1980 U.S. Women’s Team Ready for Enshrinement

Bill Kauffman
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: bill.kauffman@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 24, 2010) – Members of the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Volleyball Team will be enshrined into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame at the city’s World Arena at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 in front of a sold-out crowd of 700 people.

The Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame, in its 11th year, will also have a reception and silent auction immediately prior to the event at 6 p.m.

Despite being considered favorites to win the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Volleyball Team was denied a chance to claim USA’s first volleyball medal during the event due to the American boycott of the event in Moscow. The dreams of standing on the podium with gold medals around their necks at the Olympic Games in Moscow were shattered when the U.S. Olympic Committee’s House of Delegates, at the urging of then-President Jimmy Carter, voted to boycott the 1980 Olympiad to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

After 30 years from the disappointment of not competing in the Olympic Games, the 1980 U.S. Olympic Volleyball Team will be honored by the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. The 1980 U.S. Olympic Women’s Volleyball Team, coached by Dr. Arie Selinger, consisted of Janet Baier, Carolyn Becker, Rita Crockett, Patty Dowdell, Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli, Debbie Green, Flo Hyman, Laurel Brassey Iversen, Debbie Landreth Brown, Diane McCormick French, Terry Place and Sue Woodstra.

“This is a tremendous honor for the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team to be recognized by the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame,” USA Volleyball Chief Executive Officer Doug Beal. “Not only was the team favored to win the gold in Moscow, it became a trendsetter for the then-recently established U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs as other sports saw the benefit of year-round training in a single location. This team played a key role in providing the new training center credibility for future team sports to train in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, the team’s ultimate mark on history was denied with the 1980 boycott. Yet, this team forged the USA into being medal contenders in each of the subsequent Olympic Games. Many of these players have given back to the sport through the coaching ranks – on the National Team level and in the collegiate ranks – and other volleyball leadership positions.”

This group of individuals was also part of the first “national team in residence” experiment in Olympic sport in the United Sates. All team members, coaches and staff moved to Colorado Springs to live and train on a full-time basis.

“The move to Colorado Springs was a turning point for our team,” said Diane McCormick French, who was one of the 12 members on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Women’s Team. “We will always be grateful for the community's support back then, and we are truly honored to be selected to the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.”

Selinger and a handful of players – Becker, Crockett, Corbelli, Green, Hyman and Woodstra – remained with the program in Colorado Springs following the boycott and went on to win the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, losing to China in the gold-medal game. Brown later would serve as an assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, while Woodstra returned to the Olympics in 2008 as an assistant coach with the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team that earned the silver medal in Beijing.

French, who still resides in the Colorado Springs area and was part of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team staff as technical coordinator, fondly remembers the time the team spent in its new training home.

“The support we received from the City of Colorado Springs was overwhelming and the community really made us feel at home,” French said. “I will never forget the first match we played in the Springs at Coronado High School. The gym was packed and the marching band came streaming in from the four corners of the court prior to the anthem. We'd played in front of some big audiences overseas, but never had that kind of enthusiastic home crowd before. It was a tremendous welcome and the fans kept coming every time we played here. During one tour with Japan, we had to schedule a double-header to meet the demand for tickets. Since there was no gym at the OTC when we arrived, we learned our way around by training at almost every high school in town, the YMCA, the Boy's Club, Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy, Colorado College and Queen Palmer Elementary School. It seemed like the city had thrown open all the doors for us.”

The prestigious evening will also recognize Andy Gambucci (Colorado College ice hockey), Sherrice King (Rampart High School and University of Colorado basketball), Ken Brown (Wasson High School and Cornell University world championship rower), Ken Hatfield (Air Force Academy football), Fred Whitacre (father of baseball in Colorado Springs), David G. Elmore (Colorado Springs Sky Sox Owner/Founder, sports entrepreneur), 1981 Mitchell High School state football champions, Dick Westbay as Col. F. Don Miller Award recipient and Dr. Jamieson Kennedy as Thayer Tutt Sportsman Award recipient.

The Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame is presented for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation by The Gazette and American National Bank.

Tags: Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympic Training Center, U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team, United States Olympic Committee