Ruley helped clear the path Purdue's women now travel
Al Hamnik Monday column
Published 03/28/99 11:46:25 PM



We are talking about the nation's winningest college basketball coach of the '90s. Five national titles, including four straight. Fast approaching 500 career victories. Has said "no'' to lucrative offers from the University of Minnesota, Illinois, Long Beach State, Purdue and the WNBA.
A 1974 Lowell graduate.
Played on the first Purdue team in 1975-76, when women's basketball became an intercollegiate sport.
Scored the first points in a Purdue women's game.
If you said Amy Ruley, grab another chocolate donut and move to the front of the line. You certainly know your college sports.
So much has happened since those pioneer years in West Lafayette. It's been a long, frustrating battle of sit-ins, protests and strong wills; of proving to pig-headed males that ladies can indeed play this game and excel. Not only play, but coach it, too. Today, Ruley ranks up there with the best. She just completed her 20th season at Division II powerhouse North Dakota State, which has its games broadcast statewide on radio and a sweet sponsorship deal with Nike to boot.
As Ruley left her downtown hotel Sunday night for the San Jose Arena, where Purdue and Duke would battle in the NCAA Championship Game, she felt like a proud parent. Purdue was her school. These were her sisters, representing the women's program better than anyone had ever done.
"Yeah, it's fun to be included in the history,'' Ruley said. "When I played, there were very few fans at our games. Predominantly parents, some faculty, the custodians around Mackey Arena, and that's about it. No crowds like there are today.''
Don't ask about media coverage. There wasn't any.
"My sophomore year, we moved in from the co-rec building and got to play at Mackey. We thought we had died and gone to heaven,'' Ruley said. "Even then, if we had a couple hundred people, that was a great crowd. Our top 'beat' writer was from the school paper.''
The year after Ruley graduated from Lowell, the Indiana high school state girls tournament began. Her junior season at Purdue, scholarships were finally given to members of the women's team.
"I can't remember any of the male athletes like Eugene Parker, Wayne Walls, Joe Barry Carroll, Jerry Sichting and Bruce Parkinson being resentful. They were our idols at the time. I'd watch them practice and make notes,'' Ruley said.
There were still differences, however. Coach Fred Schaus held men's practice in the afternoon. The women practiced at 6 p.m. Even with the gender door open, tiny steps had to be taken.

Setting Fargo on fire

Ruley came to North Dakota in 1979, at the age of 23. The Bison had only five winning seasons in the 13 years before she arrived. It took her just two years to turn the program around. Of all her many accomplishments, she is most proud of the 100 percent graduation rate for four-year players whom she has coached.
Sunday night, memories raced through Ruley's head as she prepared to watch the Boilermakers rewrite school history. She would cheer until her throat was dry and her head throbbed. She would pray that every Duke shot would fall short, every rebound go to a Purdue player.
Three times, Purdue had asked her to interview for the head coaching job. Three times, Ruley graciously declined. Sparsely-populated Fargo, North Dakota -- land of moose and squirrel -- was her home now. It's a caring community, she said, one where everyone looks out for each other in time of blizzards and floods.
"You kinda live in the world that's around you,'' Ruley confided. "We have great support. I know our game with (hated rival) the University of North Dakota was compared to a Stanford-UCLA game. They said we'd have to have 325,000 people in the stands to have the percentage of your population attend the basketball game that we had attend our matchup.''
The ladies' game is here to stay. In fact, Ruley says there are actually more girls playing basketball today -- nationally -- than boys. Most of her recruits are from Dakota, but she is beginning to scout Indiana and Illinois for new talent. Going up against a Purdue doesn't faze her in the least.
"There are a lot of people here who would like to see Duke's men and women both win it,'' she said before tipoff. "And then there are a lot of people who would like to see Purdue do it, based on their No. 1 ranking and the success they've had.
"I know who I'm pulling for.''
Her sisters in the black and gold, of course.