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The trailblazer: Neiber set to retire after lifetime as pioneer in women's sports
By Terry Vandrovec
tvandrovec@argusleader.com
Published: June 24, 2007
There's a painting in Nancy Neiber's office at South Dakota State.
Although no Picasso, it's plenty poignant: A woman - "Coach," it says on the back of her blue sweat suit - is on bended knee with her right arm around a pigtailed girl who is holding a basketball and watching a group of girls play.
You could call it life imitating art except that Neiber has been teaching and coaching in South Dakota since well before that painting was manufactured and, what's more, she hasn't imitated anybody.
Her career has spanned 37 years and practically every significant advancement in interscholastic female athletics in this state: The inception of Title IX; the sanctioning of high school state tournaments; the transfer of governing power in college athletics from the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women to the NCAA and NAIA; SDSU moving to Division I and the University of South Dakota announcing its intention to do the same.
On Friday, at age 60, she will retire knowing her work is done.
"When you are kind of wrestling with decisions and trying to get accepted and incorporated into the whole scheme of things, it took someone with Nancy's passion and her ability to get things done," said Judy Dittman, Neiber's longtime friend and the Dean of the College of Education at Dakota State. "She's kind of the common denominator in all of these things. I know she would be hesitant to say she's the reason all these things happened, but she is."
The change in opportunities for girls and women in athletics over Neiber's career is remarkable. She never got to play even a single interscholastic game in high school or college. Today, thousands of girls compete for their high schools all across the state and at SDSU, where she's been since 1984 first as women's basketball coach and later as senior woman administrator: Ten varsity sports, year-round training, and 92 scholarships in 2007-08 - the same as the men. . . . (read more)
Go State!
The trailblazer: Neiber set to retire after lifetime as pioneer in women's sports
By Terry Vandrovec
tvandrovec@argusleader.com
Published: June 24, 2007
There's a painting in Nancy Neiber's office at South Dakota State.
Although no Picasso, it's plenty poignant: A woman - "Coach," it says on the back of her blue sweat suit - is on bended knee with her right arm around a pigtailed girl who is holding a basketball and watching a group of girls play.
You could call it life imitating art except that Neiber has been teaching and coaching in South Dakota since well before that painting was manufactured and, what's more, she hasn't imitated anybody.
Her career has spanned 37 years and practically every significant advancement in interscholastic female athletics in this state: The inception of Title IX; the sanctioning of high school state tournaments; the transfer of governing power in college athletics from the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women to the NCAA and NAIA; SDSU moving to Division I and the University of South Dakota announcing its intention to do the same.
On Friday, at age 60, she will retire knowing her work is done.
"When you are kind of wrestling with decisions and trying to get accepted and incorporated into the whole scheme of things, it took someone with Nancy's passion and her ability to get things done," said Judy Dittman, Neiber's longtime friend and the Dean of the College of Education at Dakota State. "She's kind of the common denominator in all of these things. I know she would be hesitant to say she's the reason all these things happened, but she is."
The change in opportunities for girls and women in athletics over Neiber's career is remarkable. She never got to play even a single interscholastic game in high school or college. Today, thousands of girls compete for their high schools all across the state and at SDSU, where she's been since 1984 first as women's basketball coach and later as senior woman administrator: Ten varsity sports, year-round training, and 92 scholarships in 2007-08 - the same as the men. . . . (read more)
Go State!
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