Allene Stovall’s legacy at WT

Persistence paid off WT women’s sports started with Allene Stovall

By LEE PASSMORE

In just about every way, Allene Stovall could be considered the mother of West Texas A&M athletics, and her family has always felt her impact.

Stovall, who led the women’s athletic program that was being established at then-West Texas State in the early 1960s, died on July 17, 2022, in Amarillo at the age of 88. It capped a life whose legacy was felt by those who played for her well beyond the confines of any athletic venue she presided over in her coaching career.

That era wasn’t one where women’s college athletics enjoyed anything resembling big time national television contracts or any endorsement deals to gain exposure beyond their hometowns. During the first half of her career at WT, Stovall didn’t even have the benefit of Title IX, the 1972 legislation intended to provide funding and support comparable to what the men’s programs got.

Stovall, who coached the WT women’s basketball team from 1963 to 1979, had to pretty much do it herself.

“The thing about Allene Stovall was there wasn’t one problem or issue that she did not approach with tenacity and grace combined into this really positive approach to things,” said Alma Ramsey, who played basketball at WT for Stovall from 1972 to 1976 and also lettered in track, rifle and volleyball. “One of the

Becky Smith Pinson, left, poses with her college basketball coach, Allene Stovall, on Jan. 18, 2020, in front of the WT Hall of Champions Wall in the First United Bank Center in Canyon. They were celebrating the recognition of Stovall’s parents, Arthur and Lela Mae Stovall, as 2019 Legacy Award recipients. Allene Stovall, the driving force behind the WT women’s athletic program, was inducted into the hall in 1997. Pinson played basketball from 1971 to 1973 and competed in softball and on the rifle team. (Information from Tom Musser; photo by Mike Haynes) In the early years of women’s sports at West Texas State, Allene Stovall, in glasses, coached everything from basketball to volleyball to bowling to rifle competition, often using the same uniforms for different sports.

things that I think belongs in any discussion about her is that Allene Stovall, with her own money, her own effort and her own car, cajoled other people to come and coach and built a fantastic women’s athletics program.”

There were no buses or certainly no planes fueled up and ready to go for the Lady Buffs when they got ready to leave Canyon for a road trip. The team generally had to pile into Stovall’s blue paneled station wagon during her early years for road trips that made today’s Lone Star Conference excursions seem like a hop, skip and a jump.

But it wasn’t just gasoline and wear and tear on her station wagon that hit Stovall’s pocketbook. She also paid for the school’s first basketball uniforms out of her own pocket.

And Stovall sure didn’t have a staff to lean on. She relied on student-athletes to help her.

Cindy Pearce Barnes became an all-sports athletic trainer while also lettering in track and softball at WT from 1976 to 1979. She met Stovall while attending Howard College in Big Spring when Stovall’s WT team was visiting for a basketball game. Stovall offered Barnes a job as trainer and manager of the basketball team and put her in a converted women’s towel room as an office.

Barnes wasn’t a part of the salaried faculty at WT.

“She paid my whole salary,” Barnes said. “It took me awhile to figure it out. The checks came from her, but I didn’t realize that it was literally her money. No one had a budget. For a 19- or 20-year-old kid going to college, I didn’t really question where the money came from.”

Small budgets required ingenuity

Wherever it came from, there usually wasn’t a whole lot of it. Stovall started with a $1,600 budget when she arrived at WT, which incrementally grew during her tenure.

The women’s athletic program at WT started practically from scratch a few years after Stovall arrived at there in 1960 as a physi-

(Continued from previous page) cal education instructor. From 1910 to 1924, WT had competed in intercollegiate women’s athletics in basketball, tennis and soccer, but few, if any, records are available from that era.

In 1959, women’s intercollegiate athletics were reinstated at WT but with no financial backing from the college. It took four years before women’s basketball returned to campus, and Stovall was tabbed to head the program.

Stovall came to WT from Snyder, where she coached at the high school before returning closer to home, her native Panhandle. One of the people who followed Stovall north from Allene Stovall, center front, poses with many of her former West Texas State athletes and supporters, most wearing Snyder was Helen Jo Ivison Lee, shirts that say, “Title IX,” which opened up sports for women at U.S. colleges and universities. (Photo courtesy of West who played volleyball, which Texas A&M University) Stovall also coached at WT.

“We had no support from the working with agencies which made a difference for people.” school,” Lee said. “She was an individual who tried to encour- By this time in Stovall’s tenure, there had been some progress age you to be the best you could be. It made me want to practice in the WT women’s athletic program, even if it seemed glacial. every minute that I had to be a better player and a better person. Most of the battles she fought for the program didn’t include It excited me because I was very fond of her and she came to our that many allies. house a lot (in Snyder). She just wanted to give back to young Lee was there from the beginning and says it’s hard to imagine people and give them an opportunity to be the best they were.” the WT women’s program being anywhere near where it is today

The Lady Buffs had a theme of togetherness in the Stovall without Stovall stoking the flames. era that was as much out necessity as anything. The team often “As far as I’m concerned, she’s the base,” Lee said. “She’s stayed eight to a room on the road, and Stovall started coaching what started it and what kept it going even though she didn’t have during an era when she couldn’t buy gas on Sundays to fill her any support whatsoever. They just didn’t do that for the women station wagon. during the time I was there.”

