Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Remembering the Past

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Jan Langley Brewer recalls early Cardinal Volleyball and women's basketball.

We got a letter a few days ago from Jan Langley Brewer, a member of the Central Cardinal Club and participant on the UofL volleyball and women's basketball team from the early 1960's. Jan and Paul have had a couple of great discussions on sports the way it was back then for Cardinal Womens' athletes and she sent some team pictures as well with the letter. Jan writes:

Dear Paul,

Enclosed are some photos as promised. The photos are of UofL's Women's Volleyball teams in the early 60's (61-62-63?). One photo is the women's early 1960's basketball team.

As the first photo shows - we were the state (college level) Volleyball Champs 1963. Clearly, one of us snatched the "game ball" as that is a Centre College volleyball in the picture. Notice those flashy uniforms!

Unfortunately, there are no dates or player's names on my original photos. I guess I thought I would remember! I do recall some first names and nick names- but, not last names. Except for my friend Linda Tucker. Like myself, she is in all four photos. By the way, I was Jan Langley back then...not married yet.

I do recall that not all team members showed up for photos - so there would be several team members who are not in any photo. The women wearing the blazer in the third and four photos is Lois Massie, who coached all of the women's sports teams back then. She was also an instructor at UofL.

In the top photo, I am the 2nd from the right - kneeling in the front row. I'll leave it up to you and your readers to find me in the other three photos...sort of a game of "Where's Jan?".

My friend Linda Tucker lives in Orange Beach, AL. now and she could probably recall more about UofL women's sports in the 60's. Her cousin was Harold "Butch" Adams, who you might remember.

Mercy sakes! It just dawned on me that a couple of these photos are now 50 years old. Obviously, I must have attended UofL when I was 10 years old!

I hope my photos are of some interest to you and your readers.
-Jan

( What a great look back at the teams on campus back then! Sadly, there are no official records of how the women's sports teams did back in those days. We welcome any input on the sports from that era from you, our readers and maybe participants from then, might have. We have forwarded the photos and Jan's letter to her friend Linda and perhaps she'll recall and contact us with some more stories and memories from those days.

Remember, for every Angel McCoughtry, Gwen Rucker, Lola Arslanbekova and Shoni Schimmel that thrills us these days with their basketball and volleyball skills and talent -- there was a Jan Langley Taylor and Linda Tucker doing the same work and giving the same effort...in an era far before Title IX and large fan bases...
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