Hall of Fame
Each and every Fort Lewis College female student-athlete — past, present and future — has Carol "Peppy" Seale to thank for her success. Although being a coach wasn't her career goal, Seale wanted to give women the athletic opportunities she never had.
While growing up in Park Forest, Ill., the former Carol Meyer had no school-sponsored athletics in which to compete. Instead, she found other outlets, like ASA softball leagues, USGF gymnastic events, AAU basketball games, and USVBA volleyball matches.
At Carroll College in Wakashaw, Wis., where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in foreign language in 1962, Seale found little improvement. It wasn't until her senior season that she was able to represent her school in intercollegiate athletics — and that season consisted of just one basketball game against the University of Wisconsin.
Seale began her career in education as a high school Spanish and physical education teacher at Rich Central and Warren high schools in Illinois from 1962 through 1967. While at the high school level, she began to explore the possibilities of women's athletics.
After earning her master's degree in physical education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1968, Seale taught one year at Concordia Junior College in Ann Arbor, Mich. Then she headed to FLC, where she created and headed women's athletics throughout most of the 1970s, including coaching, recruiting, scheduling, budgeting, travel, and games management.
Basketball, skiing and volleyball were the first three sports offered to Fort Lewis College women, and contests with nearby Adams State and Western State were scheduled for the 1969-70 school year.
Other schools followed Seale's lead at Fort Lewis College, and regional leagues began to form by the early 1970s. The most successful of these early organizations was the Intermountain Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (IAIAW), which included not only small colleges like FLC, but also larger universities like Colorado State, Wyoming, and Brigham Young. Seale was a key player in the IAIAW, serving as a secretary and president of the group at various times during the 1970s.
As much as she is known for her pioneering role in women's athletics, Seale earned an equal amount of respect through coaching. During her 26 years at Fort Lewis , she coached basketball (1970-74), skiing (1969-75), softball (1984), tennis (1970-74, 1985-87), and volleyball (1969-85).
Despite coaching such a wide variety of sports, Seale is most often thought of as a volleyball coach. During her 17 years at the helm of FLC's volleyball program (she actually didn't coach the team in 1975 and 1979 because of maternity leaves), the Raiders posted winning records 14 times and earned numerous conference and regional titles. She retired from coaching volleyball in 1985 after posting 141 victories against four-years — a record that stood until her niece, Skyhawk volleyball coach Marcy Jung, surpassed it in 1991.
Seale retired as associate professor of excercise science in May 2002 and died after a battle with cancer two years later. Fortmer FLC head volleyball coach Shelly Aaland created the Peppy Seale Volleyball Endowment in the spring of 2004, giving FLC volleyball alumnae and fans a chance to remember Peppy through a scholarship that has since reached its $25,000 endowment level.
Seale was posthumously inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in July 2006.
