WCU womens basketball team
Bill Studenc MPA '10November 15, 2024

Game Changers

Betty Westmoreland Suhre '62 MAEd '65 (center) helped launch WCU's women's basketball program in 1964.

Betty Westmoreland Suhre '62 MAEd '65 (center) helped launch WCU's women's basketball program in 1964.

Former players tip off an effort to name the women's basketball locker room after the program's matriarch

A trio of alumnae from the Catamount women’s basketball team is on a quest to raise the funds necessary to name the squad’s locker room in honor of the matriarch of the program at ÌđčÏÊÓÆ”app — Betty Westmoreland Suhre ’62 MAEd ’65.

Nora Lynn Finch ’70 MAEd ’71, Judy Stroud ’76 MAEd ’81 and Donna Winbon ’80 recently made gifts and pledges of $25,000, which is three-quarters of the $100,000 total required by philanthropic guidelines to affix their former coach’s name to the space.

“These three women are all longtime supporters of the university and Catamount athletics,” said Alex Gary, director of athletics. “They are now going above and beyond their annual gifts in an effort to commemorate the contributions of a trailblazer for women’s athletics at their alma mater.”

During the early 1960s, WCU had no organized sports teams for women, who were limited to one-off “play day” events hosted by other schools. A faculty member, Westmoreland Suhre helped change that, launching WCU’s women’s basketball program in 1964 — doing so on a shoestring budget.

“Coach Westmoreland started the program with no monies,” said Stroud, an insurance professional who served as WCU’s women’s basketball coach from 1981 to 1985 and who officiated WNBA and women’s NCAA basketball games for 20 years. “She used her own car for transporting the players and she is the winningest women’s basketball coach at WCU. She had such an impact on so many students and women student-athletes in the direction they took in their life after graduation.”

Finch, whose lengthy career in women’s athletics includes stints at Wake Forest University, Peace College and NC State University, credits Westmoreland Suhre with setting her on a path as a coach and athletics administrator by encouraging her to earn a National Women's Basketball certification her junior year.

“My 48-year career in college athletics has given me firsthand familiarity of the rapid and luxurious expansion of athletics facilities across the nation. At the heart of recruiting student-athletes are the university's athletic facilities. Recruits ask, ‘Where will I sleep? Where will I eat? Where will I practice and compete?’ Western rates highly on the dorms, dining and competition facilities, but our women's basketball locker room is in need of being updated,” said Finch.

“When there is a lounge area, snack and beverage bar, and internet connectivity with a television, the athletes will spend more time in their locker room than in their dorm room except when sleeping. Camaraderie is cultivated, friendships are forged and players become trusted teammates. To an athlete, the locker room is a very personal, socially interactive and peaceful preserve.”

Stroud, a past coordinator of women’s basketball officials for the Big South, South Atlantic and Coastal Athletic conferences, also said she has personal knowledge of the need.

“Being a former women’s basketball coach at WCU, there were so many things we lacked and needed. I want the current women’s basketball players to feel as special as their counterparts on the men’s side do. We have come a long way, but we still need to continue pushing,” she said. “We played in homemade uniforms that we washed ourselves, traveled in cars and vans, got $10 per day for meals, no jog bras and no socks, but by my junior year, we did get purple Converse shoes that matched. By my senior year, I was one of several to receive a scholarship of $50 per quarter. I was thrilled.”

Although Winbon was on the women’s basketball team for only one year, self-deprecatingly joking that she “had the height, but not the skill,” she was determined to participate in the locker room project out of her love of the game.

“Being from a small town in eastern North Carolina, it was a thrill to make the women’s basketball team my freshman year,” said Winbon, a financial adviser. “Sports was always part of my life and to be able to be on a college team was a dream come true. I want to help in any way I can.”

With their combined contributions comprising 75% of the goal for the locker room initiative, part of an effort launched last year to improve facilities for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs, the three alumnae are urging other former players to get involved.

“I strongly suggest for them to remember their days no matter who their coach was and to remember our struggles for equality and fairness,” Stroud said.

The locker room naming, which requires approval by WCU’s Board of Trustees after the funding goal is reached, comes at a historic time for women’s basketball, which is experiencing unprecedented popularity. And, WCU’s program is entering a new era behind coach Jonathan Tsipis, who has head coaching stops at George Washington University and the University of Wisconsin and held coaching positions at women’s basketball powerhouse Notre Dame.

What better time to honor a pioneer of the sport at WCU, said Finch.

“We have an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ with a financial gift that will enrich the experience of being a Catamount woman basketball player,” she said. “Fifty-eight years ago, Betty Westmoreland gave her personal time, personal funds and professional talents so I could play basketball. She volunteered to coach us. She received no reduction in teaching duties. Naming the locker room for her is a public acknowledgement of how one coach can change lives.”

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