Sally Starr, the long-time Boston University head field hockey coach, announced today that she would be retiring from the position.
The convergence of coach and university is one which is steeped in American field hockey lore.
Consider that Boston University is only about two miles south of where Constance Applebee started giving summer students at Radcliffe College the opportunity to play a sport instead of being cloistered in dusty halls playing parlor games as physical education.
Starr did her own brand of teaching the game she loved for 45 years, which grades out to being the longest tenure for any women’s NCAA sport at one school.
Starr was one of the most prominent branches of the Bobbie Schultz coaching tree at Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.). She attended Ursinus College and played in three AIAW championship games. She also was one of the rare people who represented the United States in both field hockey and lacrosse.
At Boston University, she helmed the Terriers to 19 regular-season titles, and 15 NCAA appearances, including a 1985 run to the national semifinals, only to lose to Tracey Fuchs’ University of Connecticut side.
As many people as Starr has coached, and with her 528 wins as head coach of Bucknell and Boston University, it is amazing to me that she has won only one major trophy as a coach: the 1987 ECAC Division I championship.
But it only goes to show you the kinds of legendary personalities Starr has had to face in coaching boxes over the years, names like Anders and Meharg and Shelton and Stevens and Morett.
The last several decades, when it comes to collegiate field hockey, have been a golden age for coaches, and Starr was a great figure and legendary coach. She will be missed.