Lucy Parker has been rounding up money for Eastern Michigan University's women athletes since 1976, when she was hired to coach tennis. Within a few years, Parker was the associate athletic director for women's athletics, frequently searching the budget for scholarships, travel and to pay coaches.
Even after she retired in 1991, Parker managed to bring coaches of EMU's women's sports a little something extra for their operating budgets through the Lucy Parker Endowment and the annual golf outing that supports it.
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LUCY'S LAST: The Lucy Parker Golf Outing, named
after Eastern Michigan University's former associate
athletic director for women's athletics, will have its
final tee time June 20. The tournament, which was
created to raise additional funds for EMU's women
athletics teams, includes a $100,000 challenge this
year. Here, Parker poses at her home in Bonita
Springs, Fla. Photo by Kevin Merrill |
The Lucy Parker Golf Outing will tee off for the 20th and final time June 20, and Parker and the rest of the organizers hope to send the event out with a bang. They're working with individual donors and hope to get 25 to 30 individuals to pledge a combined $100,000 challenge — the biggest single endowment fundraising effort in the history of EMU women's athletics.
If the golf outing sells out all 144 player slots, the $100,000 gift would be released to the endowment. And this time, the golf outing is just the beginning.
Donna Lopiano, former CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, will speak at the post-outing dinner, which will include a silent auction and a celebration of the athletic legacy Parker helped build at EMU. Golf tournament tickets are $150 per person and include dinner. Tickets for the dinner alone are $50.
The Lucy Parker Endowment currently spins off $15,000 a year, to be divided equally between three women's sports on a rotating basis. Because of the endowment, each sport can count on an extra $5,000 in their operating budget every three years. Adding the $100,000 in challenge money to the endowment would increase the annual payout by $5,000.
Parker started the golf outing as a fundraiser a few years before she retired, and it was renamed in her honor in 1991. After last year's outing, she and the athletic department decided to cap the effort at 20 years.
"We thought it might be getting a little stale," said Parker, 71, from her home in Bonita Springs, Fla. "...Besides we didn't want it to become the Lucy Parker Memorial Tournament."
Parker, the associate athletic director for women's athletics from 1977-1991, fought for full-time pay for head coaches and full-ride scholarships for female athletes. She added two women's sports — cross country and softball — got assistant coaches into the budget and made it possible for women athletes to earn varsity letters.
As colleges around the country made a place for women's sports, Parker advocated for EMU's women athletes for more than 14 years and five athletic directors. The struggles often came down to money, so maybe it should come as no surprise that Parker said the endowment is the thing she's most proud of during her time in athletics.
"It's not a lot of money, but it is a lot of money to some of those sports," Parker said. "Maybe, they can take a spring trip or get that camera they need. They know when they can count on it. What I'd like to do is maybe get the endowment to the point where we can help five or six sports or, if we can get it up there, we might be able to give them more than $5,000."
For anyone interested in making a donation to the $100,000 challenge, contact Craig Fink, associate athletic director for development, at 487-8236 or craig.fink@emich.edu.
