Penny Lucas - White Tells her Story about Marilyn
Penny Lucas-White is the volleyball coach at Alabama State University who played at LSU for Nelson, played for the national team, and has been head coach at Memphis and Air Force.
“Marilyn was not only a colleague but a dear friend,” Lucas-White said. “She was the head coach at Saint Louis University when I was at the University of Memphis. We shared great times competing against each other as well as sharing great insights on how to become better at our craft. I love the fact that women’s sports would not be where we are today, if it wasn’t for the foresight and relentless work ethic of women like Marilyn.
“Two unique things about Marilyn and our relationship as friends.
1. She ran a right-side dominant offense while at Saint Louis because she had so many left-handed players. That was a very unique offense and was even tougher to defend. That should tell you how innovative and creative she was as a coach and person.
2. She and I both were pregnant with twins at the same time. I remember chatting on a phone call when I told her I was pregnant with twins, and she laughed to tell me she was also. She was destined to be a pioneer in many aspects of her life. She successfully carried twins at 55 years old and carried them very well!!
“I will miss you my dear friend. Until we meet again, rest in peace.”
“Marilyn was not only a colleague but a dear friend,” Lucas-White said. “She was the head coach at Saint Louis University when I was at the University of Memphis. We shared great times competing against each other as well as sharing great insights on how to become better at our craft. I love the fact that women’s sports would not be where we are today, if it wasn’t for the foresight and relentless work ethic of women like Marilyn.
“Two unique things about Marilyn and our relationship as friends.
1. She ran a right-side dominant offense while at Saint Louis because she had so many left-handed players. That was a very unique offense and was even tougher to defend. That should tell you how innovative and creative she was as a coach and person.
2. She and I both were pregnant with twins at the same time. I remember chatting on a phone call when I told her I was pregnant with twins, and she laughed to tell me she was also. She was destined to be a pioneer in many aspects of her life. She successfully carried twins at 55 years old and carried them very well!!
“I will miss you my dear friend. Until we meet again, rest in peace.”
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Our Friend
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Services will be held at
First United Methodist Church 501 North California Big Lake, Texas April 22 (2:00 PM CST) |
Thanks to Laura McReavy Hearnsberger for making this Youtube live stream
Praying that the internet connection can hold the bandwidth of this "Celebration of Marilyn McReavy- Nolen Life"
Lone Star Region - USA Volleyball remembers Marilyn....
Former player Jill remembers Marilyn....
Jim stone remembers Marilyn....true pioneer of the sport!
How a Scrappy Volleyball Team from West Texas Won the First 2 Women’s National Titles A talented group of players converged at Sul Ross State University to write an unlikely chapter in sports history
Written by: Jaime Aron
Published: October 28, 2021 at 8:00 am
Published: October 28, 2021 at 8:00 am
Marilyn McReavy Nolen pulled into Alpine in the summer of 1968, headed from her family’s home in the West Texas town of Big Lake to California. She was joining her Team USA volleyball teammates to get ready for the Mexico City Olympics.
She had stopped in to visit a high school friend at Sul Ross State University, then and now a school of about 2,000 students best known for its rodeo team. By the time she drove away, however, McReavy Nolen had accepted an offer to return in January as a graduate assistant in the women’s physical education department while also pursuing a master’s degree.
Mary Jo Peppler pulled into Alpine in early 1969. A volleyball coach at a Catholic school in California, Peppler was on a cross-country road trip when she stopped in to visit McReavy Nolen, her former teammate on the Olympic squad. She liked the place so much she decided to enroll as an undergraduate student.
Sul Ross had no women’s sports teams when the 24-year-old athletes arrived. But Billie Lynn, the director of the women’s PE department, saw potential. She lured in McReavy Nolen within minutes of meeting her, and upon meeting Peppler—who was on Team USA in 1964, when women’s volleyball made its Olympic debut—Lynn realized she could capitalize on having two Olympians on the West Texas campus.
Though neither of them knew it at the time, the women were setting the groundwork for Sul Ross to write a new chapter in U.S. volleyball history.
