PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2023

Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame’s first female inductee. She also was among the first members of the national Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. “I think that she was the best all-around coach and the best-respected coach at her level, not just in Illinois but the whole nation at that time,” said now-Princeville High coach Gross, whose résumé includes a state title at Richwoods and runner-up finish at Limestone. “She had a heck of a run,” Gross said. “She’s just a great lady.” TRANSCENDING SPORTS Athletics alone don’t define Ramsey, although they’re what brought her to prominence. Ramsey said she’s active in an investment club and at Washington Christian Church, among other pursuits. “People think she’s all sports driven, but she also loves different things,” Koch said. “She loves movies. She loves going to plays. She loves experiencing different things, and she’s a Christian. “When she retired, I think a lot of people were worried that she would miss it, and she does. But she keeps in touch with all the girls. And that’s why she coached. It was the relation ships with the student-athletes that she cherished the most.” All in all, not at all bad for a rural Missouri kid who at one time might not have aspired to be more than a decent softball pitcher. Ramsey said she hasn’t given her legacy much thought. But it appears Koch has. “I think her legacy is just like Title IX: She wanted to offer girls opportunities that they normally would not have,” Koch said. “I feel like she’s still doing that. Her legacy is living on through the girls she has coached.”

Lorene Ramsey, third from the right, was a star softball pitcher with the Pekin Lettes. She is pictured here with some of her teammates and coaches

Ramsey was quick to share credit. She cited Richard Bales, the ICC administrator who initially supervised her. Only eight women tried out for Ramsey’s first basketball squad, prompting her to tell Bales that “probably we shouldn’t have women’s basketball this year. “He said, ‘Oh, we’ll have women’s basketball,’” Ramsey recalled. “‘Whatever you need, get it.’ This was my second year at ICC, and I saw their attitude toward women was very good.” ‘SHE WANTED TO OFFER GIRLS OPPORTUNITIES THAT THEY NORMALLY WOULDN’T HAVE’ — Tonya Gilles Koch That was part of the reason Ramsey never left ICC, although Bradley and Illinois were among the four-year colleges that offered her basketball coaching jobs. But Ramsey would have to give up softball, which for her was a non-starter. Not only that, but the Peoria area had become home, as had ICC. “I liked the kids I was getting. I had a lot of friends,” Ramsey said. “There really wasn’t any reason I felt I wanted

to move. I thoroughly enjoyed my career at ICC. I mean this when I say it: I think we have the best community college in the United States. The facilities are terrific.” Said Koch: “We were her family. I feel like she probably would have made a lot more money going somewhere else, and she had a lot of offers. But she did not want to leave this area and the support and the recognition that the girls got.” THE HONORS FLOW Ramsey received a lot of recognition on national and international levels, too. Working from East Peoria did not prove a hindrance in that regard. “Throughout her time coaching for ICC, Lorene inspired hundreds of female athletes and put ICC on the national map for athletic excellence,” Quirk-Bailey stated. Ramsey was an assistant coach on the U.S. softball team that won gold in the 1979 Pan-American Games in Puerto Rico. Two years later, she was an assistant coach on the U.S. women’s basketball team that was runner-up at the World University Games in Romania. At least 10 halls of fame include Ramsey as a member. She was the

Nick Vlahos is a longtime Peoria print journalist and regular contributor to Peoria Magazine

46 JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE

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