Editor's Note: 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of women being admitted to UC Berkeley. CalBears.com is spending the year honoring the occasion with a series of features.



BERKELEY – Joan Parker was a tenured member of UC Berkeley's Physical Education faculty in 1978 when Lue Lilly came along.

"She convinced me to give up my tenure and go into athletic administration," Parker said. "It was a tough decision, but I saw what a great job she was doing in moving us forward. I really admired all the things she put together in such a short time."

Lilly's ability to coerce Parker off the faculty is one of many examples of the impact she made as the first - and only - women's athletic director in Cal history. Considered one of the pioneers in the advancement of the female student-athlete, Lilly came to Cal in 1976 and immediately began the overwhelming task of improving the plight of women in athletics.

"You think about where the Cal women's teams are today, and a lot of that credit goes to Lue for laying down the foundation," said Chris Dawson, who forged a long and successful career as an administrator at Cal and the Pac-12 Conference. "She knew that she would have a challenge on her hands getting women's athletics off the ground. She was determined. She was smart. And I think she took pains to understand the university structure, and where she needed to go to get allies."

The formation of a women's athletic department at Cal in the mid-1970s meant the university had to support female student-athletes with all the proper resources needed to maintain the various sports teams. The programs needed facilities, equipment, uniforms, a travel budget, and so much more.

The enactment of Title IX began the process of ensuring women would not be discriminated against in athletics, but that didn't mean all of the pieces were just automatically in place to make that happen. Lilly fought tirelessly to make sure women's programs at Cal received proper treatment, from providing scholarships, hiring support staff, getting locker room access, improving coaches' offices, expanding uniforms and more.

"She had to fight for facilities, money, publicity and everything else," said Parker, a former three-sport athlete at Cal in the early 1960s who went on to coach multiple sports before joining Lilly as part of the administration in 1978. "It was a hard-fought battle. She had a lot of influence. She was not afraid to stand up for women. She was willing to speak up and say it when something wasn't good for the athletes at Cal."

Lilly's credibility grew quickly at Cal. Not only was she able to procure scholarships, but the first two female student-athletes the athletic department brought in on scholarship were Sheryl Johnson and Colleen Galloway – to this day still two of the greatest female athletes ever to play at Cal. Johnson was a three-sport star who went on to become a three-time Olympian in field hockey. Galloway was the women's basketball team's all-time leading scorer before Kristine Anigwe eclipsed her mark last season.

Lilly also had a keen knack for aligning with the proper fellow administrators to make her case for what Cal's female student-athletes needed. She said the vice chancellor at the time, Bob Kerley, was especially helpful in building the women's athletic department.

"I started trying to improve the various situations," Lilly said. "It took a long time to get the facilities and so forth. Vice Chancellor Kerley really supported almost everything we did. And when we got Colleen and Sheryl, people took notice."

As things at Cal improved, Lilly also became more involved trying to improve the situation for female student-athletes nationwide. She sat on numerous national committees, all of which sought to advance the cause of women's sports and promote positive change in college sports in general.

Lilly eventually was inducted into three Halls of Fame, including the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Collegiate Women's Athletic Administrators.

"I'm sure glad she came when she did," Parker said. "She got us on the map. We were really struggling just having physical education. It was great to see what she did when she came in, and how far we've come."

Lilly, who was an accomplished athlete in many sports herself – including setting an American record in swimming while a student at Lewis & Clark – is still a fixture at Cal athletic events. She was in attendance Sunday when Cal kicked off its 150W campaign – a yearlong celebration of 150 years of women at UC Berkeley.

"I'm happy that kids have the opportunity now," Lilly said. "I think the best part of athletics is the fact that they can learn so many life lessons."