THIS DECEMBER, the 64 best college women’s volleyball teams will gather in Columbus, Ohio, to determine the national champion. The schools almost certain to qualify include a who’s who of academic and athletic achievement, such as Stanford, Penn State, UCLA, and Texas. These teams train in top-of-the-line facilities and play for sophisticated coaches who make upward of $300,000 a year. All will fly to the tournament in comfort and wear the latest gear from top brands.
McReavy Nolen and Peppler never could’ve imagined such a thing when they drove into Alpine a little over 50 years ago. The NCAA didn’t even include women’s sports then; it wasn’t until 1972 that Congress passed the Title IX law, requiring colleges that accept federal funds to offer women’s sports programs.
Governing bodies other than the NCAA held the first women’s college volleyball championship tournaments in 1970 and 1971. And while those tournaments included juggernauts like UCLA and Oregon, the first two titles went to none other than Sul Ross, the little school in West Texas.
She had stopped in to visit a high school friend at Sul Ross State University, then and now a school of about 2,000 students best known for its rodeo team. By the time she drove away, however, McReavy Nolen had accepted an offer to return in January as a graduate assistant in the women’s physical education department while also pursuing a master’s degree.
Mary Jo Peppler pulled into Alpine in early 1969. A volleyball coach at a Catholic school in California, Peppler was on a cross-country road trip when she stopped in to visit McReavy Nolen, her former teammate on the Olympic squad. She liked the place so much she decided to enroll as an undergraduate student.
Sul Ross had no women’s sports teams when the 24-year-old athletes arrived. But Billie Lynn, the director of the women’s PE department, saw potential. She lured in McReavy Nolen within minutes of meeting her, and upon meeting Peppler—who was on Team USA in 1964, when women’s volleyball made its Olympic debut—Lynn realized she could capitalize on having two Olympians on the West Texas campus.
Though neither of them knew it at the time, the women were setting the groundwork for Sul Ross to write a new chapter in U.S. volleyball history.
THIS DECEMBER, the 64 best college women’s volleyball teams will gather in Columbus, Ohio, to determine the national champion. The schools almost certain to qualify include a who’s who of academic and athletic achievement, such as Stanford, Penn State, UCLA, and Texas. These teams train in top-of-the-line facilities and play for sophisticated coaches who make upward of $300,000 a year. All will fly to the tournament in comfort and wear the latest gear from top brands.
McReavy Nolen and Peppler never could’ve imagined such a thing when they drove into Alpine a little over 50 years ago. The NCAA didn’t even include women’s sports then; it wasn’t until 1972 that Congress passed the Title IX law, requiring colleges that accept federal funds to offer women’s sports programs.
Governing bodies other than the NCAA held the first women’s college volleyball championship tournaments in 1970 and 1971. And while those tournaments included juggernauts like UCLA and Oregon, the first two titles went to none other than Sul Ross, the little school in West Texas.
AFTER SETTLING IN ALPINE, Peppler and McReavy Nolen began playing pickup games with anyone they could find. This included freshmen Brenda Rochen Archie, who’d been an all-district player at Fort Stockton High; and Kay Whitley, who was in the tennis class McReavy Nolen taught, but hadn’t played volleyball since junior high.
The pickup squad agreed to put on a volleyball exhibition during halftime of a men’s basketball game. Lynn hyped it by declaring, “The Olympics have come to town!” At halftime, Lynn invited the guys in the bleachers to come on down—six at a time—to challenge the women. “The cowboys came out with their hats on,” Peppler told Sports Illustrated in 1975. “We killed them. We bounced balls off their heads.”
By May, Peppler and McReavy Nolen decided their crew was tournament-ready. They loaded into the Whitley family’s blue Chevrolet station wagon and headed for the U.S. Volleyball Association national championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. They ran out of gas once and spent some nights sleeping in the car and others under the stars. But they finished a respectable eighth place.
The next school year, the team’s new reputation drew several more skilled players to Alpine. Still, it’s a stretch to say anyone was recruited. “I mean, there were no scholarships,” McReavy Nolen said. “Two girls lived in Billie Lynn’s barn.”
For the 1970 and 1971 teams, McReavy Nolen served as the coach, and her mother pitched in by making their uniforms. “We had blue T-shirts and red T-shirts that said ‘Sul Ross,’” she said. “We didn’t put our names on them because we didn’t know how to sew very much. Our shorts were loose and striped, but the stripes were all different colors.”
