SALEM — To mark the 40th anniversary of the Salem State women’s basketball team’s winning the university’s only national championship, the Vikings will be honored during the institution’s Winter Homecoming celebration on January 24, the school has announced.
Salem State will also recognize former women’s coach Tim Shea’s induction into the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Hall of Fame.
But the main focus that afternoon will be on the ’86 women’s team that posted a school record 29-1 mark and won the NCAA crown, with its only blemish being a loss to Bridgewater State at the end of the regular season, snapping a 24-game win skein leading into the NCAA tournament.
“We’d had strong, successful teams leading up to ’86,” the 75-year-old Shea recalled. “We knew that ’86 team, with lots of veterans, had the potential to go a long way. We’d lost in the Final Four semifinals when most of them were sophomores in ’84. Then they lost in the Elite Eight (national quarterfinal round) when they were juniors. We didn’t need any more incentive than that come ‘86.”
The ’86 roster was accented with North Shore high school standouts who jelled into an extraordinary group of college players with their teammates, molded by Shea and his assistant, Charlie Maihos,
That team boasted an all-Salem High-graduate backcourt in starters Beth Kapnis and Evie Oquendo and third guard Holly Brennan. Swampscott’s Janet Miller was a reliable backup forward who came off the bench, along with Salem’s Trish O’Brien and Maureen Honan.
The other vital starters were Mary Dee Brown, Ann Breitenwisher and Barbara Tourville.
“The whole ‘86 team was from Massachusetts,” Shea, Salem-born-and-bred, said proudly.
The road to an eventual title
The Lady Vikings (as they were then known), led by the All-American Oquendo, overcame an early 12-point deficit in its nail-biting 89-85 national championship game triumph over Bishop College of Dallas in a packed O’Keefe Center on the Salem State campus.
That victory was the culmination of a brilliant evolution of the program by Shea, who had taken over as coach for the 1981-82 season after coaching the Salem High girls for three years and posting an astonishing 70-3 mark. His 1979-80 Witches, led by All-Scholastic Marie Grant and Oquendo, won the Division1 state title with a history-making 27-0 record.
Shea made the transition from high school to college basketball look natural. His first Lady Viking team tied for the MASCAC championship with Boston State, but lost the playoff title game.
The 1983 squad reached the NCAAs for the first time and beat Northeast Regional No. 1 seed Eastern Connecticut, 59-58, in Willimantic, Conn., on a Mary Dee Brown buzzer-beating putback, then lost their next game.
The ’84 team reached its first Division 3 Final Four, winning a then-school record 24 games in a row before losing the semifinal round to Elizabethtown in Scranton, Penn.
The ’85 team advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight before losing to eventual champion Scranton, 85-59.
“We’d gotten much more than a taste of what it took to win the big prize,” Shea observed, “and we were ready the following year. We were No. 1 in the national Division 3 rankings all season. We had plenty to prove in the NCAAs — and the ladies were up to the challenge.”
Looking back fondly
The program continued its sensational winning ways after the ’86 NCAA title, even with the bulk of the roster graduating that spring.
Shea compiled a stunning 649-197 record in 30 years as head coach, including 26 NCAA appearances, four Final Four appearances, 22 regular season MASCAC titles and 16 MASCAC tournament titles.
“We had a great run of talent over the years, but the talent in ’86 was obviously a notch above the other great teams we had,” Shea said. “Keep in mind we were competing with 400 Division 3 schools once the season started, so surviving the NCAAs as the favorite also took some luck and avoiding injuries that year.
“Annie was the one exception with an injured knee that required surgery after it was over. But she was a gamer and played through it the best she could. Mo (Honan) filled in for Annie most capably.”
“I was fortunate to play under Coach Shea for seven seasons of basketball, high school and college,” said Oquendo, Salem State’s flashy point guard and very first hoop All-America in ’86. “I really had not given much thought about going to college, but Coach Shea talked me into it, thankfully.”
Oquendo, Salem State’s all-time leading women’s scorer with 1,738 points as well as tops in steals (389), is in her 20th year as a physical education teacher at Salem’s Collins Middle School.
“Our ’86 team was determined to achieve something big after our runs in ’84 and ’85,” Oquendo remembered. “We had a lot of leaders on the ’86 team, and every player on the team, 1-through-14, made a big contribution, whether it was in practice or in the games.
“I can’t believe it’s been 40 years,” added Kapnis, who is in her 31st year teaching phys ed at the Wilmington Middle School. “I’ll never forget the friendships and the winning. As a group we had good vibes among us, a fierce competitive spirit. We practiced hard and played hard — and it all paid off.”
“We all loved playing the game in an unselfish way, simple as that,” said Brown, who just retired after teaching 31 years (with some assistant coaching of the girls’ hoop team) at her alma mater, Douglas High. She is one of four career 1,000-point players who were on the ’86 team along with Oquendo, O’Brien and Tourville.
“We sacrificed. We all got along on the floor and off. We made friendships for life, too.”
‘Driven to win’
“Everyone on that team was driven to win,” noted O’Brien, a Dorchester native who had transferred in from Franklin Pierce. “We were competitive to the max in practices and games. We all had exceptional focus, pointing to winning as a team.”
O’Brien, in her 10th year as City of Salem’s Superintendent of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, enjoyed an impressive college coaching career, serving at one time as head women’s hoop coach at Rivier, Colby, MIT and Framingham State before settling back in Salem.
She described the atmosphere in the O’Keefe Center during the Final 4 as “electric. Our fans packed the place, and they knew we were special. I’m glad we didn’t let them down.”
Salem State University President John Keenan lauded the 1986 squad in stating, “I continue to be inspired by the incredible journey that lifted our women’s basketball team to the national championship.”
He called Shea’s induction into the MASCAC Hall of Fame “a fitting tribute to his extraordinary career. His legacy of leadership and achievement will continue to inspire Salem State and the broader community for generations.”