ATHLETICS When Stanislaus State hired Wayne Pierce to teach botany in 1971, the University had no idea it was getting a package deal. Although his wife, Donna Pierce, was never an employee, she has been just as involved as anyone on campus and is something of an unofficial historian. The two were enthusiastic boosters of Warrior sports. Wayne served as Faculty Representative to Athletics for 25 years. A tremendous sports fan, Donna served as a clock keeper and later an official scorekeeper at Warrior basketball games for more than 30 years. She was inducted into the Warrior Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, four years after Wayne. Her greatest legacy may be providing the funding to complete the Trans-California Pathway in honor of her late husband, who dreamed of such a space for decades. But her roots with the University run deeper.
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“Donna is not just a supporter of Warrior Athletics, she’s part of the family,” said Hung Tsai, assistant athletics director, communications and marketing. “Her long-time commitment to the well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and staff has been invaluable to the entire Stanislaus State community.” She attended every kind of Stan State sporting event, except maybe softball. “I was the first softball coach,” Pierce said. “They were desperate, and I was available. We were horrible.” That 1976 team was formed in the early days after Title IX provided equal opportunities for women. The field was carved out of a dirt parking lot by the gym. The team won only one game, against Sonoma State University
OF A CHAMPION
“The only thing I can say about it is we showed up at all our games with whoever we could manage to get,” Pierce said. “We had credibility by showing up, and we paved the way so whoever followed us could have a team.”
She Never Put on a Uniform, but Donna Pierce has Been a Part of Warrior Athletics as Much as Any Accomplished Athlete
“When that season was over, I asked Wayne to take me away for a while and we went to Houston,” Pierce said. During that six-month sabbatical, Wayne worked at the University of Houston, which was one of only two times in nearly 50 years that Donna Pierce left Turlock.
BY LORI GILBERT
STA N M AGA Z I N E
The other happened when she attended Ronald Regan’s 1981 inauguration with a group from Stan State and fell in love with Washington D.C. Wayne Pierce took a sabbatical and worked in the laboratory at the University of Maryland.
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