In nearly every college program, there are stars … there are hall-of-famers … there are immortals … there are names on banners hanging from venue ceilings …
Then there is having your nickname include your school’s name.

That’s how it is for retired Belmont University basketball coach and professor Betty Wiseman—better known as “Belmont Betty”--the woman who, in 1967, approached her university’s president to make the case for starting a women’s basketball program at her alma mater. And, 56 years later, Wiseman remains the matriarch of the women’s basketball program and the university, as both have grown and advanced while staying true to the values she still teaches.

Now past her 80^th birthday, the vibrant Wiseman brings her energy to Belmont in difference-making ways, including giving students a sense of the history of a university that featured fewer than 400 students when Wiseman arrived as a freshman in 1961—but is now home to more than 9,000 students.  
Belmont’s growth as one of Tennessee’s premier universities has been phenomenal, but its foundation in faith and service to its students remains its core. Through it all “Belmont Betty”—legendary basketball coach and professor, advocate and advisor—has made helping others live better lives her life’s work.
 
Formative Years
Betty Wiseman and her sister, Linda, grew up on a farm in Portland, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Nashville, the daughters of Lewis and Adaline Wiseman. Betty’s memories of growing up on a farm in post-World War II are clear.
"We weren’t poor, but we were land-dependent,” said Wiseman. “I just wanted to be outside. I loved working with my father … driving a tractor, milking cows, plowing with a mule … anything.”
 More importantly, the values people associate with Wiseman stem from her home life.
 “We were taught not only how to work, but how to treat people with respect, value the good earth and appreciate a dollar,” said Wiseman. “Our lives revolved around home and family, church and school.”
 
A Critical Decision
Wiseman’s connection to Belmont was almost derailed by her basketball prowess. After playing on her high school’s girls basketball team from sixth grade, her talent drew the attention of John Head, the coach of the national AAU women’s basketball powerhouse sponsored by Nashville Business College (NBC).
                Head offered Wiseman a contract to play for the team as she finished high school and she signed it.
                “NBC had won national and international AAU championships,” said Wiseman. “They were the ultimate. I had seen them play before coach Head recruited me. He said I could go to college AND play for the team—but I would miss some classes because of the schedule and travel.”
                Wiseman signed, but the contract gave her 30 days to reconsider and potentially rescind. Because she still wanted to go to Belmont, she needed to make sure Belmont would be okay with the classes she would miss for the playing schedule. So, she met with Dr. Herbert Gabhart, the college’s president, who had spoken at Wiseman’s high school graduation.
                “I told Dr. Gabhart what I wanted to do,” said Wiseman. “He knew I eventually wanted to teach and coach. He listened to this 18-year-old girl and said ‘Betty, you cannot miss that many classes and be a successful student.’ On the 30^th day, I turned down coach Head and NBC, and headed to Belmont.”
                Gabhart’s guidance and support for Wiseman was just getting started.
                “He would become my mentor for years to come,” she said.
 
The Start of Something Big
                While a student, Wiseman worked as an administrative assistant in the dean of student’s office—the beginning of her interest in helping college students.
As she was finishing her bachelor’s degree, Gabhart called Wiseman into his office and offered her a job teaching Health & Physical Education and running the intramural program.  But she would need a master’s degree to teach.
Gabhart had it all worked out.  She continued to work in the Dean of Student’s office for a year, took graduate classes at Peabody College nearby, and got her master’s degree the following summer.  In Fall, 1966, Betty was a full-time member of the Belmont faculty.
“So began my long tenure and love affair with Belmont,” said Wiseman. “I taught classes, ran the intramural program, and was housemother to 50 freshmen girls in a dorm.  I loved it.” 
In the spring of 1967, Wiseman asked for an appointment with Gabhart.
“I made my plea to begin women’s basketball as a sanctioned sport, just like the men,” said Wiseman.  “He listened and the rest is history. Our first season was 1968-69—four years ahead of the passage of Title IX.”
Wiseman’s work at starting the program was hard.
                “Starting the basketball program was a succession of challenges,” said Wiseman.  “Finding teams to play was a challenge so we played several AAU teams.  We made do with what we had. It wasn’t about what we didn’t have, but the fact that we were blessed to have the opportunity.”
 