There wasn’t exactly a paid support staff either, especially Stovall fought for support from the university, which didn’t on the road. necessarily endear her to the WT administration. Coaches of fe-

“If we had two games in a day, we only had one set of uni- male sports sometimes were hesitant to push too hard for funding. forms,” Ramsey said. “We had to wash them in the bathtub. There Responses to requests for funding generally fell on deaf were daddies who met us with gas somewhere on the highways ears in the early 1970s. The closest thing the women’s program so we could get back. That’s not something anyone would think enjoyed in terms of an athletic “windfall” came in early 1973 was even possible today.” when legendary sportscaster Keith Jackson spoke at the Canyon Chamber of Commerce and donated half of his $1,000 speaking Positive, persevering attitude fee to WT women’s athletics. It was the first recorded scholarship

Ramsey said Stovall worked overtime to keep things positive aid given to the school’s women’s athletic programs. even when nature literally deemed things otherwise. By the time Bob Schneider came on campus and started his

“We were going down to play Texas Tech, and we had a flat legendary run as women’s basketball coach in 1981, women’s right outside of Happy in one of the worst dirt storms I have ever athletics was under the purview of the NCAA. Schneider acseen,” Ramsey said. “There was not a frown anywhere. It was knowledges the differences between building his own program Allene’s leadership which said, ‘We have a flat, and we need to and the obstacles Stovall faced. fix it. Let’s get to the game.’” “She was a fine lady and worked very, very hard,” Schneider

Barnes said Stovall and her players didn’t enjoy much in the said. “That was before Title IX. They didn’t have any women’s way of perks from the university. basketball. She did everything she possibly could to give those

“The thing I enjoyed with Allene in the very beginning was ladies a chance to play basketball. She went through some rough the love of the game,” Barnes said. “There had begun to be a times when she didn’t have any money to travel. I really have to very little bit of money, like $2,000, but it didn’t go too far for give her credit for sticking in there and doing that.” a team. We were still stealing tape from the guys’ locker room Athletes picked up cans, cleaned houses to tape ankles. In order to travel, Stovall and her players resorted to tactics

“Allene helped giving young ladies the opportunity to com- that resembled local youth organization fundraisers more than pete and to grow up. She taught us the value of volunteering and (Continued on next page) 38 Special Features

black tie booster club banquets.

“What I appreciate the most is in order to field a team of any sort, the women athletes at WT picked up beer cans in a dry county, officiated intramural games and cleaned houses,” Ramsey said. “Allene Stovall’s lighthearted approach to those tasks ensured that the women that competed for WT would be a strong cohesive group who didn’t take anything for granted. We knew we had to earn our own way. That lesson all by itself is probably the best part of the education I got at WT.”

The fight never really stopped for Stovall or many of the athletes who played for her. Stovall stayed on as WT women’s athletic director for two years after retiring from coaching, during which time lawsuits and complaints were brought against the university for noncompliance and discrimination against women’s athletics.

Some of the situation was mitigated in 1980 when the university funded 10 $200 women’s athletic scholarships in Stovall’s name. By 1997, Stovall finally was recognized as a pioneer in the area as she was named to the WT Athletics Hall of Champions and inducted into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame.

“Allene was the person who had the staying power and sustained the fight as different things happened,” Barnes said. “Allene really persisted, and she got to the point where she said,

‘I’m not scared of you.’ “She would say she didn’t do this alone. There were other coaches involved. The beginning was very hard, and they did it for nothing.” Stovall spent time on her family farm in Panhandle during the offseason and after she retired from coaching. Those who played or worked for her still remember her legacy. “With the passing of Allene Stovall, WT has lost its link with a huge, huge history,” Ramsey said. “With her passing, the shame is that a rich history of women’s athletics is now gone with her. The one thing that I hope is that WT will honor the legacy that she represents.” • • • Allene Stovall has had her portrait In the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame book, displayed at the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame since she was inducted in 1997. After many years at Amarillo College, the Pride of the Plains, Allene Stovall told the story of how the WT women’s basketball team came to PSHOF now is located at Kids Inc. at 2201 be known as the Lady Buffs. E. 27th Ave. in Amarillo. “A sportswriter came to our game and asked what our nickname was,” she said. “So at halftime we met and I told the girls we need a name. We decided on the Lady Buffs. If not, we might have been the Buffettes the rest of our lives.”