On January 12, 1991, the Operation Desert Storm campaign of the Gulf War was still five days away. The Blues were coached by Brian Sutter, and St. Louis was in the middle of an eight-year stretch without an NFL team…so the playoffs were a non-story. But in Elsah, IL, the women’s basketball team shook the local sports scene with a 60-57 triumph at Principia College. After a 0-63 start for the program (including 14 losses by forfeit), the Webster University women finally had its first win ever.
Pandemonium reigned as Webster players celebrated in front of the somewhat bewildered Principia home crowd. Principia was kind enough to let the Gorloks cut down a net and to keep the game ball as a souvenir. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports section featured a front page story on the team, and the first win, several days later. The team got a ‘shout out’ a couple weeks later in an issue of Sports Illustrated, noting the first win.
Webster had played four complete seasons without tasting victory, but in the midst of a string of 30 and 40-point losses the first semester, was a three-point loss at MacMurray College (IL). Michelle Rausch, a forward on the team, recalls, “Walking into Principia, Randy (Kriewell, head coach) and Harold (Ott, assistant coach) had us convinced we were going to win.” Mickie Kuhlmann, who played guard for the Gorloks, remembered, “After losing to McMurray the team was disappointed, but at the same time it gave us some much needed confidence. That game proved to us as a team we had what it took to win, we just needed to pull it all together.
With the addition of Amy Hartweger, a forward who had played at St. Joseph’s Academy, and Gwynne Dawdy, a center who had played high school basketball in New Mexico, and transferred in at semester, the team picked up two more experienced players. Guards Lisa White (Crystal City HS) and Laura Zoellner (DeSoto HS) were anchors in the backcourt with Kuhlmann, and Beth Carolan was a stalwart at forward, averaging nine rebounds a game. The pieces were all in place.
As the buzzer sounded at Principia, many emotions came forth. “I felt like the weight of the entire basketball program was lifted from our shoulders. We had all put so much pressure on ourselves to win that once it finally happen we could breathe a collective sigh of relief…we all screamed, hollered, laughed and cried for a long time,” Kuhlmann recalled. Rausch added, “It was a relief. I remember being so proud to play on a team with those girls, too.”
Rausch gives a lot of credit to Kriewell and Ott for their part. “In the previous season, Randy & Harold pulled together a group of girls, most of who hadn't played past their high school JV team, and did everything in their power to make us basketball players. We never had enough to scrimmage and sometimes practiced against the boys (team) or Randy's & Harold's friends. We practiced late at night at Nerinx Hall because we didn't have a gym. So that first win was a bigger deal than most people understood. It was a great reward.”
The team would go on to win three more games in 1990-91, ending the season with a 4-6 mark for its final 10 games. Webster won four games also in 1991-92 before experiencing its first winning season in 1992-93, with a 13-9 record. The program suffered through several more losing seasons before blossoming upon the arrival of head coach Ryan Barke in 1999, culminating in a ‘Sweet Sixteen’ NCAA III tournament appearance in 2002.
After posting a 41-174 record in its first 12 years of existence, the women’s basketball program jumped to 168-142 in its second 12 years. Under current head coach Jordan Olufson, Webster has once again become a top tier women’s team in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, finishing at 17-9 last season. But a group of 12 women can look back and know they helped start the program down the road to legitimacy 20 years ago, on a cold January night in Elsah, IL.