They needed a team to scrimmage against, so McReavy Nolen and Peppler built one from the men playing in the intramural volleyball league, inviting mostly football players.
“We never, ever beat them—except for one time,” recalled Randy Wilson, then a lineman on the Sul Ross football team. “We were whooping and hollering on our way out and Mary Jo said, ‘Where are you going? We’re not through.’ She called us back, and they proceeded to pummel us.”
During one of those battles, Wilson warned a teammate not to challenge Peppler. “He smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Wilson said. “Then he goes up to block Mary Jo, and it was like she somehow switched hands in midair. That ball hit him square in the nose and broke it. He was flat on his back, bleeding. I said, ‘I told you!’ I thought it was funny. I don’t think he did.”
The Lobos—actually the “Loboettes” in those days—won every match in the regular season, earning the top seed at the inaugural national championship tournament held in Long Beach, California, in April 1970. The event—overseen by the Division of Girls’ and Womens’ Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation—included 28 schools. Sul Ross took out San Diego State in the semifinals, followed by UCLA in the finals.
THAT FALL, PEPPLER, MCREAVY NOLEN, and fellow Lobo Jerrie McGahan were selected to play for the U.S. team in the World Volleyball Championship in Bulgaria. Although Team USA finished 11th out of 16 teams, the tournament named Peppler the “Most Outstanding Player,” unofficially making her the world’s best player. Back in West Texas, in January 1971, Sul Ross hosted a traveling team from Brazil. Some say the gym had never been as packed as it was for those two matches.
Weeks later, the Lobos capped another undefeated season with a national championship. This tournament was held in Lawrence, Kansas, under the auspices of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. When the Sul Ross team drove back to West Texas, police cars and a fire truck were waiting on the outskirts of Alpine. Trouble? No, the start of a parade to campus.
“Any teenager loves having attention, and that’s what we got,” Rochen Archie said. “We went on the radio station. One of the jewelers gave us watches with a white band and ‘Sul Ross volleyball’ written on the face in red. We felt like heroes.”
The Lobos again qualified for the national tournament in 1972. But McReavy Nolen, Peppler, and McGahan left shortly before to focus on qualifying for the Olympics. Without their star players, Sul Ross was ousted in the quarterfinals.
The school’s program, which now competes in the NCAA’s Division III, hasn’t been as successful since, making those first two seasons even more legendary. McReavy Nolen and McGahan went on to successful Divison I coaching careers, and Peppler was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1990.
Despite the unpredictable set of circumstances that brought these athletes together, the team became pioneers of women’s college volleyball. It’s a title they’ll accept as long as it’s understood that they stumbled into it. Nevertheless, their legacy lives on in the girls and women who take the court at the more than 1,350 high schools and 90 colleges in Texas that field women’s volleyball teams.
“A lot of people talk about having short-term and long-term plans; we never had any of that,” McReavy Nolen said. “It all just happened.
From the November 2021 issue
The pickup squad agreed to put on a volleyball exhibition during halftime of a men’s basketball game. Lynn hyped it by declaring, “The Olympics have come to town!” At halftime, Lynn invited the guys in the bleachers to come on down—six at a time—to challenge the women. “The cowboys came out with their hats on,” Peppler told Sports Illustrated in 1975. “We killed them. We bounced balls off their heads.”
By May, Peppler and McReavy Nolen decided their crew was tournament-ready. They loaded into the Whitley family’s blue Chevrolet station wagon and headed for the U.S. Volleyball Association national championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. They ran out of gas once and spent some nights sleeping in the car and others under the stars. But they finished a respectable eighth place.
The next school year, the team’s new reputation drew several more skilled players to Alpine. Still, it’s a stretch to say anyone was recruited. “I mean, there were no scholarships,” McReavy Nolen said. “Two girls lived in Billie Lynn’s barn.”
For the 1970 and 1971 teams, McReavy Nolen served as the coach, and her mother pitched in by making their uniforms. “We had blue T-shirts and red T-shirts that said ‘Sul Ross,’” she said. “We didn’t put our names on them because we didn’t know how to sew very much. Our shorts were loose and striped, but the stripes were all different colors.”
