{"id":372,"date":"2013-06-30T23:26:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T23:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=372"},"modified":"2013-06-30T23:27:51","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T23:27:51","slug":"college-jobs-at-san-jose-state-portland-state-and-club-tennis-litter-betty-rankins-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=372","title":{"rendered":"Part II: College jobs at San Jose State, Portland State and club tennis litter Betty Rankin’s background"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Betty<\/a><\/p>\n

By Terry Mosher<\/p>\n

Editor, Sports Paper<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Part II<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Betty Rankin had gone through an uneasy, but thoroughly learning year in Springfield, Mass., and now she was eager to get back to school so she could better herself on the professional level.<\/p>\n

So after a year of teaching PE at a trade high school in Springfield, Rankin returned home to Centralia. In the fall of 1963 she returned to the University of Washington where she had gotten her undergraduate degree to study for a masters in kinesiology.<\/p>\n

The job market back then was much, much better than it was today, and there were plenty of opportunities for her once she collected her masters. The one she choose landed her at San Jose State teaching kinesiology, and coaching the gymnastics team.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a big leap for Rankin to coach gymnastics. She had a great grandfather in Germany who was an expert tumbler. During World War II he joined a group of men who were against the Third Reich established by Adolph Hitler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hired to do one of those things I could do,\u201d says Rankin. \u201cGrowing up, besides playing fastpitch, I could tumble. My great grandfather had a fascinating background. He was anti- (third) Reich and he and all of his buddies that were against the government went underground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey formed as the group the \u2018Gymnastics Society\u2019. They would live in basement of houses so people didn\u2019t know who they were. They kept fit by doing gymnastics. They started out doing calisthenics and then did tumbling. They started jumping over a horse \u2013 a padded thing they developed \u2013 did parallel bars, climbed ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept to himself until he was able to escape. He came to this country by hiding in a barrel of grain that was loaded on a ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rankin said when she was about four she would go to the local Grange on Saturdays with her parents and her great grandfather would shove the tables back in the cafeteria and would teach her and other kids how to tumble.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was like 85 he could do back handsprings the length of the cafeteria,\u201d Rankin said.<\/p>\n

So when Rankin got to San Jose State she was prepared when the school decided to develop a gymnastics program. So in 1964 she was coaching the gymnastics team that competed against other schools in California who were also developing gymnastics squads.<\/p>\n

Rankin was at San Jose State for nine years.\u00a0 She left when she and Bob married and his job as a manager of Trader Vic\u2019s stores took him from place to play, including to Boston and Detroit, and finally to Portland State where Rankin again got back into the college scene.<\/p>\n

Portland State hired her in 1980 to coach the gymnastics team. Later she became an associate athletic director in charge of all the sports except for basketball and football. When it was discovered she was the only member of the faculty who could play tennis, she was also appointed the coach of the tennis team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did things like student eligibly, and I did the budget,\u201d Rankin says. \u201cRoy Love was the athletic director and he did football and basketball and I did everything else.<\/p>\n

Portland State did well as a D-2 school under Love. The Vikings won four volleyball national championships, two in wrestling. They also won five conference championships as well as finish second in the country twice in football, and they once took second in women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n

When Love retired (for the first time in 1986), the new president was hot to take the school to D-1,\u201d says Rankin. \u201cThese guys had stars in their eyes and wanted to go division one. I didn\u2019t support that move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new president I don\u2019t think every worked with a woman. He didn\u2019t like me and I didn\u2019t like him a bit, either. He took a bunch of jobs away from me (although she wound up managing them anyway when others couldn\u2019t do them). The president formed a commission to go D-1 and I wrote a position against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dropped basketball because we didn\u2019t have the income to support it. We didn\u2019t have the proper gym or recruiting budget. Our coach was going to Fremont High School in California to get his players and they were just thugs. He was paying players under the table and doing all kinds of (illegal) stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland State didn\u2019t have men\u2019s basketball from 1982-96, but it was brought back when the school finally did go D-1.<\/p>\n

