A native of Butler County, Alabama, Dr. Hanna Gillion earned degrees from the University of Montevallo, Troy State University, and The University of Alabama, where she became a professor in 1962. Gillion was instrumental in pioneering women’s intercollegiate athletics at the University, and in the days before the University paid salaries to women coaches or funded women’s teams, she founded, coached, and paid travel expenses for the women’s volleyball, tennis and golf teams. She also led the Title IX fight for equality in athletics funding, which resulted in the first federally funded women’s intercollegiate sports teams.
Among her accomplishments during her tenure at the University are her active membership in the Alabama State Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, her work with the Alabama Special Olympics, and the special bond she shared with her students, instilling in them the vision that education could be a steppingstone to helping others and becoming the best individuals they can be.
Dr. Gillion joined the UA faculty in 1962 as an instructor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation – now Kinesiology – and went on to retire as a full professor in the department in 1994. Women’s intercollegiate athletics began at the Capstone when she developed and coached the first UA volleyball team in 1970. She recruited players from her classes and across campus. Not only did she coach volleyball, but that same year, she organized golf and tennis teams, recruiting other groups of talented women the opportunity to play. Gillion coached and served as sole administrator of all three teams. She handled their eligibility, team schedules and practice locations, as well as arranged and paid for transportation if she wasn’t the one already providing it. All of this was done without compensation from her department or The University of Alabama.
Dr. Gillion was relentless in her fight to improve the posture for these women’s teams and provide women the same opportunities in athletics that the University afforded male students. She sought support from the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, various University committees relating to women’s issues, the Student Government Association, the Department of Student Affairs, and Athletic Director and UA football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.
In May 1971, Dr. Gillion was among the women across Alabama who created the Alabama Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Association, serving on the Executive Committee and as president during the 1972-73 academic year. It was her diligence and work as well as her role as director of the Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Program in 1973 that helped pave the way for the successful women’s athletics program we see at the University today. By 1973, the Women’s Intercollegiate Sports Program fielded seven intercollegiate teams and had received meaningful funding from the University’s Athletic Department.
After founding and coaching intercollegiate women’s tennis, golf, and volleyball teams in an era when most athletic opportunities for women were intramural activities, Gillion found other opportunities to champion women’s athletics, including in 1972 with the passage of the watershed Title IX by Congress. This legislation barred sex discrimination in educational activities, including athletics, supported by federal money, and made it possible for women’s intercollegiate sports to receive federal funding. Reportedly, this didn’t sit well with Bryant, who did not want to include women’s athletics in his department. But Gillion persevered and eventually won the battle, paving the way for what is now an extremely successful women’s athletic program, producing champions in a number of sports, including gymnastics, basketball, softball and track and field.
In January 1974, the College of Education, then headed by Dean Paul G. Orr, formally proposed to the University via the academic vice president to establish “A Program for Women’s Intercollegiate Sports and Preparation Programs for Teaching, Research and Service in Women’s Sports.” This proposal was written by Dr. Gillion and Dr. William Clipson, area head for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and it echoed the educational basis of a program to prepare students to coach in Alabama’s public schools. The University accepted this proposal, creating a substantive change in the women’s sports program.
Hanna Gillion, professor and crusader for women’s athletics at The University of Alabama, personified the term “indomitable.” Upon her death at the age of 71, Gillion was remembered as a worthy adversary even for legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Gillion’s nephew Mark Childress, a UA graduate and the author of “Crazy in Alabama,” recalls Bryant once inviting her to fly with the football team to an away game – a measure of her tenacity and Bryant’s begrudging respect.
The University, the women who have competed here, and those who continue to compete owe Gillion a huge debt of gratitude. The UA Athletics Department has shown its appreciation for her through the years, recognizing her during a program called “Commemorating 25 Years of Service to The University of Alabama” and listing Gillion first in its list of the “Top 50 Women in the 50 Years of Title IX.”