1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team Enshrined

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

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 27, 2010) – Members of the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Volleyball Team were officially enshrined into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame Wednesday evening at the city’s World Arena in front of a sold-out crowd of 700 people.

The Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame, in its 11th year, also enshrined 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.

Representing the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team at the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame were co-captains Debbie Landreth Brown and Patty Dowdell, Janet Baier, Diane McCormick French, Debbie Green, Terry Place and Carolyn Becker. Other members of the team were coach Arie Selinger, Rita Crockett, Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli, the late Flo Hyman, Laurel Brassey Iversen and Sue Woodstra.

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.

“It is hard to describe in physical terms how we felt after learning about the boycott, other than extreme disappointment,” Brown said. “We were on a tour of the United States playing against East Germany when the decision was made. (The boycott) had been building as a possibility, but we really had not accepted it. I think anyone who followed the Olympic movement was in a state of disbelief.”

While the disappointment of not representing the country at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow sunk in over the next few days, the community of Colorado Springs provided a final, uplifting showcase event for the team to conclude the East German Tour. The city had unofficially adopted the team as it became the first “national team in resident” experiment in Olympic sport in the United States at the fledgling U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. All team members, coaches and staff moved to Colorado Springs to live and train on a full-time basis in 1978 as the U.S. Olympic Training Center was established in the city. The bond between city and team had been built.

“Our last match on the tour with East Germany was here in Colorado Springs where we had been training, and there was a standing room only crowd to watch us play,” Brown said. “The town of Colorado Springs had always been very accepting of us as a team and supported us with great crowds. So it is great to be back here to Colorado Springs to accept this award in the city we came to love.”

“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.”

Place, who traveled all the way from Germany to attend the event, said the unique tie the team had with the city helped elevate the team’s performance. She was just shy of her 21st birthday when she moved to Colorado Springs to train full time.

“We came into a training center that was unused and a community that supported us,” Place said. “We came to Colorado Springs because we wanted to train together. All we needed to worry about was eat, sleep and train. We were up for practicing every day. All the outside things were taken care of for us.”

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 move to Colorado Springs was a turning point for our team,” French continued. “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.”

Dowdell echoed her teammates thought on the team’s relationship with Colorado Springs.

“When we arrived in Colorado Springs, we felt like strangers,” Dowdell said. “But this community quickly accepted us.”

Brown stated during the enshrinement that her teammates overcame the situation based on the friendships that had come about through the two years of training together.

“It was an incredible group of players,” Brown said. “One thing that stands out, and no one can take away, is the individual bond that we shared. We were with each other through thick and thin.”

And while the team was within an arms length of reaching a life’s goal that few ever obtain but snatched away in an instant, the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Volleyball Team grew from the experience.

“In speaking for most of us, we would go through it again, even knowing the outcome as we do now,” Brown said. “In the end, it made us better people.”

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.

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