They needed a team to scrimmage against, so McReavy Nolen and Peppler built one from the men playing in the intramural volleyball league, inviting mostly football players.
“We never, ever beat them—except for one time,” recalled Randy Wilson, then a lineman on the Sul Ross football team. “We were whooping and hollering on our way out and Mary Jo said, ‘Where are you going? We’re not through.’ She called us back, and they proceeded to pummel us.”
During one of those battles, Wilson warned a teammate not to challenge Peppler. “He smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Wilson said. “Then he goes up to block Mary Jo, and it was like she somehow switched hands in midair. That ball hit him square in the nose and broke it. He was flat on his back, bleeding. I said, ‘I told you!’ I thought it was funny. I don’t think he did.”
The Lobos—actually the “Loboettes” in those days—won every match in the regular season, earning the top seed at the inaugural national championship tournament held in Long Beach, California, in April 1970. The event—overseen by the Division of Girls’ and Womens’ Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation—included 28 schools. Sul Ross took out San Diego State in the semifinals, followed by UCLA in the finals.
THAT FALL, PEPPLER, MCREAVY NOLEN, and fellow Lobo Jerrie McGahan were selected to play for the U.S. team in the World Volleyball Championship in Bulgaria. Although Team USA finished 11th out of 16 teams, the tournament named Peppler the “Most Outstanding Player,” unofficially making her the world’s best player. Back in West Texas, in January 1971, Sul Ross hosted a traveling team from Brazil. Some say the gym had never been as packed as it was for those two matches.
Weeks later, the Lobos capped another undefeated season with a national championship. This tournament was held in Lawrence, Kansas, under the auspices of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. When the Sul Ross team drove back to West Texas, police cars and a fire truck were waiting on the outskirts of Alpine. Trouble? No, the start of a parade to campus.
“Any teenager loves having attention, and that’s what we got,” Rochen Archie said. “We went on the radio station. One of the jewelers gave us watches with a white band and ‘Sul Ross volleyball’ written on the face in red. We felt like heroes.”
The Lobos again qualified for the national tournament in 1972. But McReavy Nolen, Peppler, and McGahan left shortly before to focus on qualifying for the Olympics. Without their star players, Sul Ross was ousted in the quarterfinals.
The school’s program, which now competes in the NCAA’s Division III, hasn’t been as successful since, making those first two seasons even more legendary. McReavy Nolen and McGahan went on to successful Divison I coaching careers, and Peppler was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1990.
Despite the unpredictable set of circumstances that brought these athletes together, the team became pioneers of women’s college volleyball. It’s a title they’ll accept as long as it’s understood that they stumbled into it. Nevertheless, their legacy lives on in the girls and women who take the court at the more than 1,350 high schools and 90 colleges in Texas that field women’s volleyball teams.
“A lot of people talk about having short-term and long-term plans; we never had any of that,” McReavy Nolen said. “It all just happened.
From the November 2021 issue
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Sul Ross State University -2013
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USA National Team made of Sharkie Zartman , Flo Hyman and Beth along with EPU players Jerrie McGahan , Mary Jo Peppler, Patty Dowdell, Carol Dewey, Marilyn McReavy, Linda Stout, Melissa Stephens, Ruth N. Nelson, Lucy Courtney Bertha Lucas and Head Coach Pat Zartman (photo courtesy of USA Volleyball)
Marilyn McReavy Nolen, No. 3 next to the man with a tie, and the 1974 U.S. Women's National Team pose with the Japanese National Team.
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Marilyn McReavy Nolan, second from the right with ponytail, playing with the 1974 U.S. Women's National Team.
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Marilyn McReavy (second from right back row) pictured with the 1967 U.S. Pan American Games Team one year before being selected to the 1968 U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team.
Longtime player and coach Marilyn McReavy Nolen, a volleyball pioneer, died April 13 at 78.
The 1968 Olympian later was the coach at Sul Ross State (twice), New Mexico State, Utah State, Kentucky, Florida, North Florida and Saint Louis. At Saint Louis, she coached from 1994-2003, retired, but 10 years later went back to Sul Ross, where she started in 1969.
