Earlier this year, the NCAA began its Title IX at 50 celebration during the 2022 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. The celebration commemorates the anniversary of the landmark federal law signed in 1972 that prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

Simply put, the story of Clarion University Athletics would not be complete without the contributions of the many women - student-athletes, coaches and administrators alike - who have represented the Golden Eagles over the years. Because of them, women's athletics continue to grow and prosper, and to inspire new generations to achieve their athletic and academic goals at the collegiate level.

In celebration of the historic legislation and its impact on our campus community, the athletics website will feature stories about the great people, teams and events in women's athletics at Clarion University.

This month, we look to trailblazing head women's basketball coach Doris Black.
 
The impact Doris Black had on the Golden Eagle women's basketball team can actually be stated quite succinctly. She inherited a team that had gone 5-35 in the two seasons prior to her arrival. Three years later, they were champions.
 
Black was a three-sport athlete at Central State, where she competed on the track & field, women's basketball, volleyball and bowling teams. After graduating in 1970, her resume included a teaching stint at Colonel White High School in her native Dayton, Ohio, where she coached track & field, tennis and girls' basketball. Black made history in that time when Colonel White principal Robert Lacy convinced her to take over as the head boys' basketball coach. She started her college coaching career at Central State before coming to Clarion for the 1983-84 season.
 
The building process first started to show its progress during the 1985-86 season, when the Golden Eagles won five of their last six games to finish the season with an 11-15 record – a seven-win improvement over each of the previous two years. The following year was a truly special one, as Black coached Clarion to a 16-9 overall record and an 8-2 mark in conference play. That gave the Golden Eagles the first PSAC West title in program history, and earned Black PSAC West Coach of the Year honors. Her follow-up in 1987-88 was even better as the Golden Eagles won their second straight PSAC West title, winning 14 of their last 16 games.
 
Black coached four members of the Clarion Sports Hall of Fame – Kim Beanner, Cheryl Bansek, Lisa McAdoo and Tammy Holman. Those four and others continue to dot the Golden Eagle record books. She herself entered the Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
 
Black left Clarion after that season to build the athletic program at Agnes Scott College, an all-women's school in Atlanta. She later became a high school health and physical education teacher and guidance counselor in Cobb County, Georgia.
 
* Portions of this story were taken from the Dayton Daily News story, "Doris Black — No tears for this trailblazer," by Tom Archdeacon (1/31/20)