She was on hand July 10-12 to reminisce with former players and coaches – including teammates and those she coached – during the “Branding Together” alumni reunion.

Whitley, a Sul Ross graduate and presently Lobo/Lady Lobo athletics director, made indelible marks in the program as player and coach. She was a member of the first intercollegiate volleyball team at Sul Ross, played on the 1970 and 1971 national championship teams, and coached the Lady Lobos to nine Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles, eight in succession. For the past 30 years, she has been a Sul Ross faculty member, coach and administrator.

A native of Brownfield, Whitley started classes at Sul Ross in 1968, a year before volleyball became an intercollegiate sport. Whitley, who enrolled at Sul Ross on a band scholarship, met U.S. Olympic volleyball player Marilyn McReavy, then a graduate assistant, in an advanced tennis class McReavy taught. McReavy invited Whitley and a number of other students to play volleyball. An open team was formed, and during Whitley’s freshman year, the group competed in open tournaments up to the national level.

A year later, volleyball became an intercollegiate sport, and McReavy and fellow Olympian Mary Jo Peppler led the Lady Lobos (then Loboettes) to the first two national championships. In national competition, conducted by the forerunner of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, Sul Ross defeated UCLA and Long Beach State, respectively, in the 1970 and 1971championship matches.

“I learned how to play ‘power volleyball’ as opposed to the recreational style played in high school,” Whitley said. “The reason we did well was because of Marilyn and Mary Jo. They almost played doubles against everyone else.”

At the time, volleyball overlapped semesters, starting in the fall and concluding in the early spring semester.

“In the fall of 1971, we won the state championship again, but in the spring of 1972, a lot of things changed,” Whitley said. “A lot of the players left, but Dr. (Paul) Pierce took us (remaining team) to Florida to the nationals and we finished fifth.”

Whitley graduated in 1972 with a B.S. degree in biology and received an M.S. in 1975, but was not active with the volleyball program during her graduate studies. She enrolled in the doctoral program at New Mexico State University and served as a graduate assistant to McReavy in volleyball and also coached women’s tennis. Later, she taught and coached at Rochester (Texas) High School.

Returning to Sul Ross in 1979, Whitley coached women’s basketball and volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis. In addition to volleyball success, her teams also won eight tennis crowns, seven women’s and one men’s.

In 1979-80 and 1980-81, Sul Ross finished eighth and fourth, respectively, in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national volleyball tournament. Her teams had a total of eight playoff appearances.

“I was really fortunate to come into a situation with good players,” she said. “During the first two years, we won the Texas AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), the Southwest AIAW and did well in national competition.”

Sul Ross won its last TIAA volleyball crown in 1991 under Whitley’s direction. As the conference membership expanded and later became the American Southwest Conference, competition improved.

“Competition has steadily increased over the years. We have hit a down cycle during the past two years, but I see a bright future,” Whitley said. “Volleyball has been the foundation for women’s sports at Sul Ross. In the early years, a lot of student athletes who played volleyball also helped out other sports, like basketball and tennis.”

Whitley coached volleyball until 1996. After starting her duties as athletics director in 1997, she continues to coach the tennis teams.

Several of her former players have become volleyball coaches. Ruth (Roman) McWilliams, a member of her first Lady Lobo team, succeeded Whitley as coach and spent three seasons at Sul Ross.

Whitley has watched the game of volleyball evolve from service scoring and best-of-three matches to 15 points to rally scoring and best-of-five matches first to 30 points and now to 25.

“The travel hasn’t changed, though,” she laughed. “We still seem to travel farther than any other school in the conference. I’d like to see how many miles I’ve traveled with teams; I’m guessing 500,000-plus.”

Whitley still keeps in close contact with many of her former teammates and players, including McReavy (married name Nolan), who lives with her family in Killeen and plans on attending the reunion.

“I have been very fortunate to make a lot of friends through volleyball,” she said. “It’s really interesting to consider the circumstances that take you to where you end up. If it had not been for volleyball and the associations I had, I probably wouldn’t be where I am. I probably would have been a biology teacher.”
She looks forward to the reunion.

“I’m excited. Some of these people haven’t been back since the early 1970s. I think they will be amazed at the changes. At that particular time, grass was an unknown element; Sul Ross was rock.”

-Courtesy Steve Lang, Sul Ross State University