Until she was 12 years old, the age when it must have first become apparent to her that this strange no-girls-on-the-Cubs-roster phenomenon might be the rule rather than exception, Marj figured to play shortstop for the team when Banks retired. And should he remain an active major leaguer, she'd just outplay him for the position. For Marj, then 
and now, no statement better captures the sheer joy of athletic competition than her hero's famous quip: “It's a good day for a ball game; let's play two!” She has dedicated a long career to ensuring that joy is available to all girls and women.
In her capacity as Co-CEO and Chief Program and Planning Officer of the Women's Sports Foundation, Marj once met Banks and found the hall-of-fame player to be as fine a human being as he was a baseball player. That discovery mattered a great deal. After all, Marj chose Kalamazoo College for the quality of its liberal arts education, for the role it would play in her development as a person rather than an athlete.
So what's amiss?
Simply this: that there weren't more female athletes (and opportunities for them) to be role models for girls growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.
Marj didn't know it during those decades, but Kalamazoo College's Tish Loveless was working on the problem. Tish came to Kalamazoo College in 1953, the year Marj was born. Tish retired from coaching and teaching at the College 33 years later.
The number of women's sports at “K” in 1953? Zero.
Not for long. Tish started (or, in some cases, rejuvenated) them, one by one, beginning with tennis, field hockey, archery, and swimming. By the time that Marj matriculated in 1971, nearly two decades of the courage and hard work of pioneers like Tish had opened opportunities for Hornet female athletes. So Marj could say, “Let's play four.” As in: swimming, basketball, tennis, and field hockey. (Marj is arguably the best female athlete in the College's history; she's certainly the most versatile).
She and Tish and Marj's classmate and friend, Faye Tomaszewski, invented Hornet women's basketball. Tish, who was coaching tennis and field hockey and managing the women's physical education department for the entire college, agreed to Marj's repeated entreaties to assume yet another coaching responsibility on two conditions: hoops practices with the coach would be limited to twice a week (the team would practice on its own the other days); and Marj would be responsible for recruiting, which meant scouring the residence halls to fill out the roster. Done! Marj and Faye barnstormed the dorms, and Tish consulted colleagues for a crash course in coaching basketball. The first season was five games, and the neophyte Hornets, playing in converted field hockey uniforms, posted two wins and three losses. Such were the origin stories of female collegiate sports before Title IX. They depended entirely on the passion, pluck, and hard work of people like Marj and Tish.
What seemed to be innate in both women was the realization, perhaps subconscious, that extending the opportunity of sport to all persons who wanted to play is vital to all persons, period. Participation in collegiate athletics strengthens concentration and will and inspires confidence. These elements of success are portable, and ex-athletes accomplish great achievements in far more fields than playing fields. Marj and Tish are examples.
Marj earned a Ph.D. in the psychology of human movement (Temple University) and has authored papers, book chapters, and research reports on women in sport. She's presented at conferences throughout the country and internationally. She's coached women's basketball and field hockey at Kalamazoo College and Hope College as well as tennis at the latter. She developed and directs the GoGirlGo! Project, which, in its last five years, has provided more than 600,000 girls with tools to help them deal effectively with health-risk behaviors. GoGirlGo! also has awarded more than $2 million in grants to girls' sports and physical activity programs. Sport is more than sport; it's art. “There is something incredibly powerful about being able to do something with your body, control it, make something happen,” explains Marj. “There is also this thrill: you're in the heat of the competition, in the moment, and something happens and you respond to it. Sometimes you don't know where that comes from. But it just does. And it's art! When you step on the field or the court or jump in the pool you have an opportunity to create something. Everyone should have that opportunity. Girls haven't always had that opportunity. So I just want to make sure they do.”
Marj's pantheon of sports heroes today is larger and more diverse, in part because of the tireless efforts of people like herself and Tish. Men remain: Ernie Banks, and her father, who encouraged her to play throughout elementary, junior high, and high school, times when female athletes were often stigmatized by their peers. But decades of courage and work have put many great women there: tennis greats Billie Jean King and Althea Gibson; soccer stars Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy; and, perhaps most importantly, Coach Tish Loveless.
