Turning the Invisible Visible: The History of Black Female Pioneers in Duke Sports

By: Noelle Fuchs, Matthew O’Stricker, Kendall Satcowitz, Lina Sinsheimer, and Amber Smith

Introduction:

Throughout the course of several weeks, a group of Duke students—Noelle Fuchs, Matthew O’Stricker, Kendall Satcowitz, Lina Sinsheimer, and Amber Smith—were tasked to search for and identify some of the first Black female pioneers in Duke athletics. Some of these athletes had been previously known; however, many of these firsts were not previously documented. As part of this final project, they utilized the Duke University Archives in the Rubenstein library to search through Media Guides and rosters to discover these talented females that are often left invisible. From countless total hours within the archives, the students went through different boxes. Between the flawed method of photos from media guides, and then checking through the Directory of Black Undergraduate/Graduate Students and Faculty/Administry booklets from the Office of Minority Affairs, they dove into amplify the names of these figures. Below, each student writes about their own experiences within the archives:

The “First” Black Female Athletes:

What does it mean to be the “first?”

It is shocking to think about how recent many of these firsts are. What does that tell us about the intersectionality of being a female of color within sports? Additionally, throughout this project, we reflected a lot about what it means to be the “first.” Thinking back to the talk with C. B. Claiborne, the first Black Student-athlete on the Duke Men’s Basketball Team in 1967. He shared about an experience during his time at Duke where he had to have his teammate bring him his prize that he earned from an award ceremony that he could not even attend since it was an all-white space. It is saddening to recognize that just because you are on the team may not mean you always are included in the team. How many spaces are still unwelcoming today and how many voices are silenced or not represented? We celebrate these firsts as progress; and yet, we would be remiss to recognize that this project calls for equity and many more improvements to come.

What comes next?

Reflecting upon this process and the interview we conducted with “athlete-students” here at Duke, leads us to question what comes next. So, we have identified some of these firsts, but that does not mean this is over. Another project we hope to follow would be to conduct a similar investigation into the demographics and representation in the coaching staff of each sport. Representation is important and progress is certainly needed!

Athletic Information:

Duke Women’s Volleyball Team

Phyllis Wilson was the first Black women’s volleyball athlete in 1973. The records of the women’s volleyball team at Duke University only begin with a few documents from 1973. However, the 2020 Duke Volleyball Media Guide lists the All-Time Rosters, dating back to 1971. Phyllis Wilson first appears on the roster in 1973 as a freshman, but there are no records of player numbers or positions. She remained on the roster until 1976 as a senior with the number 20 and an outside hitter position.T

he first paper record of Phyllis on the team comes from the State Volleyball Tournament at Pembroke State University on November 1, 1974. She was listed as one of 13 players and she was a sophomore with the number 12. Another roster, the Duke Women's Intercollegiate Volleyball Team from the 1976 season includes more information about Phyllis, such as her graduation year 1977, hometown White Plains, NY, age, birthdate, height, weight, and position spiker. These records and rosters aren’t completely consistent with data like her player number or position played, but it is also possible that those were not set in stone then either which is why the documentation varied. The most significant documentation, a Volleyball Media Guide from 1976-1977, was a photo of the team including Phyllis Wilson. They were Region 2 champions her senior season, but unfortunately, the outlook for the next season only mentioned the graduation losses of starters Carol Miller and Sue Ramage, the co-captains and only other two seniors on the team.

Phyllis is recognized in a Duke Chronicle article from 12/08/1976 titled “Devotion Pays Off.” Phyllis is mentioned as one of the team’s seniors that year, and the article quotes her reflecting on volleyball becoming a part of her religious life. Phyllis is not mentioned much in The Chronicle, and it is unclear why. It could be related to her performance as a player but as there are no player career stats from those early years, we can’t be certain. Regardless, Phyllis Wilson’s contribution to Duke’s volleyball team and Duke athletics did not go unnoticed. In 2021, the ACC awarded her with the ACC UNITE Award to honor her impact in the areas of racial and social justice.