In 33 seasons, she compiled a record of 809-387-12, which included winning AIAW national championships at Sul Ross and Utah State.
Coming out of retirement wasn’t the only thing she did later in life. She and Rev. Randolph Nolen had two sons, Travis and Ryan, which Marilyn delivered at the remarkable age of 55.
During that 10-year “retirement,” Nolen was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class. She also was a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.
McReavy Nolen attended Howard Junior College before graduating from Southwest Texas State University in 1966 and two years later played for the USA in the 1968 Olympics. She stayed with the national team through 1975.
Marilyn McReavy Nolen accepts the USAV All-Time Great Coach Award in 1996/USAV photoAs USA Volleyball noted in its remembrance, McReavy Nolen went on to win two USA Volleyball women’s open national titles (1972, ’73) with E Pluribus Unum and she was a four-time All-American. McReavy Nolen helped develop the first U.S. Olympic national training center in Texas, before it moved to Colorado Springs.
She is a member of the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame, having won the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1996 and the James E. Coleman National Team Award in 2022.
Those USA teams that won in 1972 and 1973 were coached by McReavy Nolen and another legendary player, Mary Jo Peppler. USA Volleyball noted that the tournaments were overseen at that time by the Division of Girls’ and Women’s Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
USU Volleyball coaches Marilyn McReavy Nolen (left) and Mary Jo Peppler/Utah State Libraries“My graduate school advisor was former USA men’s Olympic coach Dr. Jim Coleman,” said another volleyball icon, Ruth Nelson. “I was head women’s volleyball coach and head men’s tennis coach at George Williams College at the age of 21. During our history lessons, Jim always talked about Marilyn and Mary Jo and all they had developed for USA Women’s volleyball.
“After finishing my master’s degree, I was invited and made the 1972 USA national team.”
Nelson had the offer to move to Houston to join the EPU USVBA National Championship team as a setter.
“I was excited but had just taken a full-time position for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance as an executive to the president,” Nelson said. “I told him about the opportunity, and he immediately transferred me to the branch office in the USVBA Houston Region, so I was immediately eligible to play.
“This started my 50-plus-years friendship to a legend.” McReavy never really left coaching, even working camps later in life. “She truly cared about the sport no matter the level,” Nelson said. “She was my teammate, colleague, mentor, role model, and much more a friend that was always positive and could find something productive out of any situation. And truly a competitor that always found a way to have FUN on the court while never accepting defeat! We are all Blessed to have had her touch our lives in a very special way! RIP Marilyn.”
EPU national USVBA championship team
Penny Lucas-White is the volleyball coach at Alabama State University who played at LSU for Nelson, played for the national team, and has been head coach at Memphis and Air Force.
“Marilyn was not only a colleague but a dear friend,” Lucas-White said. “She was the head coach at Saint Louis University when I was at the University of Memphis. We shared great times competing against each other as well as sharing great insights on how to become better at our craft. I love the fact that women’s sports would not be where we are today, if it wasn’t for the foresight and relentless work ethic of women like Marilyn.
“Two unique things about Marilyn and our relationship as friends.
1. She ran a right-side dominant offense while at Saint Louis because she had so many left-handed players. That was a very unique offense and was even tougher to defend. That should tell you how innovative and creative she was as a coach and person.
2. She and I both were pregnant with twins at the same time. I remember chatting on a phone call when I told her I was pregnant with twins, and she laughed to tell me she was also. She was destined to be a pioneer in many aspects of her life. She successfully carried twins at 55 years old and carried them very well!!
“I will miss you my dear friend. Until we meet again, rest in peace.”
Lou Sara Galloway was McReavy’s 1968 Olympic teammate and they were lifelong friends.
“This is a bittersweet day for me,” Galloway said. “My friend Marilyn McReavy-Nolen is finally free from the pain and agony that she suffered for 14 months after being diagnosed with cancer … I know she is at peace.
“Marilyn was my friend and also a teammate during our 60-year friendship. She was one in a million, a truly unique and talented woman who loved volleyball and worked tirelessly throughout her coaching career to do her best with the young women that she coached. And her best was awesome.
