The phone call was a surprise.
Sandra Petway was going to have a couple of visitors at her Florida home she was told last week — Rutgers men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell and athletics director Pat Hobbs.
And the first call she made was to a reporter.
“My thought was when a parent or an athlete sees a picture in the newspaper of Pat and Steve and how they’re empathetic in coming to visit one of their former coaches like me, it’s going to be good for recruiting,” she said.
Pikiell, fresh off leading the Scarlet Knights to their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance last month, laughed at her motivation.
“Once a coach, always a coach,” he said.
Pikiell and Hobbs were in Florida for an alumni relations trip, but carved out two hours Wednesday for a face-to-face meeting with Petway, who broke the color barrier for Black coaches at Rutgers in 1974 when she helped launch the women’s track and field program.
Petway was involved in a head-on automobile collision in July 2021, suffering C5 and C6 vertebrae fractures and a spinal cord injury. She is paralyzed below the waist, but maintains an inspirational spirit that is contagious.
“She’s such an amazing woman,” Hobbs said. “Her strength of spirit is so amazing and admirable, and she’s just diehard Rutgers. When we got there to her garage, it was decorated Rutgers, top to bottom. She follows the program, follows everything on the website.
“She’s an inspiration.”
NJ Advance Media detailed Petway’s groundbreaking story in July 2021, just a few weeks before the car crash. Rutgers officials planned to honor her achievements last fall at a football game, but tragedy struck the day Hobbs expected to deliver the message.
Petway was on her way to a bible study class near her home in Venice, Florida, when Hobbs’ assistant called. She vowed to call back that night.
But the collision occurred on her way home.
Petway spent weeks at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and then months in rehab. The former Trenton State College women’s track star returned to her Venice home only last month.
“As a former athlete, you learn to push through to make yourself stronger and get back to as much health as you can,” she said. “With God’s help, I won’t do it alone.
“God is pulling me through, and I’m fortunate I came through the accident with no brain injury and I can talk — boy, can I talk — and I can feed myself and brush my teeth.”
Rutgers officials notified Petway last week that they would be honoring her in a different way than they planned last fall.
The coaching pioneer will be inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame this October.
“For me, it’s an amazing honor to be recognized as a Hall of Famer with all of the former coaches at Rutgers,” she said.
Hobbs called the honor “long overdue.”
“That’s part of our challenge in not having our whole (Rutgers athletics) history in a readily available place, which we’re going to remedy,” Hobbs said. “She’s absolutely deserving, and it’s something that she is looking forward to. She already said that she’s going to be there. It’s a big moment for her, and it’s a moment that I think will be just as meaningful for Rutgers.”
After receiving word that Hobbs and Pikiell would be visiting Wednesday, Petway asked if she could invite other members of the Rutgers alumni club of Sarasota/Manatee for the meet-and-greet.
“She’s part of the alumni association down here, so there’s Rutgers people around her all the time,” Pikell said. “They have watch parties. They’re following all the sports. What’s great about Rutgers is the people — I’ve always said that — and I saw that today.
“I just smile because I said I’d like to recruit people with her passion and her spirit and her joy. I was kind of blown away by how happy she is even through some tough times. There’s Rutgers ‘R’s’ everywhere in her garage. The floor is painted red, and she’s in her Rutgers gear. The history she knows at Rutgers and the spirit that she’s attacking her health with now is unbelievable. A typical coach — tough-minded, resilient, funny. A great few hours.”
Debra Williams, the president of the 290-person club based on Florida’s Gulf Coast, called Petway “one of Rutgers’ biggest supporters.”
“Sandee is 150% Rutgers, and I’m just delighted that she’s getting her recognition because she certainly deserves it,” Williams said. “She’s got an inner drive that we could all take a lesson from. She’s a fabulous role model because she has been through a lot and I’ve never heard her complain. I’m sure she has her moments, but I have never seen her be anything but positive. She’s truly inspirational.”
Petway was just 23 years old in September 1973 when Rutgers hired her to teach in the physical education department. The Vineland native had just graduated from Trenton State College, where she started a women’s track and field program a few years before. It didn’t take long for Petway to hang a few fliers in the university’s student center in an attempt to start a program at Rutgers.
By June 1974, then-Rutgers athletics director Fred Gruninger announced the formation of a women’s varsity program, naming head coaches for the fledgling basketball, softball and track and field teams.
Petway’s promotion meant Rutgers would have its first Black head coach in any sport. Petway, whose Rutgers teams won several titles while setting individual records that still stand, left in 1980 to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry.
Throughout her tenure as coach, her recruiting philosophy was simple: “We wanted the best athletes New Jersey had to offer,” she told NJ Advance Media last year.
And her recruiting approach was more simple.
“My technique was to call the mother‚” Petway said. “I know things have changed now, but I would speak to the mothers because I knew the mothers really made the decisions with their children. If I could convince the mother, then I knew I could get the athlete.”
Pikiell smiled Wednesday when hearing about Petway’s recruiting philosophy.
“Things really haven’t changed,” he said. “She was ahead of her time with that philosophy. It’s still the mother, and she’s 100% right.”
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Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com.
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