Betty and Pat
As part of Wiseman’s persistence and creativity in starting women’s basketball at Belmont, she organized summer basketball camps for girls prior to the beginning of BU’s first basketball season.  One of her campers in those early years was Patricia “Trish” Head – later, and more popularly. known as Pat Summitt, Tennessee’s immortal women’s coach.
“Of course, I recruited Pat,” said Wiseman, who stayed in touch with her even after Summit decided to attend Tennessee-Martin.  After graduating from UTM, Summitt started coaching at Tennessee, and her teams regularly clashed with Wiseman’s Belmont squads. 
Wiseman enjoyed those battles, and recognized early on that Summitt and Tennessee were on their way to greatness.
 “Pat continues to be the face of women’s basketball,” she said.  “We had tremendous respect for one-another and for the game.”
While Summitt elevated basketball for all women by framing the big picture and broad strokes, Wiseman believed Summitt’s basic coaching skills were her foundation for Tennessee’s success.
“She was a great teacher of the game,” said Wiseman. “A great motivator, Pat could find the right way to reach different players with different personalities. We both enjoyed teaching the game, camps for kids and clinics for coaches.”
 
A Woman For All Seasons
In addition to coaching basketball, Wiseman’s full-time teaching career spanned 42 years. She also coached women’s tennis for eight of the 16 years she coached basketball.
“I was doing it all,” said Wiseman.  “Title IX had forced equity, programs were flourishing, and to be honest, I was weary.  I was a teacher at heart.  I loved the classroom.  I decided to give up coaching and force the school to hire a full-time coach, invest money, and make a commitment to the program.”
But Wiseman has never “left” Bruin basketball.
 “I continue to be an advocate for women’s sports and Belmont women’s basketball’s No. 1 fan,” she said.
Wiseman would serve in later years as an assistant athletics director and senior woman administrator until she retired from Belmont in 2013 – the year she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It feels great to be cancer free for 10 years now,” said Wiseman. “It was a difficult journey for a couple of years, but I remain healthy and whole, and blessed to be hanging out on campus with students again.”
                Current Belmont president Dr. L. Gregory Jones, who led the university’s entry into the Missouri Valley Conference, enjoys the stories he hears about Wiseman as much as his friendship with the legend and pioneer.
                “One of my favorite stories about Betty was the time her team went into a restaurant in Mississippi in the late 1960s and was told that her Black student-athletes would not be served,” said Jones. “Betty told the owners in a very clear voice, ‘if you don’t serve them, you don’t serve any of us. You are wrong!’”
The team left, did not eat lunch, played the game, won, and ate burgers in the van heading back to Belmont.
                Jones also sees what “Belmont Betty” brings to the university today.
“Betty exemplifies the teamwork and joy that characterizes all of Belmont, including athletics,” said Jones. “She makes everyone around her better, and she is passionate about women’s athletics, especially basketball, as well as the men’s teams. Her Christ-centeredness is an inspiration to all because it is enfolded in her grace, goodness, and embrace.”
In recent years, Wiseman has led Belmont students to life-changing experiences on trips now funded by the Betty Wiseman Mission Fund.
“I started Belmont’s sports ministry program in 1995 out of my own commitment to missions and ministry,” said Wiseman.   “This program has taken our student-athletes around the world to love people, give back, share our Faith, and be the hands and feet of Christ.  We currently have a team of 15 student-athletes from several sports in Poland working with Ukrainian refugees.
Wiseman still supports missions personally.
“I will be heading to Brazil with a medical team from my church at the end of June,” she said, “to work in the “favellos” (slums).”
 
Being There
                More than 62 years after Wiseman made that fateful decision to attend Belmont while passing on a basketball playing contract, she remains the biggest fan of the program she built.
According to her latest successor, current Bruins head basketball coach Bart Brooks, the “fandom” goes both ways. Bruin student-athletes and coaches are “Betty fans.”          
“We are her legacy.  She is the sole reason for our program’s existence,” said Brooks, whose teams compiled 146 wins in his first six seasons at Belmont, tying for the Valley regular-season title in BU’s first year in the league. “She chose to invest in this program and in the people she coached.”
Brooks and his student-athletes know details of Wiseman’s work.
 “She faced innumerable setbacks and challenges building a program from the ground up before Title IX legislation, forging her own path through a relatively unknown landscape,” said Brooks.  “It took tremendous resilience and vision on her part to endure those years in the beginning, but her purpose was always greater than her challenges.”
Brooks, a long-time DePaul assistant, saw early in his Belmont coaching career that Wiseman personified Belmont basketball, and was in-line with his vision for the Bruins.
“Her personality became our program’s personality. Her toughness became our team’s toughness,” said Brooks.  “We are here today because of Betty, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that all of us in our program play and coach for Betty. We feel a responsibility to compete and use our God-given gifts to their full potential to honor Betty’s vision and to continue her legacy.”
Wiseman cherishes connecting with today’s young people.
                “I like being there for students,” said Wiseman. “I go to campus almost every day. When I speak to young people, I let them know that, as I get older, there are more questions I wish I had asked when I was younger.”
                The teacher in Wiseman has never actually “retired.”
                “I am a teacher at heart,” said Wiseman. “Coaching comes from teaching—the teaching takes the lead. I try to share my faith to help prepare young people for what life will present to them.”
 
