'A Trailblazer In Every Sense Of The Word': Roberta Alison Baumgardner Inducted Into Alabama Sports Hall Of Fame

Roberta Alison Baumgardner, the first female scholarship athlete in SEC history, was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame last week.

Roberta Alison Baumgardner's plaque at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame / Bama on SI

The year was 1963, and University of Alabama tennis coach Jason Morton was about to do something that was going to change Crimson Tide athletics and the Southeastern Conference forever.

Morton had just discovered a 19-year-old Roberta Alison Baumgardner practicing for the U.S. Open on a Tuscaloosa tennis court. Morton was so impressed by Baumgardner's talent that he did something unprecedented. He offered her a spot on his team, which was anything but co-ed. Not only that, but he also extended Baumgardner the first scholarship offer for a female athlete in SEC history, almost a full decade before the passing of Title IX ,and 17 years before the SEC first sponsored women's tennis as a sport.

Baumgardner took the opportunity and ran with it. She created a legacy as one of the most transcendental athletes in Crimson Tide history, a two-time intercollegiate national champion who compiled a 39-14 record playing against opposing men's teams. The late Baumgardner's accomplishments were recognized last week in Birmingham, as she was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

"I know she would be very honored," her son, Earl Baumgardner, said. "I think that she was just really part of the legacy of Alabama tennis and Alabama athletics. Because even though she was somewhat quiet about it, she was still Alabama through and through."

Baumgardner started as the No. 4 player on the men's team. She quickly worked her way to the top of the lineup. Her talent was undeniable, but her rise to the top was not without controversy. Many opposing teams forfeited their matches against Baumgardner, refusing to play a woman.

"She had to have tremendous fortitude, tremendous determination, tremendous character, to be able to do this," former Alabama women's tennis coach Jenny Mainz said. "A lot of people were intimidated. When we talk about trailblazers, when we talk about innovation, I mean, this was back in the 60s. This was groundbreaking."

Mainz was close to Baumgardner from the time she took the Crimson Tide head coaching job in 1997 through Baumgardner's death in 2009. In fact, one of her first orders of business when she got the job was to drive to Alexander City, Ala., and meet with Baumgardner, an introduction that Mainz remembers vividly to this day.

"There was an aura about her. She carried herself with a lot of confidence," Mainz said. "And she made time for me. I mean, I didn't know her, I was a young coach, I'd just gotten the job. And she made time to meet with me. We sat and had lunch, and she was notorious for drinking a Pepsi and smoking a cigarette. And so she did. She had her Pepsi and cigarette, we had lunch, and she was very pleasant, very, very kind-hearted."

Even in the later stages of her life, Baumgardner, who was born in and died in Alexander City, remained up to date with the women's tennis team.

"We had a nice friendship," Mainz said. "She would write notes if we did something good. She'd write us a really thoughtful note, encouraging us and congratulating us. And I felt like she was proud of what we were doing to continue her great legacy."

The Alabama women's tennis team had its greatest successes under Mainz. The 2013 ITA National Coach of the Year led the Crimson Tide to 15 NCAA Tournament appearances and two NCAA doubles national championships. Regardless of the team's postseason success, one of the highlights of every season was the Roberta Alison Fall Classic, an annual tournament hosted by the Crimson Tide since 1988 in honor of the pioneer.

"People all over the country said that that was the best tournament that they ever played, because of the spirit in the honor of Roberta Allison," Mainz said. "The hospitality, the competition, sort of embodied who she was as a person, as a competitor, and as a tennis player."

Baumgardner has also been inducted into the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, the Southern Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, the National Tennis Women's Hall of Fame, and The University of Alabama Tennis Hall of Fame. But one of the greatest honors bestowed upon her came in 2012, when then-athletic director Mal Moore officially opened the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility.

"We won a lot of championships in the Roberta Allison Baumgardner Tennis Facility. And, I mean, a lot."

- Jenny Mainz

"We hosted nationals, we hosted the ITA kickoff weekend multiple times, and we hosted the Sweet 16 multiple times," Mainz said. "Every time we played in there, and every time we won big matches, it was in honor of her, it was in her memory, it was in her honor. I just felt proud. I felt proud that we were able to continue on the pathway that she blazed for all of us."

Just about everybody who knew Baumgardner used the same word to describe her: humble. Baumgardner seldom spoke on her own tennis accomplishments, to the point that her son, Earl, ended up learning much of what he knows about his mother's career on his own.

Even with the humility and quietness, there is no mistaking the fact that Baumgardner was proud. She was proud of the accomplishments of Mainz's teams, she was proud of the tournament in her name, and she would have been proud of the building in her name.

"When she passed away, the newspaper read 'Quiet Giant Passes Away,'" Baumgardner said. "She didn't talk a lot about her tennis career or other things she did a lot, but I know she'd be very honored by the tennis facility."

The University of Alabama has emerged as one of the premier locations for women's athletics in the nation, boasting 72 combined team and individual national championships across women's sports— a number that doesn't even include the 19 women's wheelchair basketball and tennis titles won by the adapted athletics program. And it all started with the career and life of Alabama Sports Hall of Famer Roberta Alison Baumgardner.

"I think they're going to make a movie about her one day. I really do," Mainz said. "Everything about her story is movie-worthy."

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