Jim and Nancy Crawley were trailblazers at Frostburg State University for more than 30 years, and their legacy will live on for years to come.
The pair arrived in Frostburg in 1968 from Lynchburg, Virginia, and they dedicated their lives to serving thousands of student athletes coaching several sports at the university.
Both were inducted to the Bobcats’ Hall of Fame in the process. Jim in 1997 and Nancy in ‘99.
It’s unsurprising, then, that the inseparable couple was inseparable later in life, and beyond life. Nancy passed away on July 4, and Jim died on July 31.
When they left the world, they left a very different Frostburg State athletic department in comparison to the one they arrived to some 56 years ago.
Their association with the university began when Jim accepted the head football coaching position at what was then Frostburg College. Part of the gig included teaching physical education and sports activities class.
Oh, and heading the men’s basketball program.
Coaching had always been a goal of Jim’s, who realized his life’s calling as fifth-grade manager at his high school’s football team.
His coaching mission was sidetracked by another mission, as he spent four years in the Air Force after high school, including a stint in North Africa. He played football and boxed overseas.
He then attended Lynchburg College, where his future wife was competing in seemingly every sport the school had to offer.
Nancy was the first student athlete, male or female, to receive 12 varsity letters at Lynchburg, and she was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1986.
After Jim finished graduate school at Vanderbilt, he was hired by Frostburg Athletic Director Harold Cordts. Little did Cordts know, he was getting a package deal.
Jim spent seven years coaching the football team compiling a 33-28-3 record, and he coached 17 Frostburg Hall of Famers. That list includes Bob Maddox, who was drafted by the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals in 1972.
His crowning achievement, however, was building the school’s women’s basketball squad into national relevance.
After taking over the program in 1978, Jim established a 406-188 record, which included 20 consecutive winning seasons. He had eight 20-win seasons.
He guided Frostburg to six NCAA Division 3 tournament appearances, two Sweet 16 trips and seven conference titles.
Frostburg has hosted an in-season women’s basketball competition, the Jim Crawley Tournament, for more than two decades.
With his 24-23 record in two seasons coaching the men’s basketball squad, Jim is matched with Gimp Carrington as the only FSU coaches to have winning career records in three sports.
Nancy, meanwhile, built the women’s tennis program from the ground up.
She began her time at the university by coaching a club tennis team and teaching in the Physical Education department. She is credited with ushering in swimming courses at FSU, teaching them at the Cumberland YMCA as Frostburg didn’t have a pool at the time.
Nancy started the tennis program in 1969 as a club sport when her students expressed interest, and it elevated to varsity status in 1971.
Over the next 23 years, Nancy’s tennis teams amassed a 172-108-1 record. She later coached volleyball for two years in 1996-97, and the team’s 1997 record of 32-8 was one of the program’s greatest seasons.
Nancy fittingly finished her coaching career assisting Jim with the women’s basketball team.
And the impactful duo remained together until their retirement in 2004, and they remained together later in life, and in death.
Their legacy at Frostburg State lives on.