Longtime McDaniel head women’s basketball coach Becky Martin thought she was going to meet a McDaniel College alumnus for dinner in late December. When she saw her coaching staff, former players and friends waiting for her in the lobby of McDaniel’s Gill Center, she couldn’t process it at first. There was a mock-up of a basketball court on the table. She could see “Rebecca L. Martin Court” on the model court.
The one person who always knew what was going on was confused at first. She learned that the real basketball court was already emblazoned with her signature in black positioned close to the sideline in front of the Green Terror bench.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Martin said. “It took me a long time to process it. I usually know everything that’s happening.”
The court dedication itself took place Jan. 19 before a home game against Dickinson.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last spring, Martin stepped down from a job she held for 35 years in August. She had recorded 559 wins, four Centennial Conference championships, five trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament and an appearance in the Sweet 16. With Martin on indefinite medical leave, former assistant coach Rick Little is handling the interim head coaching duties.
“She’s the Pat Summitt of McDaniel College,” said Kacey Barnes, referring to the legendary former women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee. Barnes joined a group of former players, including Toby McIntyre and Brooke Weimer, to make the court dedication a reality.
Barnes was on the Sweet 16 team in 2005. She was recruited out of high school by Maryland and other schools, but she blew out her knee during a game with many college coaches in attendance.
“I looked up from the floor and saw all the coaches walk away,” she said. “Only Becky Martin was still standing there. She called me a few weeks a later to tell me it would be an honor to have me on her team. She cared about who I was.”
Martin, 60, grew up playing pick-up basketball with the boys across the street from McDaniel College in the late 1960s, when the school was called Western Maryland College. She used to sneak into the gym to shoot baskets until women’s hoops coach Dr. Carol Fritz kicked her out.
“This was before Title IX,” Martin said. “There was no girls’ basketball until my second year in high school. I was a high jumper and said to myself, ‘I really want to play basketball. This is what I want to do.’ As a player, you could say there was never I shot I didn’t want to take.”
Martin scored 43 points against Towson Catholic as a senior at Westminster High School and schools began to take notice. Fritz, who had removed her from the gym as a kid, now wanted her to play for Western Maryland.
“That was the last place on earth I wanted to go,” she said. “I didn’t want to say at home.”
Martin became the first 1,000-point scorer in school history. After her senior year, she stayed on as Fritz’s graduate assistant and took over the head job in 1981.
Martin’s teams were not the best athletically and they consistently overachieved.
“I’m not looking for players,” she said, “but the whole person. I looked for students of the game. I remember the years when people said we’d win five games and we’d win 11. I’m proud of what my players achieve after basketball.”
One of those players is McIntyre, who was in the ROTC as a player at McDaniel and served in Kuwait. McIntyre, who now works in a health care leadership position, helped orchestrate the dedication for her close friend.
“I’m always struck by her humility,” McIntyre said. “When I heard the diagnosis, I wanted to do something special. I tried to get her in a trial at Hopkins and it fell through. I needed to do something. The community helped raise the money.”
At the dedication, Martin saw people in the crowd who’d watched her play at Westminster High.
“It was a monster day of celebration,” she said. “A flood of memories.”
Martin still yells at the game and sits behind the bench.
“Sometimes the coaches will ask for advice. They’ve all been with me for a long time,” Martin said. “I’m focused on my next journey, which will be the toughest of all.”
Photo Credit: David Sinclair/McDaniel College
Issue 251: February 2019