The Front Row with MARK NELKE May 10, 2012

The press release from North Idaho College says Len Mattei "was a pioneer in the development of intercollegiate sports for women at NIC."

Mattei begs to differ.

"Pioneer?" she said. "Naw - in the right place at the right time."

Whatever the title, Mattei played a role in NIC's transformation from women in P.E. classes playing softball and basketball games against other area schools to what it is now - one of the strongest junior college women's athletic programs in the country.

"I don't know that I had the full perspective on it then," said Mattei, who was inducted into the NIC Athletics Hall of Fame last weekend. "It was just that together Maralee (Foss) and I were pushing hard for women's athletics, and we had the opportunity to witness the transformation from women's PE classes to the strong intercollegiate program that they have today. So it was really great to be a part of that."

THE BEGINNINGS were humble, as these sorts of things often are.

Foss was hired at NIC in 1965 as a part-time P.E. teacher by Rolly Williams, who at the time was men's basketball coach, athletic director and head of the P.E. department. That was back in the days when women's athletics took place largely in P.E. classes.

Soon thereafter, some of the women in her classes wanted to play softball against a team from Spokane Falls, as the story goes. The next year, they wanted to play basketball ("I knew nothing about basketball, and I told them that," Mattei said), but Mattei scheduled a game at Whitworth College in Spokane.

Mattei's experience with the sport consisted of some games she played in high school P.E. in Illinois in the 1950s, where it was 3-on-3 at each end of the court, and players couldn't cross halfcourt.

She watched pro games on TV, and diagrammed plays. The NIC women practiced when they could get gym time - often late at night.

Then it was game day.

“We showed up at Whitworth and their coach said, ‘Oh, we thought maybe you had some car trouble because you didn’t show up for warmups.’ I didn’t know we were supposed to show up for warmups. And not only that, we didn’t have any uniforms, which meant we didn’t have any numbers.”

The Whitworth coach fetched some pullover bibs from the school’s equipment room so NIC would have numbers.

“And that was absolutely humiliating that I didn’t know that,” Mattei said. “We didn’t win but we played pretty well, but it was just a humiliating experience. When I got home, I said ‘Rolly, you have got to hire somebody ... somebody who knows what they’re doing.”

Maralee Foss was hired around 1969 or ’70, and she coached basketball and volleyball.

“When Title IX passed in 72, that gave us the opportunity together to really push for women’s programs,” Mattei said.

In 1976, the NJCAA recognized four women’s sports — volleyball, basketball, tennis and track and field — and sponsored national championships in each.

BACK THEN, Region 18 consisted of NIC, Southern Idaho, Ricks, Treasure Valley and perhaps Spokane Falls, Mattei said.

Mattei became NIC volleyball coach in 1976 and, except for a couple of years, coached the Cardinals until ’86. She also helped with the women’s track team (men’s coach Mike Bundy basically oversaw the men’s and women’s programs), while Foss coached basketball and tennis.

Mattei was coordinator of women’s athletics from 1978 to ’84 — basically the AD for women’s athletics. During that time, Greg Crimp became women’s basketball coach, and Mattei said they had to do some “creative” fundraising to pay for things.

Mattei admitted she “wasn’t very good at” recruiting, but fortunately some of the women basketball players also played volleyball, and some of the track athletes played the other sports.

“Bundy and Greg did a great job (recruiting), and I got to coach them,” Mattei said.

Mattei got out of coaching and administration in 1986. She continued to teach until she retired in 2007, and still lives in Coeur d’Alene.

Mattei said it was really fun to be part of the transformation of women’s athletics, from what it was in the 1960s to what it is today, but is happy to share the credit with others.

“I think the credit goes to those kids who wanted to play basketball at Whitworth — and the humiliation of that experience,” she said. “They’re the ones that should get the credit, because that’s when I started pushing on Rolly (to get a true basketball coach).”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.