Duke Women’s Basketball Team

Sigrid Taylor was the first Black female women’s Basketball athlete in 1977. Duke Women’s Basketball played their first season in 1974-75 under the leadership of Emma Jean Howard. Shortly after the start of Women’s basketball, Debbie Leonard began the leadership of the team, with Sigrid Taylor on her first team. The 1977-78 season was difficult for the Blue Devils with countless Chronicle articles highlighting their losses. From headlines of “Pirate women flatten Duke,” to “State Women Whip Duke,” to “Clemson Women Rout Blue Devils,” to “Duke Women Lose,” to “UNC breezes by Blue Devils,” to “WCU decks Duke,” the headlines continued to document the unfortunate loses that the Blue Devils faced during the start of their time as a sport at Duke. The headlines brutally remarked, “Suffering is, perhaps, too conservative a term to describe the tribulations that plague the women” (January 28th, 1978). Excitingly, on January 21st, 1978, the Herald documents how “Duke Women Take First Win” against Virginia Commonwealth.

Sigrid Taylor made one rebound within the winning game against WCU on February 18th, 1978. Within the ASU game just two days before on February 16th, 1978, Sigrid Taylor did not play.

Sigrid Taylor, with numbers 41 and 50 at Duke, was a member of Duke’s Class of 1979 from Staten Island, New York. At 5’ 7” and 19 years old, she played Forward on the team her Sophomore year in 1976-77 as number 41. She remained on the team her Junior year in 1977-78 as number 50, with her roster now documenting her at 5’ 8”. Sigrid Taylor graduated with her class in 1979; however, for unknown reasons, she was not listed on the 1978/79 roster during her senior year of college.

Duke Women’s Cross Country & Track and Field Team

After lots of investigation, it is believed to be that Cynthia Jones was the first Black female athlete on the women’s Cross Country & Track and Field Team in 1984/85 season. Cynthia Jones was located within the “Directory of Black Undergraduate/Graduate Students and Faculty/Administrators” created by the Office of Minority Affairs at Duke across 1982/83, 1983/84, 1984/85, and 1985/86. Cynthia Jones graduated in 1986 with a degree in Psychology.

The Duke Women’s Cross Country & Track and Field Team was created in the 1984/85 season. Previously, they had members competing under Duke’s name; however, the first year of varsity competition was within 1984. Cynthia Jones was found on the 1984-85 Women’s Roster as a Junior from Rochester, New York competing in 100 and 200. Nevertheless, a record from the 1985 Women’s ACC Cross Country Championships which would have been within Cynthia Jones’ Senior year omits her name from those competing. Therefore, it is unknown if she remained on the team her senior year. This raises some questions previously of how included and welcome these athletes are if we saw that both Sigrid Taylor and Cynthia Jones most likely did not play their senior years.

Duke Women’s Rowing

Gwen Coleman, the first black woman on Duke’s rowing team, enrolled in 2004 and graduated in 2008. As a predominantly white sport, rowing is still growing in its diversity and inclusion of people from different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Despite the sport’s overwhelmingly white history, brave trailblazers like Coleman are helping bring diversity and black female strength to the sport. Something that is long overdue.

Graduating from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, Coleman arrived at Duke as a top athlete in the program. In her first season at Duke she raced in the varsity 8+, known as the top, most competitive, boat. During this 2004-05 season, she medaled at the ACC championship and was recognized by her coach as “proof great things come in small packages.” She continued to row in both the varsity 8+ and varsity 4+ during the 2005-06 season where they won the Lake Michie Invitational and additionally performed very well atthe Head of the Hooch and the Head of the Lake. In an interview her coach highlighted her immense impact on the team, saying that “her enthusiasm and 100% effort every day have already had a marked impact on her teammates”. In 2007, Coleman was awarded All South-Region second team and in 2008 she received All-ACC team. Finishing her time at Duke, Gwen Coleman was an All-Time Letter winner and it is evident that she made a long-lasting impact on and off the water.

