This story initially appeared on Behind the Whistle, the official blog of the IWLCA, and is being republished with permission from the organization. Alison Williams Bruno is a volunteer assistant coach at Howard University.

History was made 38 years ago this spring when Tina Sloan Green became the first African American female coach to win a NCAA Division I championship in any sport, and that sport was lacrosse.

In 1994, almost 10 years later, Tina gave an impassioned plea at an IWLCA meeting asking for help to increase diversity within the sport. At that time, I was the only Black head coach at the Division I level, as Tina had recently retired after 22 years at Temple. There were only a handful of Black lacrosse players at that time, the most notable being UVA’s Cherie Greer. I sat in the audience listening to my former college coach who was then and will always be my mentor. She is soft spoken, yet her voice became fiery and passionate when she spoke of the sport she loves and the cause so near and dear to her heart. Tina emphasized the importance of diversity and how teams as a whole can benefit from the diversity of others.

Today, more than ever, her message is still timely and relevant. Tina is still on a mission to increase diversity within the sport. To understand why, one must know her history and why her legacy is so important not just in Black lacrosse, but lacrosse period.

Tina was the first African American head coach in the history of women’s intercollegiate lacrosse. She compiled a 207-62-4 career coaching record with a .758 winning percentage, guiding Temple to three national championships and 11 consecutive final four appearances. Prior to her first NCAA championship in 1984, she won the AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) national championship. She is the only coach, male or female, at Temple to bring an NCAA championship to the North Broad Street campus.

She has been inducted into numerous Halls of Fame, which include the USA Lacrosse National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and the IWLCA Hall of Fame. Both her 1984 and 1988 NCAA national championship teams have been inducted into Temple University’s Sports Hall of Fame, along with her 1982 AIAW championship team. She was recognized as one of the initial Trailblazers by the IWLCA, and just this past year, the IWLCA named an award after her, and the inaugural recipient was recognized. She is a founding member and current president of the Black Women in Sport Foundation, which helps introduce non-traditional sports like lacrosse to underserved populations.

At Temple in the early 80s, her teams were the first to all play with molded head sticks. At that time, most teams were still using wooden sticks. She helped introduce the zone defense in lacrosse, which stymied most of other offenses, as they had never seen anything like it before. Her teams were mostly made of blue collar, non-private school kids from working class towns or rural areas who gained a reputation of being tough and gritty. They were nicknamed the Broad Street Bullies North after the Philadelphia Flyers, who held the same moniker but played on Broad Street in South Philly.

They played hard, checked even harder, were always aggressive and were intimidating simply because it was a style of lacrosse never seen before. Temple also was the first to play a run-and-gun style offense, high tempo and fast paced, along with a settled offense incorporating picks and set plays. While that might seem commonplace now, Tina helped revolutionize women’s lacrosse by being among the first to introduce these concepts in the early 1980s.

Most importantly, she could coach. She was able to spot raw natural talent and mold diamonds in the rough into excellent lacrosse players. A prime example of this would be Jill Marple (1991) who was the goalie on the 1988 national championship team. Jill never played lacrosse in high school, but Tina spotted her playing in a lacrosse summer league when a team needed a goalie, and she had experience as a field hockey goalie. She was offered a scholarship on the spot, came to Temple, and within one season, earned the starting goalkeeper position and won the national championship. Jill still is the Temple record holder in career goalie saves (754) and save percentage (.656). Another non lacrosse player in high school who went on to earn All American status in lacrosse at Temple was Monica Mills (1985).

Three athletes she recruited to Temple are now in the USA Lacrosse National Hall of Fame (Kathleen Barrett Geiger, Gail Cummings Danson and Mandee Moore O’Leary). Temple Owls who went on to become Team USA players include Geiger, Cummings and Moore, along with Kim Lambdin Ciarocca and Chrissy Mueller.

Her coaching tree is extensive, with many of her former players going on to coach at the high school, collegiate and international levels. These include current Florida coach Amanda Moore O’Leary, Cabrini coach Jackie Neary and Iroquois Nationals (Haudenosaunee) World Cup team coach and Howard University volunteer Alison Williams Bruno. Former IWLCA coaches include Kim Lambdin Ciarrocca  (Ursinus, Temple and Delaware) and Sue Stimmel (Ohio State).

Tina also knew the importance of hiring the right people for her coaching staff. This would include Team USA Olympic Field Hockey member Gwen Cheeseman and the legendary Sue Stahl. Sue was the assistant coach for many years at Temple before becoming the head coach at Old Dominion and most notably the head coach for Team USA.

And now after having read some more about her history, I do hope that IWLCA members will continue to heed Tina’s plea given so many years ago. It was a coach at Girl’s High that saw Tina’s natural athletic ability and recruited her to play field hockey, basketball and volleyball. Tina made varsity in each sport.

Prior to that, Tina’s only sporting experiences were kickball and streetball on the streets of Philadelphia. After enrolling at West Chester State College to play field hockey, it was field hockey coach Vonnie Gros that encouraged her to play lacrosse as well. That was where she picked up a lacrosse stick for the first time, and as they say, the rest is history. Tina still credits coach Jane Weitzenhoffer and Gros as her most memorable mentors. She then went on to become the first African American named to the U.S. national team in 1969.

We need more coaches like Jane Weitzenhoffer and Vonnie Gros to reach out, encourage and mentor young girls of color in the sport of lacrosse like they did for Tina Sloan Green. Because of a coach reaching out to her and providing mentorship, history was made. It would be amazing to see history repeat itself.