Dec. 16, 2009
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This Saturday the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team will take on the Big Blue of Tennessee State for the seventh time in their basketball history. The Commodores are 6-0 all-time. Then on Sunday, the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team will take the court against TSU for the 16th time. The Commodores’ women are 13-2 all-time. Both games will be played in Memorial Gymnasium.
One special person connected to both universities will be attending each game and will be coming home. The Tennessee State athletics director is former Vanderbilt basketball player Teresa Lawrence Phillips ’80. So, will Phillips be wearing a blue outfit or one consisting of black and gold?
“Tennessee State all the way, baby,” said an exuberant Phillips. “The Big Blue needs a win, so Vanderbilt better watch out!”
The former Commodore always had an interest in sports while being raised in Chattanooga. She attended Girls Prepatory School where sports were an important part of her life. She also had two older brothers, which gave her tough competition.
“I have always been a tough competitor because mostly I was the only girl out there playing in our neighborhood in the 1960s,” said Phillips. “I had to be tough. That was my calling card being physical and tough. In high school I participated in tennis, swimming, field hockey, volleyball and basketball. It was an all-girls school and we really didn’t compete interscholastically; we mostly played intramurals.
“At that time the girls played three-on-three half court basketball. We wanted to play full court and they actually hired local people to coach us in intramurals on our campus. We did travel some back in those days to Nashville to play against Harpeth Hall. We went to Atlanta to play Westminster because they would play a full court game.”
Phillips went to Vanderbilt on an academic scholarship where collegiate sports were not on her mind. There was not an SEC for women’s basketball when Phillips arrived on campus. And Vanderbilt did not field a competitive team.
“In 1976 they did not have a women’s college basketball team; they had a club sport team,” Phillips said. “In my freshman year I played for that club sport team. I played center at about five-foot-ten. We did not know at the time that Vanderbilt was planning on forming a women’s basketball team. That was good for me because I was bored while studying didn’t keep me busy enough. That and partying didn’t [laughing]. So, I went out for the team. I thought we had some possibilities and we might have been pushing ourselves to play intercollegiate.
“Obviously they must have been ready to do it. At that time we were AIAW [Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women]. It really wasn’t NCAA it was a different federation. Tennessee was getting big and Tennessee Tech had really good teams. The big name women’s teams in those days were Louisiana Tech, Delta State and Old Dominion. So, Vanderbilt first went intercollegiate during my sophomore year in 1977-78.”
Joe Pepper was Vanderbilt’s first women’s basketball coach in a position that was part-time. He came to Vanderbilt from Nashville’s St. Henry’s Elementary School where he was athletics director, football and girl’s basketball coach. This is when the modern era of Vanderbilt’s women basketball began.
Vanderbilt played a modest, but challenging schedule without scholarship players with teams from the OVC and locals like David Lipscomb, Cumberland, Tennessee State, Volunteer State and Motlow State. Vanderbilt did play future SEC members Mississippi State, Mississippi, Alabama and Auburn. Ironically for Phillips, the very first intercollegiate game for Vanderbilt was a 73-60 victory over TSU.
“We really treaded the way and now they are flying with state-of-the-art facilities, offices and locker rooms,” said Phillips. “Vanderbilt did not have a physical education major, but they did have PE classes. We had to dress in the same locker room as the PE folks. We drove to games in a van. We just had one uniform.
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| Vanderbilt’s first women’s basketball team of the modern era (1977-78). Teresa Lawrence Phillips is No. 34 standing fourth person from the left in the back row. |
“We were playing for the love of basketball. I was talking to June Williams [Stewart] once, she was the former Women’s SID at Vanderbilt, and she said she would not take anything for those days. It was the purity of just playing, the friendships and representing your school. There is something still to be said for that.”
Vanderbilt finished that first year with a 15-9 record. The next year the women of Vanderbilt upgraded their schedule, which produced an 11-16 record. Though still not an SEC member the schedule did include Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Alabama and Georgia. Phillips led that team in rebounding that season.
“I loved to rebound,” said Phillips. “I rebound now when I watch games. I did have the ability to see where the ball was coming off the rim. That helped my rebounding because I was small. I remember a girl at Tennessee Tech that blocked my shot. She was six-foot-five and I believe a second team all-American.
“But there wasn’t anything I could do about a girl that size. But going up a girl her size didn’t really bother my rebounding. I knew where the ball was coming off. Even now after 20 years of coaching, I always know where the ball in coming off the rim. I was very proud to help the team by getting a lot of rebounds.”
It was at this time that Vanderbilt began helping the program with scholarship players.
