As Seton Hall marks 50 years of women in sports, its greatest athlete returns to campus
A few years ago, Flirtisha Harris was driving through northern New Jersey and decided to stop at her alma mater. She doesn’t get back to Seton Hall University often, and when she walked into the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletic Center, she was met by a stunning sight.
“I saw a banner hanging with my name on it,” Harris said. “It brought me to tears because I had no idea it was there.”
There was good reason for it. As a senior track & field star in 1993-94 Harris won four NCAA gold medals, placing first in the 400 meters at the indoor and outdoor national championships and anchoring the Pirates’ 4x400 relay to triumphs in both meets. Thirty years later, those accomplishments still stand alone: Harris is the only Seton Hall woman to win an NCAA individual title and the most decorated New Jersey Division 1 women’s collegian ever in terms of NCAA championships.
Now a teacher at her old high school in Maryland, Harris is returning to campus once again this weekend – but by invitation. She is among the distinguished guests at Seton Hall’s celebration of “50 Years of Women in Sports,” a daylong series of events Saturday culminating in a banquet.
“I’m very grateful and thankful for the opportunity that Seton Hall afforded me as a naïve, first-generation college student,” she said. “I’m super excited that this celebration is taking place.”
Coming out of Calvert High School in Maryland, Harris was “surprised anyone wanted me to run in college.” Title IX, which opened the doors for women to participate in college and high school sports, was less than 20 years old. Seton Hall, a longstanding power in men’s track, quickly ramped up a formidable women’s program under legendary head coach John Moon. By the mid-90s Harris was its standard-bearer. She ran 51 seconds for 400 meters, led the Pirates to two Big East team titles and in April of 1994 anchored their winning 4x400 at the Penn Relays, furnishing a blazing 50.4-second split to edge national power LSU at the tape.
“It was humbling because I was this regular little old country girl coming from a small town and doing some great things with great coaches,” she said. “I felt privileged.”
Harris went on to run professionally for a time, earning two bronze medals at the 1995 indoor world championships and a gold in the 4x400 at the 1995 Pan American Games. Then she went into teaching. She now teaches business and financial literacy courses at Calvert High and has coached field hockey, lacrosse and track at various times.
Her return to the Hall will be bittersweet in one sense; the university eliminated track & field as a cost-saving measure in 2010. It was a shocking decision made during a dark time for the athletic department under then-AD Joe Quinlan – the men’s and women’s programs had produced six Big East team titles, 118 All-Americans, eight national champions and 19 Olympians.
“That was definitely heartbreaking and disappointing,” Harris said. “All the sports made contributions to the life of the school, but track produced NCAA champions and Olympic athletes. It’s almost a rite of passage that is should be there.”
That said, she’s thrilled to come back and join Saturday's gathering of Pirate notables that includes former women’s basketball coaches Sue Regan and Phyllis Mangina, honorable mention All-American hooper Jodi Brooks, soccer great Kelly Smith and Robin Cunningham, a pioneering three-sport star who later became a renowned academic advisor for student-athletes.
“She was like the mother of all the athletes,” Harris said of Cunningham. “She loved and cared for us all.”
As Title IX turns 50, Harris’ message to the aspiring female athletes she encounters in high school today is “hold steadfast to your dreams and know that success is in the plan – you’ve had women in the past who have laid the foundation for you.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall's greatest women's athlete returns to campus
