50th Anniversary of Women's Athletics at Binghamton University
Profile: Marybeth Lennox-Levins '94, MA '96, soccer player, coach, administrator
Brief: A native of Liverpool, N.Y., Marybeth Lennox-Levins has the unique distinction of being the only person in Binghamton's history to fulfill the roles of a student-athlete, coach and administrator. She played four years of soccer and was a valuable outside midfielder for the 1991 team that went 14-5-4 and earned the program's first-ever NCAA tournament berth. One year later, Lennox and her 1992 team won a share of the program's first-ever conference championship. As a senior, she tallied a goal and four assists to help lead the Colonials to a 12-4-3 record and ECAC tournament berth.
She graduated in 1994 and then stayed at Binghamton to earn her master's degree in social science in 1996 (she also holds an MBA from SUNY Oswego). After four years of coaching, which culminated with an appointment as interim head coach, Lennox fully transitioned into athletics administration and was a key member of BU's athletics leadership team that initiated the elevation to NCAA Division I status. After roles as an assistant athletics director (1998-03) and associate athletics director (2003-05), she left campus to become Director of Athletics at Trinity University. She also served as AD at Green Mountain College (2009-12) before shifting gears to the academic side. Lennox has been a professor at Castleton University for seven years, where she initiated and developed an acclaimed master's degree program in athletic leadership.
Marybeth has kept up her athletic prowess by completing five marathons, one Half Ironman event and various other road races and triathlons. She resides in Rutland, Vt. with her wife Kim and their daughter Lucy.
Catching up with Lennox-Levins ...
What was your athletics background? Was there anyone in particular who inspired our encouraged you to participate in athletics?
Gosh I'd like to say I had female role models early on in sport, but I definitely did not ... not like the kids do today. Although my mom was never afraid to take on anything, and I remember acknowledging this in my own head when I was young. My brother was the biggest influence in sport early on, in that he and I played well together most of the time. He was always begging me to pay some sort of sport with him Although it was my idea to try soccer! He did not play first. I remember coming home and just asking to play and my parents said "sure" (thank God they were so supportive!). I played with the boys until fourth grade, one of only three or four girls in all of the Liverpool Youth Soccer League those years (around 1978-81). Then in fourth grade they finally started a girls league and it took off! Throughout those next eight years or so, I did have various great female coaches but also really great male coaches. I did not recall ever feeling like wew were not taken seriously. Liverpool was, even then, a very competitive area for girls soccer. In high school, we played under the lights as often as the boys did, and got the same respect as well. This was the late 1980s, so I don't think this was the experience for girls in all parts of the country.
When you arrived at Binghamton as a student-athlete, do you recall the climate for women's sports teams?
I think oddly enough the climate in those days, the early 1990s, was pretty equitable. I believe that Joel Thirer (AD), Alicia Good and Judy Brown were a big part of the overall atmosphere of equality in those days. Maybe there was not true equality, but I never felt like a second-class citizen, and I don't recall the team ever openly discussing any inequities. However, there is the infamous uniform story from the fall of 1991, when our women's soccer tea made the NCAA tournament for the first time. It was then that the administration realized just how outdated, old and embarrassing our uniforms were. There was no time of course, to get new ones before we headed to William Smith to play University of Rochester in the first round, so they had us wear the men's uniforms, which I believe had been purchased that year or maybe the year before. Our uniforms had to be close to 10 years old. The men's were a "little big" on some of us, but back then, it's not like they made women's uniforms anyway, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered. I remember it was really cold up at William Smith and I remember one of our administrators, I think it was Judy Brown, ran to some store to buys us all the same color turtlenecks because we all had to have the same color. It was a great gesture, of course, and I would imagine other universities around the country would not have done that for their women in those days. I remember being made to feel like we were something special. I feel like something happened that year (1991-92) to really catapult the women's programs at Binghamton. It was as if, everyone realized that we, not just women's soccer but the women's teams in general, were something with which to contend. We, of course, got new uniforms for the next fall.