“About that time Mt. Juliet High School won a state championship and we got a couple of those girls. We had Sheila Johansson and Cathy Bender. They were the first big signees we got that were `name’ players. Shelia could have gone to a lot of SEC schools. She didn’t have a great career at Vandy because twice she tore up her knee.”
Vanderbilt’s third season resulted in a 12-14 mark. The university would not play in the SEC until it was organized for the women during the 1982-83 season. During Phillips’ senior year, Vanderbilt played Tennessee for the first time under their four-year coach Pat Head Summitt
“It was a big deal at the time to play Tennessee,” said Phillips. “Even though we got crushed by them [77-53] you can say you were on the floor with the Lady Vols. Even though that was in 1979-80 that is still fun to say. We set a good groundwork and built the women’s basketball program with part-time coaches. We had coaches who had other full-time jobs. It was a work in progress. I am really proud how Vandy has developed their women’s program over all these years. I’m pleased to say that I was there in the beginning.”
During Phillips’ final season in a Commodore uniform the addition of better players would cost her a starting position that she held for two seasons. She seriously doubted if playing basketball was as enjoyable and almost quit the team.
“I was a non-scholarship basketball player and during my senior they began playing the new scholarship players and I stopped starting,” Phillips said. “They wanted to play those really good girls that they had signed from high school. And I almost quit the team over Christmas break. I went home for Christmas and my father told me that I was not a quitter. He told me not to quit the team and just do my best. That helped me later when I became a coach and in the profession that I’m in.
“I did go back and play on that team despite not starting, but I still played a lot. I realized they were recruiting better players and my role had changed. I really had to make that adjustment.”
Phillips also was honored with many awards at the conclusion of her athletic career at Vanderbilt. She was the first recipient of the prestigious “Lady Commodore Athlete of the Year” award given to the best all-around female athlete.
In addition Phillips received the Nashville Civitan’s Sportsmanship award in 1979 and 1980. She was also a student government representative in 1977-78 and was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in 1980.
“That was one of my proudest moments,” Phillips said of the Athlete of the Year honor. “I wasn’t a great athlete. I believe at the time the award was a mixture of being a good athlete and a good citizen. I believe there were a few other things that went into that award. I like to tell that story to student athletes now about when I almost quit the team.
“I tell them not to quit and never give up that right around the corner is a positive that can happen. But you have to persevere. I almost have tears in my eyes thinking about that time and that moment. It made me remember what my dad told me to keep on fighting and working.”
After graduating from Vanderbilt, Phillips took a job in Atlanta. Phil Lee became Vanderbilt’s first full-time coach replacing Pepper. Phillips said that she was surprised when Lee called her to offer an assistant coaching position, which was part-time. She had her job transferred to Nashville and a coaching career began.
“I was able to stay at Vandy for four years as an assistant coach,” said Phillips. “We were getting pretty good during those four years. We won the NIT one year while I was an assistant coach. I was getting a lot of good exposure at that time. We were in the SEC by then.”
Phillips coached at Vanderbilt for four years when a reputation as a hard worker and good recruiter paid off. She was hired as the women’s head basketball coach at Fisk University.
“I don’t know how that happened,” said Phillips. “It must have been because of relationships. I think I did a pretty good job at Fisk. They were Division III without any scholarships at the time. Fisk was institutionally starting to struggle financially. I had some great players at Fisk.
“They were probably some of the best players I ever coached. I’m including Vanderbilt and Tennessee State. Then Tennessee State stole me away from Fisk. TSU had been struggling and hadn’t won but about eight games in the previous three years. They saw what I was doing at Fisk and offered me the head coaching position in 1989.”
While coaching at Fisk, Phillips would win two championships (Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and accumulated a 62-38 record. She also was honored with a pair of Coach of the Year awards. And this was a school that did not offer athletic scholarships.
“I just went around trying to find local players,” Phillips said. “Fisk had a situation at that time where the former students of 20 to 30 years were still interested in Fisk. Their daughters and sons were going to their alma mater. Some of those students were athletes and we were blessed that they could contribute to our program.
“A lot of Division III schools didn’t have a lot of money so they would give out academic scholarships. So, that was one of our challenges. We were able to do it. It was a great time for me at Fisk.”
Phillips success at Fisk gave her the opportunity to coach at Tennessee State University. In 11 seasons (1989-2000) running the women’s basketball program, Phillips would compile a 150-151 record. She enjoyed her best season in 1994-95 as the Lady Tigers (22-7, 12-4 OVC) won the regular season title. TSU would defeat MTSU and Tennessee Tech to claim its second consecutive tournament title, but lost to Oregon State in overtime (88-75) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Phillips guided the 1993-94 squad (20-9, 13-3 OVC) to the program’s first-ever OVC regular season championship and OVC tournament. They would make the NCAA Tournament for the first time losing to Southern Mississippi in the first round. How did Phillips turn a losing program into championship contenders?