Rankin said she was warned her stance would cost her the job. But she continued to resist and finally just threw up her hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo be it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rankin had started the Guisti Tournament of Champions for women\u2019s basketball. Each of eight years she ran it she made it a point to bring in the top five ranked women\u2019s teams in the country \u2013 Kansas, Tennessee, California, Stanford, Louisiana Tech, Oregon and Oregon state, among others.<\/p>\n

Finally, it died, and so did Rankin, so to speak. She knew her days were numbered so she left for the Irvington Club in Portland to become its general manager. Little did she know it was in financial straits. And the first thing than needed fixed was putting on a new roof.<\/p>\n

But she succeeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made them profitable by just paying attention,\u201d Rankin said. \u201cThey had bad management for a long time. Dues weren\u2019t high enough, so I changed policies and raised the dues.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also ran the tennis tournaments, something she continued to do when she became GM at the Bremerton Tennis & Athletic Club. But it took some time to get up to Kitsap County. She and husband Bob started looking for waterfront property to semi-retire in, and the search took them from Eugene all the way north to Poulsbo.<\/p>\n

It was in 1997 in Poulsbo out on Hood Canal that they found their place. Once she got here, it wasn\u2019t long before she was interviewing for the GM job at BTAC. It wasn\u2019t something she had planned. Just shortly after they got into their new home, Bob found a small advertisement n the Kitsap Herald for the GM position.<\/p>\n

Rankin had decided she no longer wanted to be in a position of authority. She would be content with anything but that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to do something fun, \u201cshe said. \u201cI was tired of being saddled with all the responsibilities of the every day work place. I have had so many problems \u2011 and big problems \u2011 I was tired of that. I was going to work in a nursery or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to sell plants,\u201d Rankin laughs. \u201cI like to garden, I like to find a hole I can dig up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the ad messed that plan up. Bob insisted the job description fit her like a tee and after some debate she agreed to apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we go again,\u2019 she said, sighing.<\/p>\n

She accepted the job and then went to lunch with her employees and when she asked what kind of shape the club was in, her reaction told all: \u201cOh my gosh, really?\u201d<\/p>\n

And one of the first things she would have to do is find the money to replace the roof over the tennis courts. It was d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got three feet of snow on the tennis court roof and it pulled the roof down and we were getting this sleety snow (on the courts),\u201d says Bob Fredericks, a co-founder of the club, and part of the hiring committee.<\/p>\n

She got that done and more and after seven years she finally retired for good in 2004 to the house in Poulsbo. Bob died a year ago from the effects of COPD. She says she grieved for her husband over the years that his health was taken from him and he could not do the things he (and she) loved to do.<\/p>\n

Rankin says he\u2019s okay today because she had lots of time to grieve for the one she loved. She has not slowed down despite having retired. Hiking with The Truckers or her continued involvement with the tennis world as a player and an USTA certified tennis official and umpire has her on the go, meeting old friends and reaching out to new ones.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long journey from the days as a kid when she wore pedal pushers and tennis shoes to play softball. There is a lot of journey left, and she eagerly waits for it to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have many family members left,\u201d says Rankin. \u201cI have nice neighbors ad a brother and sister-in-law, and that is it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go hiking\u00a0 \u2011 I do a lot of that \u2013 and I have a beautiful garden I tend to. I fish along hood canal and I\u2019m very social, so I\u2019m doing fine.
\nSoon a nephew from Houston will arrive and they will fish for sea-run cutthroat. They can\u2019t keep the cutthroat, but it\u2019s fun to catch and release them.<\/p>\n

Fredericks might have said it best when describing Rankin.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a good kid,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A good kid who is still full of mo-jo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Terry Mosher Editor, Sports Paper   Part II   Betty Rankin had gone through an uneasy, but thoroughly learning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}