Women became a part of Villanova’s Athletics program at the same time they were taking their place in campus classrooms. There had been female students in some programs prior to 1968, but that year all academic programs were made officially co-ed.

In fall 1968, a group of female tennis players approached Robert Langran, PhD, then the coach of the Men’s Tennis team, asking him if he’d coach a women’s team as well. They played their first two matches the following spring. Dr. Langran remained the coach of both teams for the next 25 years, while also teaching Political Science.

“There’s a strong foundation for athletes today—it started with these women,” he says. Women’s Basketball formed around the same time. Marie Maguire ’69 COE, a passionate basketball player since childhood, recalls playing pickup games with friends on campus before she and Rosemarie Greyson Fleg ’69 CLAS started a women’s team during their senior year. A half-century later, Maguire can still feel the thrill of taking the court in front of 500 cheering fans on March 12, 1969, for the first Women’s Basketball game in what is now Jake Nevin Field House.

“It was so exciting to finally have achieved this milestone,” says Maguire, captain of the first team and now an owner of a sales-force development firm.

Women who came later have felt the same power of donning the Villanova uniform and competing as Wildcats.

“Wearing the ‘V’ on your singlet makes you feel like a superwoman,” says Gina Procaccio ’87 VSB, who competed in Track and Cross Country for Villanova and has been head coach of the women’s teams since 2000. “You don’t want the tradition’s excellence to stop with you.”

Harry Perretta ’95 MA has witnessed the evolution of Villanova Women’s Athletics since its very early days. Head coach of the Women’s Basketball team for 41 seasons, he has seen the difference that Villanova’s approach to building community and supporting student-athletes has made in his players’ lives.

“Students always come first. Everyone in this community cares about one another,” he says. One of Perretta’s current players, Jannah Tucker ’19 CLAS, can attest personally to the supportive culture. Jannah transferred to Villanova before her junior year, recovering from knee injuries and from the trauma of a past experience with domestic abuse. Her spirit, confidence and skill level have been rebuilt at Villanova through the care of her coaches and teammates, as well as through the relationships she’s built with alumnae of the program.

“The Women’s Basketball alumnae are more than just names on a plaque—they come back to campus and are mentors for current players like me,” she says. “It inspires me to ask myself, ‘What am I going to do to pay it forward for the next generation?’”

It’s that emphasis on legacy that sets its athletes up for success and fulfillment as athletes, as students and as people.

“Women’s Athletics at Villanova represents the collective dream of so many Villanovans. It is on their shoulders that we were able to build it,” says Lynn Tighe ’87 CLAS, Villanova’s senior associate Athletics director, chief Athletics administrative officer and senior woman administrator, as well as a former student-athlete herself.