2014 

Joan Boand

Joan Boand arrived at Grand Valley State in 1966 and joined the physical education faculty, where she eventually made a significant impact on all of Laker athletics. Boand was a pioneer of women’s sports at Grand Valley, developing the women’s softball, basketball, and volleyball programs within her first six years on staff. Her innovation of the programs and policies at GVSU for nearly three decades helped implement the successful athletic program the Lakers have today.

Boand established the volleyball program in 1969 and was the first head volleyball coach in Grand Valley State history.  She holds an all-time record of 545-332 (.621) in her tenure as head coach. Within the 26 years as head coach, Boand won GLIAC Coach of the Year twice in both 1985 and 1986 and was named Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year in 1986. She won six total GLIAC Championships, and was ranked 20th in Division II history for career victories. Boand holds the school record of 42 wins in 1986. She completed her successful coaching tenure with four 30-plus-win seasons, and sixteen 20-plus-win seasons, recording a winning season in 23 of her 26 years.

Just one year after she kick started the volleyball program, Boand formed the first women’s basketball team in 1970. She was the first head women’s basketball coach in Grand Valley State history. She holds an all-time record of 132-48 (.733) in her tenure as head coach from 1970 to 1978. In her nine seasons at the helm Boand won five straight GLIAC titles (1975-1979). She coached GVSU’s first women’s basketball All-American, Kim Hansen, who was joined in the Laker Hall of Fame by three-sport standout Pat Baker Gryzb, also a protégé of Boand.

After the enactment of Title IX in 1971, Boand founded the women’s softball program. She was the first head women’s softball coach in Grand Valley State history. She holds an all-time record of 69-16 from her five-year tenure (1971-75) as head coach.

On top of her accomplishments within women’s athletics, Boand served for many years on conference, state and regional committees and in a variety of capacities with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). She also served as the compliance liaison between GVSU and the NCAA, ensuring that eligibility requirements and association standards were properly met.

Boand acquired two more positions at GVSU before retirement. She was named the women’s athletic coordinator in 1976, and was promoted to assistant athletic director in 1989. Two years later, Boand earned her 700th coaching victory while coaching women’s volleyball.

After spending 33 years serving Grand Valley State and women’s athletics, Boand retired in 1999. She finished her 25-year coaching career with more than 700 total wins and 10 GLIAC championships. Without Boand’s advocacy for women’s athletics at Grand Valley, the athletic program would certainly not hold as many accolades as it does today.

Kaye Hart

Dr. E. Kaye Hart (NACWAA President 1989-1991) now retired, during her pioneering career opened countless doors to women in athletics. In 1965, Hart graduated as the Outstanding Woman Physical Education Major from Utah State University. She began her career in intercollegiate athletics at Southern Utah University as the Athletic Director of Women's Sports.

In 1969, Hart moved to Midwestern College where she was the Assistant Athletic Director and Head Women's Basketball Coach. While at Midwestern, Hart coached three AAU All-Americans and awarded scholarships to female student-athletes. This groundbreaking endeavor led to the creation of the first AIAW athletic scholarships for women. An advocate for gender equity in sport, Hart's leadership and drive contributed to the passage of Title IX in 1972. Hart then spent time at New Mexico State University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and Temple University.

In 1982, Hart joined Utah State University as the Associate Athletic Director of Internal Operations. She served as the Acting Athletic Director at Utah State in 1985. In 1993, she was hired as the Director of Athletics at Austin Peay State University, where she served until her retirement in 1997.

Hart has served the intercollegiate athletics community through her extensive work with the NCAA including work on the Special Committee on Financial Conditions in Intercollegiate Athletics, Women's Basketball Committee, and Peer Review Team. She has also served as a consultant for Legal Advocates for Women's Sports and has presented before the Knight Foundation. Among her many honors, Hart has been cited in "Outstanding Women in Health, Physical Education & Recreation" and "Who's Who in the West.

Sallie Beard

Sallie Beard served Missouri Southern State University as both coach and Athletics Director for 37 years before her retirement in 2009. She almost single-handedly created women’s athletics at Missouri Southern when she started the first women’s sports teams, serving as head coach of basketball, softball, tennis, and track and field. For 25 years, she was the Women’s Athletics Director. In 2001, she was named the first Athletics Director to oversee both the men’s and women’s athletic programs at MSSU. She is the only female to have served as an Athletics Director in the history of the MIAA.

Always one to lead by example, Beard served on numerous NCAA Division II committees: Degree Completion, Convention and Planning, Identity, Nominating and Voting, and Athlete Reinstatement. She served on the association-wide NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, developing Title IX interpretive language for the Office of Civil Rights during the Clinton administration. From 2005 to 2009 she was a member of the Division II Management Council.  Beard has also been a leader in the MIAA, serving as vice president before her election in 1999 to a two-year term as Conference President, the first athletics director to be chosen for that position.

Beard helped usher in a new era in MSSU Athletics when the university moved from the NAIA to NCAA Division II and the MIAA in 1989. She oversaw significant facility improvements at Southern, most notably the Lionpride Restoration Project, adding new turf, lighting, and track and field surfaces to Fred G. Hughes Stadium; the construction of the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center (a basketball and indoor track facility); and the Lea Kungle and Gene Wild softball fields. Missouri Southern consistently ranked among the best academically in the MIAA. Under Beard’s leadership, athletes recorded an Academic Success Rate of 87 percent, a full 36 percent higher than the general student population at MSSU.

During her stint as track and field coach, Beard was twice named NAIA District 16 Coach of the Year, including the 1983 season when she led Southern to the district outdoor title. At the 1981 World University Games in Romania, she was an assistant coach for the U.S. team that included such notables as Edwin Moses, Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She was a coach for the North squad at the 1983 National Sports Festival and from 1979 to 1983 was on the games committees for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

After her retirement, Beard’s administrative skills were once again called into action. Following the 2011 tornado that struck Joplin, she became deeply involved in the rebuilding effort, organizing housing for the many volunteers who came to her city.