“She was never boastful or arrogant about her myriad of accomplishments. Her mood was always upbeat, even throughout her battle with cancer. She endured so much pain but she never gave up hope. … I cherish the fact that she was a lifelong friend and wonderful teammate. I will miss her very much and keep her memory alive by remembering and relating all the wonderful aspects of her personality. She was good and kind and deserves to be celebrated in the volleyball world for those attributes as well as her achievements as a coach. ”
Marilyn McReavy Nolen coaching at one of Ruth Nelson’s campsAt a USA Volleyball reunion in 2018, McReavy Nolen recounted what it was like being with the 1968 Olympic team.
“It was a wild time. The thing I remember is being able to eat in all the cafeterias. Every country had their own, so you could go around and eat all this different food. There was some concern we might get sick by eating different food. Early in the morning, I would go down to the track, which was way down below. I would just sit on the wall and watch these phenomenal human beings as they worked out in the morning on the track. It was an amazing thing. I can remember it like it was yesterday.
“I think the other thing was the fact that there were not that many women there. We had a hotel and there was a fence around it and we were guarded. I thought that was unusual.
“But also, going to downtown and hanging around. The traffic and the people. We traded everything. I brought my dad back this bright yellow jacket from France that I traded for. He wore it forever. I managed to get the West German warm-up stuff. Everybody was after it. All the different pins.”
From her obituary in the Roswell Daily Record:
In 1988 she married Rev. Randolph Nolen, at that time a Navy chaplain, to whom she remained married for 35 years until her death. They made their home in Roswell, New Mexico. They raised two outstanding sons, Travis Steven of Socorro, New Mexico, and Ryan David, of Austin, Texas.
In addition to her immediate family, she is survived by her sister, Jo Theriot (Tom) of Hico, Texas, sister-in-law Sharon McReavy of Hockley, Texas, nieces Laura McReavy Hearnsberger, and Holly Longenbach (Michael) and nephews Chris McReavy (Emily), Marcus Theriot (Alicia), and Matthew Theriot (Amber).
Saint Louis University photo/graphic
The 1968 Olympian later was the coach at Sul Ross State (twice), New Mexico State, Utah State, Kentucky, Florida, North Florida and Saint Louis. At Saint Louis, she coached from 1994-2003, retired, but 10 years later went back to Sul Ross, where she started in 1969.
In 33 seasons, she compiled a record of 809-387-12, which included winning AIAW national championships at Sul Ross and Utah State.
Coming out of retirement wasn’t the only thing she did later in life. She and Rev. Randolph Nolen had two sons, Travis and Ryan, which Marilyn delivered at the remarkable age of 55.
During that 10-year “retirement,” Nolen was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class. She also was a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.
McReavy Nolen attended Howard Junior College before graduating from Southwest Texas State University in 1966 and two years later played for the USA in the 1968 Olympics. She stayed with the national team through 1975.
Marilyn McReavy Nolen accepts the USAV All-Time Great Coach Award in 1996/USAV photoAs USA Volleyball noted in its remembrance, McReavy Nolen went on to win two USA Volleyball women’s open national titles (1972, ’73) with E Pluribus Unum and she was a four-time All-American. McReavy Nolen helped develop the first U.S. Olympic national training center in Texas, before it moved to Colorado Springs.
She is a member of the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame, having won the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1996 and the James E. Coleman National Team Award in 2022.
Those USA teams that won in 1972 and 1973 were coached by McReavy Nolen and another legendary player, Mary Jo Peppler. USA Volleyball noted that the tournaments were overseen at that time by the Division of Girls’ and Women’s Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
USU Volleyball coaches Marilyn McReavy Nolen (left) and Mary Jo Peppler/Utah State Libraries“My graduate school advisor was former USA men’s Olympic coach Dr. Jim Coleman,” said another volleyball icon, Ruth Nelson. “I was head women’s volleyball coach and head men’s tennis coach at George Williams College at the age of 21. During our history lessons, Jim always talked about Marilyn and Mary Jo and all they had developed for USA Women’s volleyball.
“After finishing my master’s degree, I was invited and made the 1972 USA national team.”
Nelson had the offer to move to Houston to join the EPU USVBA National Championship team as a setter.