“I had a lot of passion at that time coaching basketball,” Phillips said. “I surrounded myself with some good people and we really went after it. We tried hard to establish a level of excellence at Tennessee State. They had done great things in women’s track and field, but not women’s basketball.
“The men’s teams at Tennessee State have a tradition of being good. The women just never lit it up. Just having that passion and the understanding of excellence and some of the things I learned at Vandy were beneficial.”
While at TSU, Phillips would be honored with two OVC Coach of the Year awards and in 1990 was named by USA Today as their National Coach of the Year.
During Phillips tenure at TSU changes were made in the athletic administration where she was asked to fill in as an interim athletic director on three separate occasions. Previously she had served as Associate Athletic Director (1995-97). Phillips was learning the administrative side of athletics while remaining a coach. She also earned a master’s degree from TSU in the summer of 1999 in administration and supervision.
“I think I fell into that,” said Phillips. “At that time TSU needed some women to be in administration. I was probably the most experienced so I got hired. But I ended up having a few interims as AD as they terminated two ADs. I had to take it over.
“It kind of ruined my coaching career. At that same time I had my children. Micah was born in 1995 and Kyle in 1997. So, you are talking about having three jobs being a mother, coaching a team and being an administrator. I had mixed feelings about going into administration because at heart I think I’m a coach. I saw that I could help TSU so I thought I’d give the administrative part a try full time.”
The dedication and outstanding job performance did not go unnoticed by the TSU administration. Phillips became the athletics director in April 2002. Phillips had her first dilemma as AD in December 2002 when men’s head basketball coach Nolan Richardson III had an argument with an assistant.
Richardson brought a gun to campus with the intent of confronting the assistant, which was a violation of state law. Phillips immediately suspended Richardson who resigned soon after the incident.
“That was probably the low point in my career,” Phillips said. “We had to fire our head coach Nolan Richardson III who actually brought a gun over. That was devastating to happen in our program even though I think he just panicked and got paranoid about some NCAA issues that he was going to have to face. We named the other guy as interim head coach. The program was out of control.”
Problems with the basketball program once again surfaced in February 2003 where a fight broke out during a game between TSU and Eastern Kentucky. A total of 19 players were ejected from the game. The game finished with four players on each team, which resulted in a 17-point loss for TSU.
The OVC suspended both coaches, which left for TSU a 26-year old assistant with two seasons of coaching experience. Phillips made the decision to coach the men’s team in the upcoming game against Austin Peay. She would step into college basketball history as the first women’s coach of a men’s NCAA Division I team. The beleaguered Tigers were 2-20 at the time.
“Both teams had players suspended and our coach got suspended,” said Phillips. “We were left now with a very young assistant coach and a graduate assistant coach, which I could have named as acting head coach. I did not think it would be a big deal for me to coach that game. As it turned out no woman had ever coached a Division I men’s basketball team.
“I was not aware of that. I laughingly tell people that all the time. But if I’d had known that, I wouldn’t have coached that game. I didn’t know it was going to be that big of a deal when I made that decision. I felt like there was so much instability and that young coach could not maintain the team. I did not know how many games it was going to last, but it was just one game.”
With the national attention building on the historic game, the TSU players might have wondered about the situation their team was facing. Did they accept the athletic director as their “temporary” head coach?
“Most of them had seen me coach,” said Phillips. “They didn’t just see me as an administrator. I was Coach Phillips to them at that time since I had just finished coaching the women. Most of them were familiar with me coaching and they had a lot of respect for me and my knowledge of the game.
“We probably had about four days of practice before we played. We had some really good practices. Some of those players still tell me it was some of their best practices in their college career. I know that made me feel good at the moment. I did not have any problems with the respect level. Basketball is still basketball.”
Austin Peay won that game over TSU and Phillips would not coach another game. Phillips does have an opinion on women coaching the men.
“I will say it will be hard for a woman to ever be a full-time head coach at the Division I level,” Phillips said. “I think there are so many other things like the relationships and the recruiting process. I don’t think the world is ready to convert a woman over to doing that no matter how good she is. No doubt that Pat Summitt can coach a men’s team and do it successfully. It would be the acceptability factor that would be problematic.”
Traughber’s Tidbit: The Vanderbilt women began playing basketball as early as 1897 with a recorded game against Nashville’s Ward Belmont (5-0 VU win). By the early 1900s, through the early 1920s, schedules were made and games played as the sport began to grow with more area colleges competing.
If you have any comments or suggestions you can contact Bill Traughber via email WLTraughber@aol.com.
