n History of Cougar athletics ..........

and he is currently an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers. He, too, was inducted into the WNCC athletic hall of fame alongside Lane as the inaugural class.

But, what a lot of people don’t realize is that Jackson was not the first NBA player from the college. Nope. That belongs to Sedric Toney, who played for the Cougars in the early to mid 1980s. Toney was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks n 1985 and played for nine years, the final year with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1994. He continued to work for NBA teams and he currently is a color commentator for ESPN for college basketball games.

There are so many players that have come through WNCC that have shined. While most of them have been male athletes, there have been some big time female athletes that have dawned a Cougar outfit. While men’s athletes have been around since the late 1920s, women’s collegiate athletics didn’t start until Title IX came in back in 1972. The first women’s team was volleyball back in 1974 when the team went 5-5 under the first women’s coach Margaret Fitzmorris. Fitzmorris coached the Cougars for four seasons where they had a 17-4 record in 1976.

The first 20-win season for the volleyball team came in 1982 under the guidance of former Scottsbluff High coach Cash Franklin. The first 30-win volleyball team came under Cathy Schiller in 1987 when they went 36-11-2. The next year, the Cougars had their first 40-win season at 46-13 and that team was the first women’s team to win a regional title in 1988. The first 50-win season came in 2000 under Gering graduate Chris Green’s leadership.

Since Green took over the program in 1999, the program went to 19 straight national tournaments, won two national titles, finished second three times (2006, 2012, and 2015), and finished in the final four 12 of the last 24 years.

This is just a tip of the iceberg of what this history column will be like. It will be

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