As you learned more about the inner workings of college athletics and began coaching and then administration, what were your goals?
For my own goals, early on, I just wanted to to love what I was doing and to make a living having some sort of positive impact on the world. I never intended to become a college coach or athletic director, but when I was a senior at Binghamton, and was floundering a bit, Coach Wilson, Joel Thirer, Sheryl Sousa and John Hartrick all provided me some amazing initial opportunities. I first worked for John as a student-athlete. My roommates and I all worked the stats table for home basketball games, Then right after graduation, what was supposed to be one semester of coaching to fill a gap turned into 15 total years at Binghamton and an incredible career in the industry of sport in coach, assistant AD, associate AD, athletic director and now, sport management faculty. As I worked my way through the proverbial ranks, specifically at Binghamton, I rally never once thought about the fact that I was a woman, and this was a male dominated industry. And then I honestly don't remember what clicked ... I think it was a conversation with Matt Bassett (senior associate AD) about what I wanted to do with this career, that I realized that I might actually be a role model for other women (and men). I then remember consciously stepping up my game. This was no longer just a wun way to make a living, but I had a responsibility to represent women and to represent my role models with the dignity with which they had taught me. As a coach, I actually watched some people with incredible talents go down, and I learned how important ethical leadership was and is. Ethical leadership became the backbone of my leadership style and is the backbone of my teaching today for sure.
The all-around success of the women's teams throughout the 1990s seemed to pave the way for the university's NCAA divisional move. What do you recall about that decade, in terms of women's achievements and the impetus it provided?
There is no doubt that the tremendous success of our women's programs throughout the 90s, particularly our domination of the SUNYAC, was a driving force and a strong foundation for the divisional move. Soccer, basketball, softball and volleyball all experienced a great deal of growth and success during that time. Many of the men's teams, in a relative sense, wer not having that same type of regional and national success, as a whole. I'm certainly not trying to minimize their accomplishments, but without the women's success of the 90s, there is no way the divisional move could have happened. There is no doubt that winning has its positive effects on both brand and growth.
Your time at Binghamton is unique, as the only person to have served as a student-athlete, coach and administrator, in the university's history. As you reflect back ... what remain your fondest memories and proudest moments?
I speak with such pride whenever I have the chance to talk about my time at Binghamton. Particularly, when I talk about the number of years I was there combined with the varied experiences, including being a student-athlete, a coach and almost every level of administration. I am simply proud to have been a part of 15 years, 1990-2005, that saw the most significant changes, not just at Binghamton, but in women's athletics across the board. My fondest memory as a student-athlete had to be that 1991 team - the first women's team to make the NCAA tournament. That season began with an early season trip in two vans to North Carolina and Virginia, where we played two national powerhouse teams (Methodist and Mary Washington) and we walked away with a win and a a tie. We were supposed come back 0-2! In the win, which was against Methodist, you would've thought we had won the national championship at the end of the game.
Anything else you want to share about the 50th celebration?
It is utterly unbelievable to me that it was almost 30 years ago that I stepped foot onto Binghamton's campus as an 18-year-old freshman psychology and math major an member of the NCAA Division III women's soccer team. I left 15 years later as an NCAA Division I associate athletics director. Binghamton was then, and will always be an extremely special place. After leaving Binghamton in 2005, I served as an athletics director at two different Division III colleges and worked as a development professional for the national non-profit, The Human Rights Campaign. Ultimately, all of this made it possible for me to do what I currently do, which is serve as a professor of sport management and athletic leadership at Castleton University in Vermont. I don't think there are many other professors out there in sport management who have had the experiences I have had, especially as a woman. I also don't think there are many women professors out there who can say they had the number and quality of role models I had, with a pretty even set of both men and women - and all of them mainly from my time at Binghamton. So now, to be a part of this celebration and be able to remember, relive and think back so fondly about all the people, is such an incredible honor. Not many people get asked to be a part of something this special.