Duke Women’s Soccer

Though Title IX passed in 1972, women’s soccer was not made a varsity sport until 1989, an incredibly long 17 year journey for recognition. In contrast, however, UNC began to build their women’s soccer empire as soon as 1979 under the firm grasp of Anson Dorrance, which allowed them to gain a head start on recruiting, recognition, and perhaps even technique. It makes us wonder if the inception of women’s soccer at Duke was a true recognition of the validity of women’s sports or was it merely a response to UNC’s success.

Mariana Muiruri was the first women’s soccer player, in 1995, just six years after the beginning of women’s soccer at Duke. She was a 5’6” defender from East Lansing, Michigan, and graduated from East Lansing High School. Muiruri was able to play a key role in a few games during her time at Duke, even scoring the winning goal against NCSU in 1997 to break a 3 year losing streak to the Wolfpack. In some articles, it seems as though she was a midfielder, but in the 1998 season, Duke has her listed as a defender. Muiruri was a rock in the Duke defense, and she received recognition for holding Duke together for most of a game against Virginia in 1997.

Duke Women’s Lacrosse

Natalie Lamarque was the first Black women’s lacrosse athlete in 1996. She was on the Duke women’s lacrosse team the very first season it officially joined Duke Athletics and became the 25th intercollegiate sports team at Duke. She is listed on the official 1996 roster as sophomore with her number 30, height, hometown Great Neck, NY, and position goalie. As a sophomore, Natalie also wrote a guest column for The Chronicle titled “We must not continue to deny our innate prejudices,” where she reflects on the inability to escape racism and focuses on actively discussing these topics as a way to improve them in the future.

Throughout the 1996 season, Natalie was frequently praised in papers such as The Chronicle, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the Herald-Sun for her outstanding saves as goalie. Following the team’s first win, the head coach Kerstin Kimel is quoted praising Natalie for her key saves in the cage. The Duke Office ofSports Information recorded game results from the 04/13/1996 game against UVA and recorded 25 saves in one game from Natalie. It is no surprise that Natalie received a lot of media coverage as an amazing team player and main goalie for the lacrosse team in its first year ever competing as a varsity sport.

Unfortunately, Natalie Lamarque was only on the team for one season. At the end of the 1996 season, Natalie was indefinitely suspended from the lacrosse team while traveling to compete in a game. An article from the Chronicle on 04/22/1996 titled “Hoyas breeze past women’s lacrosse, 18-2” documents her removal from the team and states that she broke a major team rule. The team was supposedly unaware of what actually transpired or which team rule was broken, and there are no other records of Natalie’s suspension to provide clarity. It seems odd and suspicious for the star goalie of the team and only black woman to be removed right at the end of the season. Perhaps that is another research project in the making.

Duke Gymnastics

Women’s Gymnastics at Duke began much earlier than other sports at Duke, but also ended around the time that many sports were added to the Athletics Department, ending in 1984. Only one Black woman participated in Duke Gymnastics, Faith Brown, and Brown came into the program during its final year, in 1984. Brown was an undecided freshman from Virginia Beach, VA, and was listed as a talent in vaulting and balance beam in the 1984. Due to the closure of the gymnastics program, there was not much information about her time at Duke.

Finding Brown was extraordinarily time consuming because it took going through every season’s media guides and rosters to find the lone Black athlete. The nature of when she came into Duke also makes it difficult to find substantial information about her, because it was so early on in the investment in women’s sports. It also remains unclear if she is the first Black athlete, as the Duke UNITE Awards lists Felicia Heath as the first Black gymnast. Looking in the gymnastics archive truly proves how flawed and difficult the process of finding firsts can be.

Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving

The possibility of failure never crossed my mind. Even after scouring old media guides and aged documents, finding the first black woman on either the swim or the dive team felt like finding a dead end or barrier around every corner. Even after multiple cross references between team rosters and the Office of Minority Affairs’ directory, there was no evidence of any female on the swim team being a person of color.

However, one of the very first team pictures of the team in the 1988-89 season, features an African American woman front and center. Since then, there have been several black females on the swim and dive team, but who was the first? What’s so concerning when sifting through rosters and pictures of the team, is the potential of having to profile an athlete based on their image. Given that the normal every day roster does not mention race or ethnicity, how do you make a decision about someone’s race based on one picture? The amount of work yet to be done is vast. It is entirely possible that names have been omitted or accidentally missed during the research process, therefore the continuation of research in the archives is essential to uncovering the lost voices of black female pioneers.

Tennis

Since the team’s inception in 1972, only one Black woman has played on the Varsity Woman’s Tennis Team in Duke’s History. Her name is Ellah Nze. The star tennis player was born to Raymond and Rochella Nze on November 22, 1988, in Baltimore, MD.

During her time at Duke, Nze racked up many accolades as a star player on the team. In her first year, she advanced to the NCAA Tournament in singles as a rookie, was the ACC Rookie of the Year, ITA Southeast Rookie of the Year, and finished ranked 25th nationally and 4th in the entire region as a freshman. Her stellar play earned her a spot in the NCAA Tournament as an individual. Nze continued her outstanding performances in her sophomore season, earning All-America honors. Additionally, she lined up as Duke’s No. 2 player for a significant portion of the season and ranked 28th in the nation. Transitioning to her junior season, Nze became the 12th Blue Devil to earn All-America recognition in multiple years, ranked 44th nationally, and played in the No.1 spot for most of the season. In the last chapter of her illustrious collegiate career, Nze earned her fourth straight All-ACC selection and became the 20th Blue Devil in history to reach 100 career singles wins.

Prior to attending Duke, Ellah was a high school tennis phenom. Accolades include, but are not limited to: USTA Franklin Winter Junior Championship (Girls’ 16s) singles winner in 2003, 2004 Kuala Lumpar Mayor’s Cup ITF singles quarterfinalist, competed in all Junior Grand Slams in 2005, reaching a ranking of No. 54, ITF Pro Circuit $10K singles winner in 2006, and held a career-high WTA ranking of 478 in 2007. Off the tennis court, Ellah was named to the honor roll throughout high school at Saddlebrook Prep and graduated with honors.

When she was not playing tennis, Ellah liked to shop, read, play the violin, and watch movies. During her time in college, her favorite athletes were Lindsay Davenport, James Black, and Cal Ripkin Jr.

GROUP REFLECTIONS:

Noelle’s Reflection on Archive Experience:

Over the course of this project, I focused on the Duke Women’s Rowing team and the Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving team. Conducting research and working in the Duke library archives is not only vastly informative but extremely telling and revealing about our school’s history. The access to old athletic documents, from season schedules to individual player stats, is impressive to say the least. However, in our attempt to seek out the first black female athletes at Duke, I feel like I can speak for us all when I say that we experienced several challenges. In my personal searches for the first black female athletes at Duke, I felt like I was searching for a needle in a haystack. However, this man-made haystack revealed years of inequity that purposely hid and buried the needle I was searching for. In addition to the sheer lack of information on certain athletes, what I found most challenging was the verification process for determining something so socially constructed as race. Depending on the sport, there were different amounts of information and team rosters provided in the media guides. The fact that these ‘firsts’ in each sport are so recent is shocking and upsetting. Being the first black female in any space, especially in the 21st century is extremely taxing. However, that is not my story to tell. It is more important than ever to listen to these black women and marginalized voices that have been silenced for too long. Moving forward I would love to be able to interview some of these female athletes about their experiences at Duke and within their respective sports.

