BERNADETTE MCGLADE Lady jacket Coach n All-American basketball player at North Carolina, Bernadette McGlade was hired as Georgia Tech's first full-time women's basketball coach and director of women's sports in 1981 at the age of 23. "I saw it as a great honor because Georgia Tech has such a rich tradition and reputation," says McGlade. "It was a great opportunity." McGlade coached the Lady Jackets for seven seasons. In 1985, she was named assistant athletic director in charge of Tech's seven-sport women's program, and in 1987, she was given responsibility for all of Tech's non-revenue sports programs. In 1988, McGlade was named associate athletic director, and her sister, Agnus Berenato, was named head basketball coach for the women's basketball team. In 1997, McGlade left Tech to become an associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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KATHY HARRISON All-American athlete
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athy Harrison, Mgt 89, became Tech's first female All-American athlete after she dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference women's track and field championships in 1987. She finished first in the 400-meter dash, the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and the triple jump. She also finished second in the long jump and ran a leg of Tech's third place 4-by-400 meter relay. She set three ACC championship records and two conference alltime track marks while earning the ACC Most Valuable Player honors. Also that year she was named MVP of the ACC Indoor Championships. She was voted into the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.
LISA VOLMAR Firstfemale Wreck driver
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y the late 1970s and early '80s, Lisa Volmar saw Georgia Tech as a perfect environment for the new generation of young women who excelled in math and sciences. She didn't comprehend that women engineers were still a rarity in corporate America. "When we entered Georgia Tech, my sister and I were two perfect examples of these somewhat naive but fully energized young women who saw no limits to what we could accomplish. We felt that being female was irrelevant to our ambitions," says Lisa Volmar, IE 86. As the only two children of a Georgia Tech graduate, Walt Volmar, IE 58, and Marjorie Colley Volmar, Lisa and her sister Tere, IE 82, had been raised with the same goals and expectations her parents would have had for sons. Lisa Volmar ran into a roadblock when she pursued becoming the driver of the 1930 Ford Model A for the Ramblin' Reck Club. "When I was among those nominated for the position, 1 was thrilled," she says. "But prior to the election I was speechless when I heard some of my closest friends saying, 'We've never had a woman driver!' 'What happens when she has to drive the Homecoming queen around?' 'What will the alumni think?' 'Does she know how to drive a stick?'" Despite the doubters, Volmar was elected the first female driver of the Ramblin' Wreck in 1984. Many alumni were surprised to see her behind the wheel, but Volmar maintained the Wreck and transported it all over the Southeast to Georgia Tech games and events and even drove the Homecoming queen around the field that year. The next year, Volmar was crowned the last Homecoming queen during the school's centennial year celebration. After that, Tech began the tradition of Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech and, two years later, another female driver was elected. Volmar says one of the pennants from her driving days was placed in the centennial time capsule and the other hangs in her home in Fayetteville, Ga., where it is among her most prized possessions. — Maria M. Lameiras
Fall 2002 • GEORGIA TECH 59