Three UMass alumni are competing in the London Olympics.
U.S. Olympic field hockey team member Judy Strong, of Hatfield, goes for a loose ball during an exhibition game at Smith College in Northampton on Oct. 21, 1983. By HARRY PLUMER
Wherever you are on that podium, the experience is unparalleled. Gold, silver, bronze – the feelings that rush in at that moment are why the athletes sleep little, train around the clock and travel around the world.
It’s all in pursuit of that moment when an Olympic official drapes a piece of cloth around your neck, and on the end is attached not just a medal but a legacy.
Being an Olympic medalist means something more than just being in the top three in your sport. It’s about commitment, unwavering confidence and, in the end, a clutch performance in your once-in-four-years chance to do something that will cement you in the history books forever.
The University of Massachusetts has had quite a few of its athletes experience this feeling.
Perhaps none more high profile than Briana Scurry, the anchor in goal for the glory years of U.S. women’s soccer, which won gold in 1996 and 2004, and silver in 2000.
The most iconic image of that group is probably that of a shirtless Brandi Chastain in the 1999 World Cup, but it was Scurry who stopped Liu Ying’s shot to give Chastain the opportunity to win it.
Those teams had stars like Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly, but it was Scurry who was between the posts for their greatest triumphs. Scurry started every game in the 1996 and 2004 gold medal runs, and allowed just seven goals in those 12 matches.
Scurry is now retired from playing. She did some broadcasting work during the 2011 Women’s World Cup for ESPN, but her true passion has become raising the awareness of concussions in women’s soccer, which is behind only football in terms of the amount of concussions suffered by players.
“Concussions changed my life dramatically,” Scurry said. “I still have symptoms.”
In 2000, while Scurry sat behind Siri Mullinix in Sydney, another UMass athlete was starring in a different sport.
Pitcher Danielle Henderson was part of the U.S. softball team that grabbed gold by knocking off a Japan team that had run through the Sydney games untouched at 8-0 prior to the final.
Henderson appeared once, pitching five innings in a 3-0 win over Cuba in the preliminary round.
Henderson was the pitching coach at Ohio State, but is moving on to either North Carolina State or Stanford beginning next season.
Henderson has also taken up a new hobby now that she no longer pitches: rowing. She said she lived by a river in Columbus, Ohio, and had been doing single scull to stay in shape.
Little did Henderson know that her alma mater had a little Olympic rowing history itself.
Danielle Henderson, of the United States, pitches to the Cuban team during their game at the womenâÂÂs softball matches at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. defeated the Cuban team 3-0.The 1984 Olympics produced gold for the U.S. women’s heavyweight crew team, which had three Western Massachusetts collegians in its shell – Kathy Keeler, Jeanne Flanagan and Holly Metcalf.
It was a sensational comeback victory over favored Romania that produced the first gold medal for the United States in women’s crew. That elite eight included Keeler, a Wesleyan University graduate who then was the crew coach at Smith College in Northampton; Flanagan, a Somerville, Mass., native who had earned a master’s degree in exercise science at the University of Massachusetts; and Metcalf, a Providence native who graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley in 1981.
In rowing, Uncle Sam’s golden women’s heavyweight eight of 1984 featured Keeler at stroke, Flanagan in the No. 5 spot and Metcalf in the No. 2. Keeler played a crucial role as the rower who set the tempo for the race from her stroke position.
Romania had been dominating all crew events until it came time for the heavyweight race. The Romanians looked ready for a sweep, but the U.S. came from behind to win the gold by just over one second. The U.S. crew won the 1,000-meter pull in 2:59.08. Romania came in at 3:00.87.
Prior to the Olympics, the U.S. crew had set a world record, winning a tuneup race in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2:54.05.
For Keeler, this marked her sixth year as a member of the U.S. heavyweight crew. It was her second Olympics, but she missed out after making it in 1980 because of the U.S. boycott.
Keeler, who now lives in Winchester, went on to coach the U.S. crew at the 1996 Olympics.
Briana Scurry, of the University of Massachusetts, played with U.S. Womenâs Olympic Soccer Team. She played during the glory years of U.S. womenâs soccer, which won gold in 1996 and 2004, and silver in 2000.ÂMetcalf, now the head crew coach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, was a six-time member of the U.S. National Team and won five World Championship and Olympic medals. She has coached extensively at the club, college, and national levels. In 1990, she coached the silver medal- winning U.S. crew at the 1990 World Championships.
In recent years, Metcalf has used rowing to enrich the lives of hundreds of women and girls through a variety of non-profit programs. In 1994, she founded the Row As One Institute, which provides masters women (rowers 40 and over) with top-level coaching. She extended this concept to inner-city girls in 1996 with her G-ROW program in Watertown. Six years later, Metcalf established WeCanRow, a wellness and rehabilitation organization for female cancer survivors, which recently became WeCanRow National.
Betsy Beard Stillings, of the University of Washington, served as coxswain of the Olympic champs. The No. 4 spot was handled by Carie Graves, who had resigned her position as Harvard’s coach to concentrate on pre-Olympic training.
In 2004, the 1984 crew was honored at a 20th anniversary reunion in Seattle. As part of the ceremony, the eight took a ceremonial row the shell they had used in the Olympics.
The gold medalists were enshrined in the U.S. Rowing Hall of Fame in 1984, soon after their Olympic victory.
Rowing wasn’t the only sport where UMass alumni picked up hardware in Los Angeles.
Field hockey legend Judy Strong was part of a U.S. team that grabbed a surprising bronze medal – the only field hockey medal in American Olympic history.
How they did it was almost as surprising. On the final day of competition the U.S. team was sitting in the stands watching Australia and the Netherlands. The Netherlands led 1-0 late in the game, but the U.S. needed the Dutch to score again to create a tie in goal differential with Australia for third spot. If the game ended 2-0, the U.S. and Australia would have a penalty stroke off to decide the bronze.
That second goal came very late, and Strong recalls sprinting out of the stands and into the locker room to put her uniform on. She was one of the strikers, and scored to help the U.S. onto the podium.
“I remember going back into the locker room after that to get ready to march out for the medal ceremony,” Strong said. “The 16 of us, we stepped up as a team and then an official came and draped the medals over us – it was a special feeling.”
Three UMass alumni will have a chance in this year’s games in London. The Tatham sisters – Alicia and Tamara – will compete Team Canada in basketball, while Wes Piermarini, of West Brookfield, will row in the quadruple scull competition for the U.S
Sports writer Garry Brown contributed to this report.