“I was excited but had just taken a full-time position for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance as an executive to the president,” Nelson said. “I told him about the opportunity, and he immediately transferred me to the branch office in the USVBA Houston Region, so I was immediately eligible to play.
“This started my 50-plus-years friendship to a legend.” McReavy never really left coaching, even working camps later in life. “She truly cared about the sport no matter the level,” Nelson said. “She was my teammate, colleague, mentor, role model, and much more a friend that was always positive and could find something productive out of any situation. And truly a competitor that always found a way to have FUN on the court while never accepting defeat! We are all Blessed to have had her touch our lives in a very special way! RIP Marilyn.”
EPU national USVBA championship team
Penny Lucas-White is the volleyball coach at Alabama State University who played at LSU for Nelson, played for the national team, and has been head coach at Memphis and Air Force.
“Marilyn was not only a colleague but a dear friend,” Lucas-White said. “She was the head coach at Saint Louis University when I was at the University of Memphis. We shared great times competing against each other as well as sharing great insights on how to become better at our craft. I love the fact that women’s sports would not be where we are today, if it wasn’t for the foresight and relentless work ethic of women like Marilyn.
“Two unique things about Marilyn and our relationship as friends.
1. She ran a right-side dominant offense while at Saint Louis because she had so many left-handed players. That was a very unique offense and was even tougher to defend. That should tell you how innovative and creative she was as a coach and person.
2. She and I both were pregnant with twins at the same time. I remember chatting on a phone call when I told her I was pregnant with twins, and she laughed to tell me she was also. She was destined to be a pioneer in many aspects of her life. She successfully carried twins at 55 years old and carried them very well!!
“I will miss you my dear friend. Until we meet again, rest in peace.”
Lou Sara Galloway was McReavy’s 1968 Olympic teammate and they were lifelong friends.
“This is a bittersweet day for me,” Galloway said. “My friend Marilyn McReavy-Nolen is finally free from the pain and agony that she suffered for 14 months after being diagnosed with cancer … I know she is at peace.
“Marilyn was my friend and also a teammate during our 60-year friendship. She was one in a million, a truly unique and talented woman who loved volleyball and worked tirelessly throughout her coaching career to do her best with the young women that she coached. And her best was awesome.
“She was never boastful or arrogant about her myriad of accomplishments. Her mood was always upbeat, even throughout her battle with cancer. She endured so much pain but she never gave up hope. … I cherish the fact that she was a lifelong friend and wonderful teammate. I will miss her very much and keep her memory alive by remembering and relating all the wonderful aspects of her personality. She was good and kind and deserves to be celebrated in the volleyball world for those attributes as well as her achievements as a coach. ”
Marilyn McReavy Nolen coaching at one of Ruth Nelson’s campsAt a USA Volleyball reunion in 2018, McReavy Nolen recounted what it was like being with the 1968 Olympic team.
“It was a wild time. The thing I remember is being able to eat in all the cafeterias. Every country had their own, so you could go around and eat all this different food. There was some concern we might get sick by eating different food. Early in the morning, I would go down to the track, which was way down below. I would just sit on the wall and watch these phenomenal human beings as they worked out in the morning on the track. It was an amazing thing. I can remember it like it was yesterday.
“I think the other thing was the fact that there were not that many women there. We had a hotel and there was a fence around it and we were guarded. I thought that was unusual.
“But also, going to downtown and hanging around. The traffic and the people. We traded everything. I brought my dad back this bright yellow jacket from France that I traded for. He wore it forever. I managed to get the West German warm-up stuff. Everybody was after it. All the different pins.”
From her obituary in the Roswell Daily Record:
In 1988 she married Rev. Randolph Nolen, at that time a Navy chaplain, to whom she remained married for 35 years until her death. They made their home in Roswell, New Mexico. They raised two outstanding sons, Travis Steven of Socorro, New Mexico, and Ryan David, of Austin, Texas.
In addition to her immediate family, she is survived by her sister, Jo Theriot (Tom) of Hico, Texas, sister-in-law Sharon McReavy of Hockley, Texas, nieces Laura McReavy Hearnsberger, and Holly Longenbach (Michael) and nephews Chris McReavy (Emily), Marcus Theriot (Alicia), and Matthew Theriot (Amber).
Saint Louis University photo/graphic