In the advancement of women in sports, nearly every school can point to a female leader who got the ball rolling, or picked it up and ran with it, or … (add your favorite sports advancement analogy here).
Illinois State’s longer, wider growth and influence on women in sports came because the Redbirds had a pair of pioneers blazing the trail and changing the games.
Jill Hutchison arrived in Normal as a graduate student in 1968. As women’s basketball coach she was at the front of the pack among innovators in her sport.
Linda Herman followed as a grad student in 1971. Following seven triumphant years as head volleyball coach, she became ISU’s associate athletics director and Senior Woman Administrator, and served as interim athletics director four times.
Now, more than five decades later, their achievements and leadership are legendary. And their greatest impact has been on people, with an unwavering commitment to integrity and mentoring.
A First Chance to Play
Herman, who grew up in Indiana’s Northwest Region, started as a baseball player.
Her father was a youth coach who added eight-year-old Linda to his roster, which included her older brother, Terry. The team was successful that year and advanced to higher levels in Indiana tournaments, until it was discovered that the rules did not permit girls. Linda was out.
Herman believes her father’s unchallenging compliance was a product of post-World War II “don’t rock the boat” culture. But, later, it inspired her.
“I think, if that happened later, my dad would have fought it, but, at that time (mid-1950s), people didn’t challenge rules,” said Herman. “Deep down in my heart, I felt it was wrong. That one experience put a voice inside me that began saying ‘why not?’ and it guided me through other experiences.”
Hutchison, a self-identified “Army brat,” began her sports competition journey in seventh grade when her father was stationed in Albuquerque, NM.
“We had a male physical education teacher who decided to start a girls basketball team,” said Hutchison. “I was a guard—we played the old ‘half-court’ girls game--and I just thought I had died and gone to heaven when we played.”
After that school year, the Hutchisons had a three-year assignment in Germany but returned to Albuquerque when Hutchison was a high school sophomore. Her physical education teacher was Elvira “Tiny” Vidano, an Illinois State University graduate--and now, with Hutchison and Herman, an ISU Hall of Famer.
“Tiny introduced me to a variety of sports,” said Hutchison. “She started a state-wide program for girls sports and had a huge impact on me. After high school, I went to the University of New Mexico, then got a job teaching PE and coaching.”
Pathways to Illinois State
A time out during a junior high basketball game gave Hutchison a coaching epiphany in her early 20s.
“I hadn’t called that time out and I didn’t know what I should do with my team at that point,” said Hutchison. “At that moment, I realized that I had to go somewhere to learn how to coach.”
West Chester University, Michigan State and Vidano’s alma mater were Hutchison’s finalists for a master’s degree before she came to Normal.
“Illinois State had everything I wanted,” she said, “but the weather.” The brutally-cold 1960s Midwest winters nearly sent her back to sunny New Mexico.
“But my office (in McCormick Hall) overlooked the quad,” said Hutchison. “I could look out the window and see how the world was changing. It reminded me that I was in the right place.”
As Hutchison was imagining a future of more women and girls competing in sports, Herman was finishing her teaching degree at Indiana State and figuring a pathway for herself.
“When I graduated from Indiana State in 1968, the only pathway women had to sports was to be a physical education teacher,” she said. “At that time, people taught high school for a few years before they went back to grad school if they wanted to teach in college.”
Herman taught and coached at Frankfort High School in Indiana, earned a master’s degree at Illinois State (as Hutchison’s graduate assistant) and then to Oak Park-River Forest High School in suburban Chicago before returning to Illinois State to stay.
Redbird Impact
When Title IX became law and started to evolve the way women played, coached and led sports, Herman and Hutchison connected with colleagues at the forefront of women’s sports at Illinois State, including early ISU women’s athletics director Dr. Laurie Mabry and sport educator Dr. Phoebe Scott.
Hutchison and Herman coached future Hall of Fame softball coaches Melinda Fischer (Illinois State) and Margie Wright (Illinois State & Fresno State). They partnered with sports medicine innovator Kathy Schniedwind, who spent her entire 30-year, NATA Hall of Fame athletics training career in Normal.
Hutchison and Herman earned master’s degrees and doctoral degrees which not only satisfied their academic curiosity, but also codified the now-common term “student-athlete” with their own work.
An American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Famer, Herman’s seven years as Redbird volleyball coach included two national tournament finals appearances, and 267 coaching wins as the game evolved from a best-of-three “play all day” sport to the best-of-five competitive attraction it has become. When Illinois State united the men’s and women's athletics programs in 1982, Herman became a full-time associate AD and SWA.
Hutchison, whose published research on female heart rates during sports activity debunked the stereotypes that had produced the half-court girls basketball rules, was the co-founder and first president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Among her contributions to the game is the development of the smaller ball for women’s basketball Now a member of at least four Halls of Fame—including the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame--she won 461 games in 28 years as Redbird basketball coach.
Their impact and achievements would fill volumes. But, as both are fond of saying, it is about people.
