Nona Richardson: Volleyball Standout, Coach and Administrator
3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | General
Feb. 29, 2008
February is Black History Month, and nowhere in major-college athletics is that history richer than at Michigan State University. From Gideon Smith, the first African-American football player at Michigan Agricultural College in 1913, to Steve Smith, an All-American basketball star whose contributions have a major impact today, it would take many months to tell the full story. In a series of Spartan profiles, longtime writer and radio broadcaster Jack Ebling will present some of the greatest of the great in 2008. The seventh is volleyball standout, coach and administrator Nona Richardson.
NONA RICHARDSON
She made her name as a middle blocker. But Nona Richardson never let roadblocks keep her from reaching her goals.
A Michigan State volleyball star in the early 1980s, Richardson overcame a comparative lack of height and hype to break new ground.
After coaching stints at Kentucky, Eastern Michigan and Valparaiso and administrative assignments at Valpo and Ball State, she moved to California, a volleyball Mecca, where she serves as senior associate athletic director at UC Davis.
"Growing up in Upstate New York, my passion was basketball," said Richardson, an Albany native. "But I had back spasms my senior year of high school and couldn't play. I'd already hobbled through volleyball. And I became a little addicted to it."
After playing some travel volleyball on a club team, she was asked, "Why don't you play on the collegiate level?" and was told the best competition was in the West.
"As far west as I wanted to go was Michigan," Richardson said. "With my basketball background, people thought I picked Michigan State because of Magic Johnson. Puh-leese! I didn't know anything about Magic Johnson. But I had an aunt and uncle in Detroit. And I knew Big Ten volleyball was very good."
The Spartans had built a solid program with players like volleyball-basketball pioneer Kathy DeBoer, who became a revered coach and administrator at Kentucky and the executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
DeBoer and Richardson made quite a team as coaches in Lexington, but only after Richardson helped MSU make major strides in women's athletics.
"That was before women were recruited," she said. "It was back in the AIAW days. I'd only played two years of volleyball and wasn't really that good. But we had open tryouts. I made the JV, then set a goal of beating someone out. That's what I did."
With a 36-inch vertical jump and great lateral movement, Richardson was a force at the net. She stunned opponents who saw her size as an obvious shortcoming.
"I was only 5-foot-6 1/2 and might've been the shortest middle blocker in school history," Richardson said. "But I started playing club volleyball with older players. Pretty soon, my skills and timing improved, and my athleticism paid off."
Her career highlight as a player was upsetting powerhouse Purdue in a regional semifinal in 1980. If the Spartans' setter hadn't gone down with an injury, Richardson might have had a chance to win a national championship.
"The best part was the people I met and the opportunities that Michigan State gave me," Richardson said. "Athletics gives you the chance to grow. I was able to travel, to see places I'd never have a chance to see. And we were good."
She didn't have the advantages that scholarship athletes enjoy today. But Richardson had enough assistance to get by and give Coach Annelies Knoppers outstanding play for three seasons.
"I didn't get a scholarship my first year," Richardson said. "It was my second year when the aid kicked in. I had some loans and other scholarship help, so I was OK."
Her career ended in 1981, and Richardson earned her degree in physical education in 1983. The plan was to go on to graduate school, to teach and to coach volleyball at the high school level. Suddenly, a new door swung open.
"Kathy DeBoer asked me to join her at Kentucky," Richardson said. "I was her assistant there from '83 to '86. By then, I was ready to be a head coach."
Eastern Michigan gave Richardson that chance for 7 1/2 seasons. And she could have stayed a little longer if she could have combined coaching and administration.
"The senior women's administrator was retiring," Richardson said. "When the A.D., Gene Smith, asked me if I wanted to replace her, I said, `Can I coach at the same time?' When the answer was no, I said, `Let me think about it.' But I'd gotten involved with a youth program, and the timing just wasn't right."
It was better when Valparaiso offered her a chance to coach and be an administrator. Eventually, Richardson had to make a choice.
"I was the volleyball coach and compliance director," Richardson said. "When the school went through a certification procedure with the NCAA, that combination was cited as a conflict of interest. The president agreed to separate the jobs. And after three years as the coach there, I moved to administration full time."
There, she was part of the Crusaders' improbable ride though the 1998 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, highlighted by Bryce Drew's miracle shot against Mississippi.
But if coaching's loss was management's gain, her departure from Valpo was a similar plus for Ball State. Richardson served in student-athlete support services and as the Cardinals' senior women's administrator from 2002-07.
When the UC Davis job opened, she thought about being in Wine Country, between the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe and, at a great institution in the Big West Conference. It was time to move again.
"I love it here, and I don't miss coaching," Richardson said. "But I can relate a lot better having been a student-athlete and a coach. I can empathize and understand their needs. The rules and regulations have changed. The goals are still the same."
Many of Richardson's goals have been realized with a helping hand, too. She hasn't forgotten those people or some places along the way.
"I'd love to be at Michigan State some day," she said, not campaigning for a job. "It's one of only a couple of places that could make me consider leaving here. Who wouldn't want to be back at her alma mater? I haven't missed the weather there. But I could have somebody drive me around.
"I can't say enough about the Clarence Underwoods, the Jim Bibbses and the Nell Jacksons of the world. They helped me survive at Michigan State. But it wasn't always a struggle. Maybe it was as an African-American more than as a female. In volleyball, the coaches would always get questions like `Where'd you find her?'"
MSU found her first - as close to a perfect match as you can have in her sport.