Amber’s Reflection on Archive Experience:

I really enjoyed the educational experience of going through the Duke University Rubenstein Archives; nevertheless, some of these discoveries took some time and patience. Amy McDonald, the amazing Archivist on Duke University Archives, was super helpful at navigating all of the resources. A large magnitude of resources were saved, for example, women’s basketball had 27 boxes full of material. However, there was still so much important information that has been left without proper recognition and left many important figures to be cast away and seemingly invisible. Sigrid Taylor previously received recognition as the first Black female Women’s Basketball athlete in 1977. Whereas a google search for the first Black female cross country and track and field athlete leads you with nothing.

To begin my search on the Women’s Cross Country & Track and Field Team, I dove through the records starting at the beginning of Duke Women’s first varsity team in the 1984/85 season. I went through the Media Guides and looked over photos and through the names of the teams. We all recognize the inherent flaws with this method and it felt wrong, at times, to be making judgements based on these Black and White photos and perceptions. In order to really determine who is first, you have to work backwards from the first team. The 1984/85 women’s team did not have a media guide to be found, but I located a team roster. The Office of Minority Affairs at Duke University has created the “Directory of Black Undergraduate/Graduate Students and Faculty/Administrators” each year. I then took the list of names from the roster and cross-searched for every name within the Directory that year. Elizabeth Baurm? Nope. Mary Beth Gayle? Nope. And then I looked up Cynthia Jones and sure enough, her name was there! Seemingly thrilling to make this discovering, it was upsetting that it was so hard to find her name. Why was she not celebrated or praised for her accomplishments? After locating Cynthia Jones, I then cross listed her within the 1986 yearbook online and found her on all four years within the Directory. I then went through the Cross Country Records from the previous two years that Duke competed in women’s competitions (although they were not yet a varsity team). All of the names that I had found throughout that time, I looked up in the directories and did not see anyone.

Overall, this process reminds me how far we have to come for this information to be publicly known and how these incredible athletes are often left invisible. It leads me to question the importance of recognizing how much more progress we have to make where these “firsts” are not just present, but valued, respected, celebrated, and listened to.

Lina’s Reflection on Archive Experience:

Firsts were not a celebrated accomplishment, as these often took place during a time when diversity was not recognized, not to mention that Duke only became a desegregated institution until 8 years after Brown v. Board, in 1963. This makes finding firsts very difficult as they were not explicitly recorded at the time. C.B. Claiborne talked about the disrespect he felt from Duke being the first Black athlete at the institution, and how that disrespect pervaded both his time at the institution, as well as any attempt at recognition post-graduation. The process of finding the athlete was, itself, a challenging process as it is hard to find them without judging purely based on photos/names. This left me grappling with what first even means at Duke, as we have lived through a time where being a ‘first’ was regarded as abnormal, rather than a celebratory feat.

Kendall’s Reflection on Archive Experience:

This research project introduced me to Duke’s Archives. I didn’t know what to expect when being handed boxes of documents and newspaper clippings, I just knew I had to dive right in. I was tasked with researching the first black women on Duke’s volleyball team and lacrosse team. I was first surprised with how recent the creation of these varsity teams was at Duke University. Then, I was surprised with the lack of information and documentation of the sports early on. For the first few years, much of the information can only be found in the team rosters, game results, and Duke Chronicle articles. To add to the lack of information, I found that rarely were the entire teams mentioned in articles or while praising team wins. The star players had an abundance of articles devoted to their success, but I would argue that every player contributes to the performance in team sports. These athletes deserve more visibility as women in sports, and especially black women in sports.

Matthew’s Reflection on Archive Experience:

In completing the research necessary for this project, I became exposed to the Duke Archives. My job focused on finding the Black Women Pioneers in Tennis and Golf at Duke University. It was a long process to discover the first Black Woman in the Tennis section of the Duke Archives. After looking through hundreds of media guides, rosters, and Duke Chronicle articles, I stumbled across Ellah Nze, the first Black woman to ever play for Duke’s Tennis team. My surprise came from her being the only Black woman ever to play tennis at Duke University and the fact this happened over 30 years after the team’s creation. While it was unfortunate not to discover a single Black woman in the history of Duke’s Golf team, it ignited a hope in me to see that possibly change in the near future with the ever-growing number of Black women currently excelling in the sport.


