Minium: ODU's Dr. Jim Jarrett Feted With Humor and Praise at Celebration of Life
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – It was the early 1980s – Debbie Harmison White could not quite recall the exact year – when she and Dr. Jim Jarrett, Old Dominion’s director of athletics, were in the offices of executives at WYAH-TV in Portsmouth.
At the time, WYAH was connected with the fledgling Christian Broadcast Network, and through CBN had the ability to broadcast Old Dominion men’s basketball games to nearly every major TV market in the United States and many around the world.
For a few years, WYAH would give ODU more national coverage than most ACC teams received.
But when it came down to close the deal, “Jim threw a curve into the meeting,” said White, who was who was a senior administrator for ODU athletics before she retired in 2016.
“He told them, ‘No men’s games unless you also take our women’s games.’
“After their eyes popped back into their heads, they said yes, and our programs experienced wonderful nationwide exposure.”
As White put it, Jarrett “had drawn a line in the sand and it wasn’t going to be his first or his last.”
That was typical of so many stories told Thursday morning at Chartway Arena as nearly 300 people crammed into the Big Blue Club room to celebrate Jarrett’s remarkable life.
Jarrett, 88, passed away just two weeks ago. But there were no tears on Thursday, which was truly a celebration of the life of the man who led ODU athletics for 40 years.
Jarrett was named ODU’s director of athletics in 1970 and transformed all of college sports by simply treating men’s and women’s athletes equally at a time when that simply wasn’t done.
In 1974, he decided ODU would become the first Virginia university to offer women’s athletes scholarships and the Monarchs instantly became a women’s basketball powerhouse.
In 1975, he hired Paul Webb, then the head coach at Randolph-Macon, to lead ODU men’s basketball from Division II into Division I.
Who hires a coach from Randolph-Macon to lead your university into Division I, asked Bob Aston, the long-time ODU booster and founder and executive chairman of TowneBank.
“Jim did, and he hired one of the finest human beings that’s ever been on this earth,” Aston said.
It proved to be a masterful decision. Webb had nine postseason bids in 10 seasons. His teams won twice at Virginia, and upset Clemson, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and Florida State. ODU also upended No. 3 Syracuse at Scope and No. 1 DePaul on the road.
In 1977, Jarrett hired Marianne Stanley, who played and for a year was an assistant coach at women’s basketball powerhouse Immaculata, as ODU’s women’s head coach.
She was just 23. “Nobody hires someone who’s 23 as a head coach,” Stanley said. “But Jim saw something in me that I didn’t even see.”
Stanley would go on to win three national championships.
In 1980, he hired Beth Anders, then a high school coach in Pennsylvania, to coach the ODU field hockey team. Although she had never coached a college team, she would go on to win nine national championships.
“Jim had the vision to see the future,” said Aston. “He recognized the changes coming in women’s athletics that were going to change the world, and he took the risk of moving forward at a time when all of the big names around the country weren’t engaged.
“He was really good at selecting people. Who gives a 23-year-old a head coaching job?”
Nine speakers spoke passionately, and at times with humor, for an hour Thursday, including former ODU Head Basketball Coaches Oliver Purnell, Wendy Larry and Stanley, former basketball All-Americans Nancy Lieberman and Dave Twardzik, Anders and Dr. Wood Selig, in addition to Aston and White.
Twardzik poked fun at Jarrett’s at times eccentric style of dress, and told a story about his first day in class as a student when Jarrett taught a class called “Introduction to Tennis.”
Basketball teammate Jim Cole was also enrolled and on the first day, was cutting up and making other students laugh while Jarrett was speaking.
“Jim gets one of those laser looks right on Jim Cole and he takes the ball and serves it and nails Jim Cole right on the back,” Twardzik said. “The noise of the serve hitting Jim silenced everyone in the class. Cole hits the floor.
“All I hear from Jim is, ‘Cole, there will be no grab ass in my tennis class.’
“I dropped out of introduction to tennis.”
Most others focused on Jarrett’s many contributions to the advancement of women’s sports.
“He saw the future of the women’s game when no one else bothered to look,” Larry said. “He didn’t just tolerate the women’s game. He truly came to appreciate the game and championed it.
“He fought for resources. He fought for respect. He fought for opportunities that were not handed out easily. He pushed boundaries and built programs that would not have existed without his courage.”
Added Lieberman, who spoke by video: “Dr. Jarrett might be the most important administrator in the history of women’s basketball.”
Purnell played on ODU’s 1975 Division II national championship basketball team, returned as an assistant coach and was hired by Jarrett as the head coach in 1991.
“When Jim hired me, I was the first African American coach in the state of Virginia,” Purnell said. “And that obviously impacted my life in so many ways.
“And just like all he did for women’s athletics, that took courage. A lot of people can say they’re in a movement they believe in. But it takes a special person to stand at the front of the line, ready to take all of the arrows from all comers.”
Dr. Selig chose to write a letter to Jarrett and read it aloud, speaking to Jarrett as if he was in the room.
He spoke passionately about Sugie Jarrett, Jim’s wife of 40 years, who cared for him as he grew sicker in recent years.
“Jim, don’t worry about Sugie,” Selig said. “She has a den full of loyal Monarchs worldwide who plan to watch after her and take care of her.
“I write to you, Jim, for being the fiery trailblazer that you were. Thank you, Jim, for being such a staunch advocate for women’s athletics before anyone else truly embraced that 50 percent of the world’s population.
“There’s a country song with lyrics that say, ‘I was country before country was cool.’ Well, Jim, you were into lifting up women’s athletics before women’s athletics were cool.
“You were so far ahead of your time.”
Sugie said Dr. Selig, who was hired to replace Jarrett in 2010, kept her husband in the loop at ODU.
“Wood was so wonderful to Jim over the years,” she said. “He always made sure that Jim knew everything that was happening at ODU. He kept Jim involved and that meant so much to him.”
Sugie said she will be in the stands Sunday when the ODU women’s basketball team takes on Howard.
“Jim and I went to nearly every ODU football and basketball game together and I’m not going to stop that,” she said.
“I’m going to try to stay busy, because when I’m not busy, that’s why I think of Jim and that’s when I miss him.
“We had so much fun together. We had a hell of a life together.
“And the things he did here at ODU. They will last forever.”
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
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