A Pandemic, An Upset and A Moment
                For Brooks, a defining moment for Belmont women’s basketball came after the Bruins upended Gonzaga during the 2021 NCAA Tournament, conducted in a bubble in San Antonio. The pandemic kept fans—including Wiseman—home in front of TV sets, instead of in the stands screaming for their teams.
                “Our team came together and upset Gonzaga in the first round, the first NCAA Tournament win in the history of our program,” said Brooks. “It was also the first time our team had ever competed in a post season tournament without Betty.  I think all of the players and our staff almost immediately felt like something was missing as we celebrated the victory in the locker room and on the bus ride back to the hotel.”
But the group quickly remedied that.
“Once we got together in our meeting room after the game, we grabbed a computer and connected with Betty on a zoom,” said Brooks.  “Each player and coach, one by one, took turns getting and giving our virtual hugs with Betty.”
Making Wiseman part of that moment defined how the program feels about her.
“We all knew we wouldn’t have been in that moment together without her,” said Brooks, “and we all knew how hard that moment was for her to miss in person.  Even far away, Betty is still very present for all of us.”
 
NCAA Basketball Fans, Meet “Belmont Betty”
The following year, Brooks’ Bruins returned to the NCAA Tournament, and Wiseman was able to attend and cheer them on to a double-overtime upset of Oregon, and a razor-thin loss at Tennessee.
“The TV cameras during our NCAA Tournament run in 2022 captured Betty as our team competed,” said Brooks. “It was pretty cool seeing her joy and spirit on full display as she danced and cheered us on.”
Jones enjoyed it, too.
“The day after our second round NCAA Tournament game against Tennessee, the NCAA put out on twitter that ‘Belmont Betty is a mood,’” said Jones.  “It showed a GIF of her dancing. It just brought such joy to everyone. She brings joy to all people she encounters.”
 
The Soul of Belmont
Teacher, coach, administrator, pioneer, counselor, advocate … Wiseman’s life, work and energy still exemplify the Belmont University mission: “A Christ-centered, student-focused community, developing diverse leaders of purpose, character, wisdom and transformational mindset, eager and equipped to make the world a better place.”
It is the entire university’s mission … but it describes Wiseman herself.
For Brooks, Wiseman’s greatest talent is her ability to engage.
“Some people have a gift to impact others,” said Brooks. “Betty certainly has that gift and she uses it well.”
                Jones called her the university’s “soul.”
                “Betty is a treasured friend and an exemplar of the soul of Belmont,” said Jones. “She has been at Belmont as a student, faculty member, coach, and mentor for 62 years – it is hard to imagine Belmont without her.”
                But, to fans all around college basketball, she’s just fine with the nickname: “Belmont Betty.”
 
Betty Wiseman – born 1943
MVC Institution:  Belmont University
Teaching:  42 years – Associate Professor – Health & Physical Education & Sport Science  1966 - 2007 |  Department Chair – 1998 - 2004
Years working in college sports:  34
– 16 coaching women’s basketball 1968 – 1984
-- 8 years coaching women’s tennis   1976 - 1984
-- 18 years assistant athletics director/senior woman administrator 1996 – 2013
Retired – 2013 (diagnosed with breast cancer – surgery/radiation – celebrating 10 years “cancer free”)
Hometown:  Portland, Tennessee
Single/Never Married – Complete/whole/fulfilled in my relationship with Christ.
Family:  Parents – Lewis and Adaline Wiseman  - One Sister - Linda Wiseman McCown – all deceased
Graduated - Portland High School – 1961
Belmont University (Nashville) – 1965 – B.S. Degree in Health & Physical Education
George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University) –  1966 – M.S. Degree – Physical Education/Teacher Education
Atlanta University – Additional Studies – Government Grant – Administration
Current Residence:  Franklin, TN…south of Nashville