Remembering volleyball pioneer Marilyn McReavy Nolen: “Her best was awesome”

Longtime player and coach Marilyn McReavy Nolen, a volleyball pioneer, died April 13 at 78. 

The 1968 Olympian later was the coach at Sul Ross State (twice), New Mexico State, Utah State, Kentucky, Florida, North Florida and Saint Louis. At Saint Louis, she coached from 1994-2003, retired, but 10 years later went back to Sul Ross, where she started in 1969. 

In 33 seasons, she compiled a record of 809-387-12, which included winning AIAW national championships at Sul Ross and Utah State.

Coming out of retirement wasn’t the only thing she did later in life. She and Rev. Randolph Nolen had two sons, Travis and Ryan, which Marilyn delivered at the remarkable age of 55.

During that 10-year “retirement,” Nolen was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class. She also was a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.

McReavy Nolen attended Howard Junior College before graduating from Southwest Texas State University in 1966 and two years later played for the USA in the 1968 Olympics. She stayed with the national team through 1975.

As USA Volleyball noted in its remembrance, McReavy Nolen went on to win two USA Volleyball women’s open national titles (1972, ’73) with E Pluribus Unum and she was a four-time All-American. McReavy Nolen helped develop the first U.S. Olympic national training center in Texas, before it moved to Colorado Springs.

She is a member of the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame, having won the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1996 and the James E. Coleman National Team Award in 2022.

Those USA teams that won in 1972 and 1973 were coached by McReavy Nolen and another legendary player, Mary Jo Peppler. USA Volleyball noted that the tournaments were overseen at that time by the Division of Girls’ and Women’s Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

“My graduate school advisor was former USA men’s Olympic coach Dr. Jim Coleman,” said another volleyball icon, Ruth Nelson. “I was head women’s volleyball coach and head men’s tennis coach at George Williams College at the age of 21. During our history lessons, Jim always talked about Marilyn…