Seton Hill celebrates 100th anniversary of women's basketball team

Seton Hill women’s basketball players used to walk across the road to the Armory near downtown Greensburg to play intrasquad games.

Later, they would hop a train to play in Pittsburgh, Indiana or Ohio.

Dressed in their blooms, skirts and tiny caps, they would weave around creaky courts, pass to each other and toss up underhanded shots.

This all started in 1922-23, as evidenced by sepia-toned photos and passed-on stories that lingered in the lower level of McKenna Center on Wednesday night.

Seton Hill has been reaching back into its past of late as it shines a spotlight on the genesis of women’s basketball at the school.

Fast forward to a cold winter night in 2023, and the Seton Hill women continue to pass and cut, only now they’re in sleek Under Armour uniforms and brand-name high-tops, and they’re playing before a crowd in a bright gymnasium.

The opponent is still IUP, not the former Indiana Normal School — the teams have been playing off and on for a century — and Seton Hill’s drive to uphold tradition carries on.

Seton Hill is celebrating 100 years since the women’s basketball program began. A number of alums and supporters gathered Wednesday to share memories and watch the current team take on the Crimson Hawks.

An all-women’s school until 2002, Seton Hill is a nationally recognized, coeducational liberal arts university.

“A lot of what they did then was modeled after Pitt,” said Marybeth Miller, whose grandmother, Florence Wilson-Scott, played on the first varsity club team at the school. “Katherine ‘Kit’ Roehm was a player at Pitt, and she came in to coach (Seton Hill). She would take a train in a few days a week to work with the team.”

Wilson-Scott will have a first-floor wing on campus named after her.

“They didn’t have a name. They weren’t the Griffins then,” said

Miller , who wore her grandmother’s varsity letter, which had been cut out of a sweater, around her neck during a pre-game reception for alumni and friends of the proud program.

“They had cheerleaders, too. They would take four cheerleaders on the road with them.”

The current cheerleader squad attempted some of the old-time cheers during Wednesday’s game.

Women’s basketball lasted until 1927 and was disbanded for unknown reasons until it returned in 1972 thanks to the efforts of John Fogle, a longtime coach and athletic director at the school.

“When (basketball) came back, we would have played against anybody,” said Terri Campbell Murphy, who played during the team’s resurgence.

Charlie Westhoven-Deer also played during that time.

“We never imagined any of this,” she said, referring to the meet-and-greet and centennial celebration. “We were playing Pitt’s fifth-string and getting killed 72-9. We played Duquesne, and I got my nose broke, and one of their girls broke an ankle. We just wanted to play.”

The early-1970s team traveled to games in a station wagon.

“It broke down at Alderson Broaddus, and (Fogle) had to come pick us up,” Westhoven-Deer said.

Seton Hill played local high school teams and traveled to nearby colleges as the program started to gain traction.

Once called the “Spirits,” the Griffins joined the NCAA in 2006 and became members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in 2013-14.

“Every practice we’ve been talking about how lucky we are to be playing for this program,” said current senior guard Courtney Tomas. “It’s an honor seeing all the alumni come back. We’re amped up because this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

A lot happened between the first basket and the most recent one, and current Griffins coach Mark Katarski has an appreciation for the past, a close eye on the present and a focus on the future.

“You think about it, it’s 50 years since Title IX, 100 years since basketball started here, and it’s National Women in Sports Day,” Katarski said, noting the unscheduled coincidence. “It’s a humbling day. “I don’t know if our players fully grasp the significance of being the centennial team. It’s an amazing thing.

“It speaks to the forward thinking of our administrators and staff here. It’s been like that for 100 years. It’s in our fabric.”