Falcon Softball Coach
Faye Perkins Inducted Into Iowa State Athletic Hall of Fame
Sept. 22, 2004

Falcon softball coach Faye Perkins was inducted into the Iowa State University Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday night (Sept. 17).

The banquet, which was part of the Family Weekend celebration at Iowa State, honored Perkins and nine other former Cyclone greats including an Olympian and a former player from both the NBA and NFL. The athletes were also honored at halftime of the Iowa State - Northern Illinois football game on Saturday afternoon. Perkins was joined by her family and by two of her biggest influences, her fifth grade teacher and her high school coach.

"It was a truly humbling experience to be inducted with all of the other athletes, which included Olympians, professional athletes, and national champions," said Perkins. "It was incredible to be included in such a group of outstanding athletes."

Perkins grew up in Cresco, Iowa, where she attended Crestwood High School. This was in the early 1970s before girl's sports were prominent in high schools. When Perkins was a sophomore, the high school added softball and track & field for girls, so Perkins joined both teams. During her senior year, the school added basketball, which Perkins joined as well. Perkins excelled at all three sports, but was recruited to Iowa State to run track & field.

She is known as one of the most versatile athletes in ISU history. Perkins played four years of both basketball and softball, along with one year of track & field. She earned nine athletic letters during her career with the Cyclones. In 1975 Perkins was an All-American in track & field and was a member of the Big Eight Conference Championship team where her 4x110 relay team won the conference title. In 1976 Perkins led the Cyclones to their first Big Eight softball championship, hitting .353 with five home runs and 27 RBI. In 1978 Perkins led the team to another Big Eight championship and was named to the Big Eight all-tournament team at shortstop. Perkins helped the Cyclones basketball team to a 64-43 record during her career, while scoring a total of 376 points.

Perkins played competed during a time of great change in college athletics. In 1972 Title IX was passed, which stated: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Before this was passed men had many more opportunities to play sports and also enjoyed many perks such as athletic scholarships. Title IX made sure that these opportunities were available to the women as well as the men. Perkins attended ISU just when these changes were taking place and was actually one of the first women to receive one of these scholarships. The women’s athletic programs were governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. There were no divisions, so large and small colleges played against each other.

"There were plenty of teams to play against, but we didn’t have Div. I, Div. II, or Div. III, we just played against everybody," said Perkins. "Many smaller schools had very competitive teams because they had women’s athletic programs for much longer than the larger universities."

Perkins graduated with a B. S. in physical education and a M. S. in exercise physiology from Iowa State. She later went on to the University of Utah and earned a Ph.D. in health education.

She has led the Falcon softball team to seven WIAC West Division championships, two WIAC conference championships, and will coach the softball team for her 16th year beginning this spring. Perkins is the winningest softball coach in the WIAC with 312 wins. She is a full professor at River Falls and is also the assistant chair of the Health and Human Performance department. She currently lives in River Falls with her husband Joe and two sons, Paul and Bobby.

Go to the ISU Hall of Fame web site.

Contact Coach Perkins.

Faye Perkins


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