50 years of Pioneer Athletics...women's track wins CSUEB's first national championship

• September 8, 2011 5:09am

After a decade of hard work and growth, along with conference titles and all-conference honors, the Pioneers reached the ultimate goal - a national championship - in 1972 when they captured the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) women's track and field championship.

Head Coach Jim Santos ran both the men's and women's track and field programs from 1970-79 then went on to serve as an Olympic coach for the United States in 1980.

Santos also coached 12 future Hall of Famers including Debi"Cis" Schafer, Marilyn King and Barbara Pickel from the 1972 championship squad.

King went on to compete in the 1976 Olympic Games, where she finished 17th overall in the pentathlon, and is now a respected motivational speaker. Schafer helped the Pioneers to the title with her second straight 800 crown in 1972 and was a scorer in the event at nationals in each of her four seasons at Cal State Hayward.Pickel was a four-year letterwinner.

Read "50 stories for 50 years."

KL