A Southern Arkansas University coach helped bring women’s sports into a new world of intercollegiate athletics after Title IX was passed. Margaret Ruth Downing was born in Waldo in 1931 and cut her coaching teeth in high schools at Monticello, Texarkana and North Little Rock.
After college coaching in Connecticut and at Ouachita Baptist University, she became the women’s head basketball coach at SAU in 1965, recording 223 wins and 163 losses between then and 1984 and earning eight championships.
She also coached swimming and diving, volleyball, softball, golf and track and field. After Title IX allowed more diversified coaching, she developed programs to enhance the newly mandated opportunities for female athletes. She also coached U.S. women’s teams in the Pan American games and was on the U.S. Olympic Committee for Women. She entered the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and died on January 17, 2023.
To learn more, visit encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
