Hamilton, Ohio native is also a member of the Hamilton High School Hall of Fame and the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame, with an impressive resume that includes 18 lifetime tennis tournament championships, including a state doubles title in 1952.

This weekend, she will add yet another honor to her list of recognitions, serving as the co-parade marshal of the Parade of Classes at Miami's Alumni Weekend festivities along with Bobbe Burke of the Myaamia Center. Sturgeon will be joined by several of Miami Athletics' current female head coaches at the event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX and its impact on women's sports.

"I think it will be fun!", she said with a smile.

Of course, to Sturgeon, a lot of things can be summed up that way. (Just watch the last minute or so of her induction speech at last September's Hall of Fame banquet; that will tell you all you need to know about Sturgeon, her personality, and her approach to life!)

As a Miami student more than seven decades ago, Sturgeon found time to participate in 16 different activity classes as a physical education/biology double major. "It was just fun for me!", she explained.

That's in addition to the three sports teams she played on in college: field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter and tennis in the spring. Although she was learning the sports as she went (her high school only offered tumbling and tennis for women), she still had a ball…literally.

(To be fair, basketball was probably Sturgeon's least favorite sport of the three she competed in. In that era, the women's game included three guards who always stayed in the backcourt and three forwards whose job was to score in the frontcourt; the players had to stay on their own half of the floor and were not allowed to cross the midcourt line.

"Somebody asked me how I could play four years of basketball and never make a shot!," Sturgeon laughed. "I said, 'I never got to shoot a shot!'"

Sturgeon was a center guard at 5-foot-9, and would work with the teammates on her right and left to use set plays and advance the ball to the forwards. The guards were only allowed one dribble, and then would wait until it was time to stop the other team's offensive attack in a three-person zone.)

Many of the top female athletes during Sturgeon's years in college played multiple sports. They would compete against area institutions such as Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio State, Earlham, Western College and Wittenberg. Since there were no Red and White uniforms at that time, the women wore white shirts, white shorts and a pinnie with their number on it.

Sturgeon's athletic background served her well when Margaret Phillips, chair of the Department of Physical Education for Women at Miami, asked her to return to her alma mater in 1954 and serve as the department's first graduate assistant.

"She asked if I was interested," Sturgeon remembered. "Being unemployed, I was interested and said yes! That was the start of my 47-year teaching career at Miami."

Even today, Sturgeon can rattle off many of the 25 different activity classes she taught over that span…in alphabetical order! Archery, badminton, bowling, dance, and the list goes on. "My goal was always just that students would enjoy the class," she said.

Some of the most interesting stories and memories come from the 'R' section of Sturgeon's class catalog. For instance, there was racquetball. "I had never played it….but I had the book, and I had a really good player in the class, so he demonstrated whatever I needed!"

And then there was roller skating. "At old Herron Gym, the gym was upstairs and classrooms were downstairs. Imagine trying to teach a class with roller skaters above you!," said Sturgeon.

In addition to her variety of teaching roles, Sturgeon even spent two years as Miami's women's tennis coach. Her take on that experience? "It was fun!" (Of course!)

"We didn't have any recruiting back then," she added. "You just got what you got! But they were good."

When Miami needed a fencing club advisor, Sturgeon pitched in (serving a dozen years in the position). When a friend suggested launching an arthritis aquatics class, Sturgeon signed up to help. When the Shakerettes needed an advisor, Sturgeon was there.

And through it all, Nancy and her late husband Jim '52 were staples in the Oxford community, as well as in and around Miami Athletics. The couple was chosen as Miami University Parents of the Year in 1999, and Jim was named Don Loss Volunteer of the Year in 2001-02 for his service to the Red and White Club.

Nancy has always enjoyed a deep family connection to Miami, even before her days as a student. Her mother graduated in 1918, her father graduated in 1919, and she claims a total of 22 Miamians in her family tree, including her brother Jay Fry, also a member of the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame. Nancy continues to hold season tickets to several Miami sports, a tradition she has loved ever since she and Jim were married and moved to Oxford in 1954.

Over that time, she has seen college athletics change dramatically, especially since Title IX was passed. "There are so many more opportunities," she said. "It has kept changing over the years: Things get bigger and better."

But through it all, many of the things Sturgeon treasured most about her long career in athletics—the lifelong friends, the unforgettable experiences, the learning and growth that comes along with being a student-athlete—remain the same.

And as she prepares for another Alumni Weekend and looks back across a lifetime of Miami memories, only one word can sum up the Hall of Famer's many years of playing, teaching, and coaching sports.

"It was just pure joy."

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Parade of Memories: The Nancy (Fry) Sturgeon Story

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