Works Cited

*Many thanks to the help and support of Amy McDonald within the Rubenstein Archives

1954-2007 Tennis Team Duke University, [1954], Box 18, Media Guides 1954-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1973-1985 Volleyball Team Duke University, [1974], Box 1, Volleyball records 1973-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1975-1999 Women’s Swimming and Diving, [1975-1990], Box 5, Swimming and Diving Team records 1932-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1975-1999 Women’s Swimming and Diving, [1990-1999], Box 6, Swimming and Diving Team records1932-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1975-1999 Women’s Swimming and Diving, [1990-1999], Box 6, Swimming and Diving Team records 1932-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1976-1977 Women’s Basketball Team Duke University, [1976], Box 1, Women’s Basketball records 1976-[ongoing]; 1977-1982, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1977-78 Women’s Basketball Team, [1978], Box 1, Women’s Basketball records 1976-[ongoing]; 1977-1982, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1977-78 Black Directory, [1978], Box 2, Administrative Records, Office of Minority Affairs Records, 1969-1993, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1982 Track & Field Championships April 15, 16, 17, University of Virginia, Box 9, Cross Country/Track and Field records; Track and Field, 1982-1987, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1982-83 Black Directory, [1983], Box 2, Administrative Records, Office of Minority Affairs Records, 1969-1993, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1983-84 Black Directory, [1984], Box 2, Administrative Records, Office of Minority Affairs Records, 1969-1993, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1984-85 Black Directory, [1985], Box 2, Administrative Records, Office of Minority Affairs Records, 1969-1993, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1984-85 Women’s Roster, [1985], Box 3, Cross Country/Track and Field Records; Women’s Cross Country, 1984-2000, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1985-86 Black Directory, [1986], Box 2, Administrative Records, Office of Minority Affairs Records, 1969-1993, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1995 Women’s Soccer, Sports Information Office Visual Materials Collection, 1930-[ongoing], Box 86, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

1996-2001 Women’s Lacrosse Team Duke University, [1996], Box 7, Lacrosse records 1937-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Cumulative Basketball Statistics Report, [1978], Box 1, Women’s Basketball records 1976-[ongoing]; 1977-1982, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Duke University Athletics. “ACC Announces Inaugural Unite Award Recipients.” goduke.com. September 23, 2021. https://goduke.com/news/2021/9/23/athletics-acc-announces-inaugural-uni….

Duke University, The Chanticleer (Durham, NC: 1986), 306, Rubenstein Archives, https://archive.org/embed/chanticleerseria1986duke, accessed on April 13, 2022.

Duke University, The Chanticleer (Durham, NC: 1979), 216, Rubenstein Archives, https://archive.org/embed/chanticleerseria1979duke, accessed on April 13, 2022.

Duke Women’s Tennis. “2010-11 Women’s Tennis Roster.” goduke.com,2022. https://goduke.com/sports/womens-tennis/roster/ellah-nze/8474, accessed on April 14, 2022.

Record Book Volleyball 2020. PDF File. February 10, 2021. https://s3.amazonaws.com/goduke.com/documents/2021/2/10/Media_Guide_202…

Rowing Records, Box 8, Rowing Records 1998-[ongoing]; Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Sigrid Taylor, Women’s Basketball, 1977-1978 Season, photograph, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/7021844691/.

Women’s Basketball at Duke, [1987], Box 22, Women’s Basketball Records 1976-[ongoing] & Guides and Programs, 1976, 1988, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Women’s Gymnastics, [1983], Gymnastics records, 1949-1984, Box 1, Office of Sports Information, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.