Building the Foundation
Herman’s roles as head volleyball coach and the first SWA at ISU required breaking ground without much background.
“At that time, women in sports did not have role models,” said Herman, referring to the 1970s. “We learned by the seat of our pants, finding mentors from among colleagues.”
But Herman took the challenge.
“I was a reluctant head coach, at first,” said Herman. “I had never played volleyball. But the fire inside me may have helped me tap leadership skills I never knew I had.”
Hutchison saw advantages to being ignored—especially coaching college basketball in the 1970s and 1980s, when some men’s basketball coaches were adding whole chapters on compliance to the NCAA Handbook and an annual list of men’s hoops programs on NCAA probation. Women’s basketball coaches could create their own culture.
“In the 1970s, women had total control over their programs,” said Hutchison. “The rejection (by the established basketball culture) unified us. We could be different. We didn’t have to lead our programs like the men. Women coaches learned from, and supported, each other.”
Fischer: Pupil to Colleague
Melinda Fischer, the winningest coach in Redbird history, co-coached basketball with Hutchison from 1982-85 (the duo was 66-24 in three seasons) then coached ISU softball for 37 years to 1,118 victories before retiring in 2022. Fischer was a Redbird student-athlete during Herman and Hutchison’s early years of coaching.
Fischer studied Hutchison’s coaching technique from close range.
“She is a woman with a plan, a mission, a purpose,” said Fischer. “Talk about someone changing your life and molding your life? That person for me was Jill. She is who I wanted to be and what she did is what I wanted to do.”
Hutchison’s resourcefulness impacted Fischer.
“Jill would never take ‘no’ for answer. She would just find another way to make it work,” said Fischer. “She is an innovator, very forward thinker, and someone with tremendous passion for coaching and the sport of basketball, basically anything she did.”
College athletics administrators can be quick with a smile and handshake for coaches after a victory, but “leave them alone” after a loss. Fischer remembers Herman’s support—regardless of the game outcome.
“She was always able to put things in perspective when it seemed like life was out of control,” said Fischer. “The little things Linda did made big things possible. Whether it was a note of good luck, or congratulations, Linda was great with those special messages that always made you feel important and what you were doing was important.”
Herman inspired Fischer, personally.
“Linda is so caring, understanding, supportive, eloquent, a fighter for equality and someone whose inner self I have tried to duplicate,” said Fischer.
Julie & Steve Paska: Expanding the Legacy
How many student-athletes get academic guidance from an All-American? More than 2,000 Redbirds can make that claim thanks to Julie Mueller Paska.
After a five-year coaching stint, she was an academic advisor to Redbird student-athletes for 30 years. But first, Herman brought the 17-year-old small-town native of St. Libory, IL to Normal as a volleyball student-athlete, where she became the Redbirds’ first volleyball all-American in 1984. Julie Paska’s banner flies in Redbird Arena with Herman’s and Hutchison’s.
“Linda recruited the best athletes in Illinois and the Midwest. Putting that talent together in the gym every day in practice created a healthy competitive environment,” said Julie Paska. “We all wanted to be on the court, and we all wanted the best for ISU. This all stemmed from the environment she created.”
But it was more than just competing.
“She continued to build the bonds of relationships and a family environment throughout her coaching years and beyond,” she said, “and, in my case, as for many others, that has persisted for a lifetime.”
Steve Paska met Julie Mueller while she played volleyball and he was on the Redbird men’s swim team. When that program was discontinued in 1982, Steve Paska began a 32-year Redbird coaching career, the last 30 as head swimming and diving coach. He led the Redbirds to 13 conference championships and earned seven coach of the year awards.
Herman hired Steve Paska, just 24 years old at the time, as head coach, and, according to Steve, helped him establish and advance his coaching philosophy.
“Once a student-athlete knows you care about her as person and student, about her family, faith, hobbies, and more, the athletic side of picture comes naturally,” said Paska. “Secondly, she instilled in me that the most important communication skill is listening--be there for the student-athlete, listen to what is on her mind, then take some time to reflect and provide feedback. Linda's guidance and all the experiences we shared were invaluable to me.”
Boswell: On the Shoulders of Giants
Just 90 miles from Normal at Joliet West, Cathy Boswell was a dominating prep player. A rarity in those days, Boswell finished high school in just three years. That helped Hutchison bring the 16-year-old future two-time All-American and USA Olympian to Normal, where she led the Redbirds to 90 wins, including the first Gateway Conference Tournament championship in 1983.
Boswell has a list of qualities describing Hutchison.
“Coach. Mentor. Leader. Innovator,” said Boswell, who is still coaching and working with foster children following a lengthy professional playing career. “What I learned from Jill, and from (co-coach) Melinda Fischer, provided me with not only the fundamentals to play basketball, but also the fundamentals to live and leadership.”
In 2023, Boswell joined Hutchison in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. According to Boswell, her “basketball life” could not have happened without her college coach.
“We stand on the shoulders of giants like Jill,” said Boswell. “She didn’t just make players better—she made the game better.”