THE GREATER LANSING AREA SPORTS HALL
OF FAME
INDUCTION CEREMONY
July 26, 2018
Williamston Girls Track
By Chuck Krafft
The 1976
Class C State Champion Williamston Girls Track Team was the first girls track
team at Williamston High School.
Title IX had
just been enacted and schools nationwide started to introduce women’s
sports. Paul Nilsson, the coach, had an
interesting tale contrasting the sporting world of 1976 with today’s sporting
world. He also told of recruiting girls
to compete for the team.
A huge difference
was that because there was no internet, it was really difficult to get
information about how other teams compared with his team. He also compared the facilities which were
quite primitive compared with today’s facilities. He had a humorous story about how some
hornets’ nests in the storage area for the track gear made this a true
Williamston Hornet track team. (Williamston’s
sport teams are nicknamed the “Hornets.”)
Over the
years they upgraded the facilities and the equipment and had to raise much of
the money themselves. They overcame a
lot of skepticism (in 1976) about the viability of women’s sports. This team proved that there was a lot of
interest.
He praised
the 22 members of the team and the way all of them went on to live productive
lives. Mr. Nilsson hopes to help to keep
women’s athletics growing and improving in the future!
For those
who wish to read about the entire induction ceremony, here is a link.
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