Interview with Shirley Poteet

This content is from an interview with Shirley Poteet who worked with Libby Johnson during Johnson entire time at Trinity. Shirley is responsible for hiring Libby Johnson which is mention in the article. 

According to Shirley Poteet, a co worker of Libby Johnson and one of the people responsible for hiring Coach Johnson, the beginning of Women’s Intercollegiate athletics at Trinity University was when a tennis player wanted to play in a tournament in Seguin, Texas. For her to participate in that tournament, she had to represent a school, so she asked Shirley if she could represent Trinity at this tournament. Shirley said yes without asking any of her supervisors. Shirley noted that it would of been dealt with differently if that would of happened today. She would have had to ask a person higher for permission, but during that time it was acceptable for Shirley not to receive any extra permission from a supervisor (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).

Before Libby was hired at Trinity, Shirley was the only women working in the Athletic department, so the department decided to hire another women to work in their department. Also Title IX had just been passed into law June 23, 1972, the same year Libby Johnson was hired by Trinity (Wikipedia 2016). Shirley noted that Libby had the qualifications the department was looking for so they reached out to her and offered her the job. Shirley also noted that there were no search committees in the hiring process. Instead they found Libby Johnson as someone with the qualifications the department was looking for and simply offered her the job (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).

One of the biggest challenges that Coach Libby Johnson faced was the lack of money and resources there was in Women’s athletics. There was a lack of funding for uniforms, trips, and other expenses. According to Shirley, Coach Libby Johnson had to “grovel for money” in order to pay for these expenses. Also the Women’s athletics teams for a while had no trainer but were eventually given permission to see the men’s trainer (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016). Eventually a trainer was hired for Women’s Athletics specifically, Barbara Jones (Trinitonian 1976, pg 11).

During Libby Johnson’s time at Trinity, the budget for Women’s athletics grew from $100 to $35,000 (Trinity University, 2011). It is unclear how there became such an increase in funding for the Women’s Athletics program. Because of Title IX, there had to be a Women’s athletic director so that title went to Libby Johnson. Her duties did not change at all since she was already doing the things an Athletic Director had to do. Part of that responsibility was making a budget, so she had an influence on the budget for the women’s sports teams. Another key factor for the increase in funding for Women’s Athletics at Trinity University.  was Title IX being implemented (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).

Another big challenge for Libby Johnson was a lack of assistance. She was the head coach of the Volleyball, Basketball, Softball, and Track & Field. On top of that, she was a teacher in the Physical Education program. It is accurate to say the biggest part of Libby Johnson’s life was her job. Part of the reason she left was the workload began to become too much and she was completely burned out (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016). After she announced she was resigning, Coach Johnson was asked about her thoughts on the state of Women’s Athletics at Trinity University, she said “I think it’s crumbling, numerous things are being cut” (Trinitonian, 1980). After Coach Johnson did resign, Trinity began to hire Women’s coaches for each sport (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).   

Coach Libby Johnson resigned from Trinity University in 1980 (Trinitonian 1980, p. 17). After she resigned from her position she did not hold any jobs in Athletics. In 1988, Libby Johnson died; she had not even reached the age of 50. Shirley Poteet described Libby’s death as being sudden and a surprise to a lot of people who knew her (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016). In 2011, She was inducted into the Trinity University Athletics Hall of Fame (Trinity University, 2011).

Coach Libby Johnson had a lot of successes during her time at Trinity University. When asked the question Shirley said Coach Johnson’s biggest accomplishment was ”building a team sports program for women at Trinity, and she literally did that by herself” (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016). Coach Libby Johnson will be remembered for her successes on the field, but she will be remembered more for creating the field that allowed so many female athletes to compete and do what they love. Her success on the field and in building the Women’s Athletic program came from her enthusiasm for sports and for her players. Without Libby Johnson progress for Women’s Athletics at Trinity would have slowed down immensely.  Although her time at Trinity ended on a bad note and despite there still being an equality for women in sports, I think Libby Johnson would be happy to see all the progress that has been made for Trinity Women’s Athletics. In the words of Shirley Poteet, Libby Johnson was the “instigator and inspiration” for Trinity Women’s Athletics  (S. Poteet, personal communication, April 29, 2016).