Former Temple coach Tina Sloan Green opened doors in multiple sports. The NCAA is honoring that legacy.
The first Black college lacrosse coach, she is dedicated to providing opportunities “because I know how it is to be a person of color in an environment that’s not specifically designed for you.”
It was painful, but if you know anything about Clementine “Tina” Sloan Green — the former Temple coach who broke several barriers in field hockey and lacrosse — you know it didn’t take long for her to move from pained to planning after she was excluded from the U.S. women’s national field hockey team when it traveled to South Africa, then an apartheid state, in the 1970s.
Green was the first Black athlete named to the national field hockey team. She also was the first Black athlete on the national lacrosse team.
Now 80, Green doesn’t recall what she did instead of accompanying her teammates to South Africa, but she knows what being left behind sparked inside her.
“It was hurtful because I was playing my best field hockey,” Sloan Green said in a telephone interview this week. “But it taught me something. It made me realize that it was important for me to make sure that all kids have the opportunity to participate in all kinds of sports.”
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This week, the NCAA will bestow its highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, also known as “The Teddy,” upon Sloan Green for her lifelong commitment to creating opportunities in athletics. The award is given annually to “a distinguished citizen of national reputation and outstanding accomplishment.”
“I’m very thankful and grateful, for one thing, to be alive to receive it,” Sloan Green said. “And to share it with the people who were most important to my life: my former athletes, my family, and children, and grandchildren. That’s most precious to me.”
Sloan Green became the first Black head coach in collegiate lacrosse history when she took over at Temple in 1975. She turned the program into a powerhouse, leading the Owls to three national championships and 11 consecutive Final Four appearances. She’s been inducted into several halls of fame, including at Temple, West Chester University, the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.
Sloan Green’s success, though, transcended honors.
“The best leaders are those who prepare the next generation,” said Jazmine Smith, who founded Eyekonz field hockey and lacrosse in Philadelphia. “She’s prepared me in so many ways in the last 20 years.”
Sloan Green said her mother and father, Sally and Norwood, taught her she could achieve anything. Similar empowerment, she added, came from teachers at the Philadelphia High School for Girls.
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In her mind, Sloan Green has just been giving out what was given to her.
“That’s why the most important thing to me right now is to make sure that the next generations have the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of sports,” she said. “Because I know how it is to be a person of color in an environment that’s not specifically designed for you.”
In 1992, Sloan Green cofounded the Black Women in Sport Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing “the involvement of [Black] women and girls in all aspects of sport.”
Smith starred in basketball, lacrosse, and field hockey at Radnor High School, from which she graduated in 1995. That’s around when she met Sloan Green.
“She’s really just been my world,” Smith said, “and I’ve always made sure that our program has honored her.”
Smith started Eyekonz in 2003 to introduce lacrosse and field hockey to more children of color.
In 2022, Smith said she coaxed Sloan Green out of retirement for a day at the World Lacrosse Women’s Festival in Maryland.
Sloan Green’s legacy also extends to Harvard, where her daughter, Traci Green, has been the women’s tennis coach since 2007.
The Friends Select graduate also has her own legacy of trailblazing. She was the first Black coach to win an Ivy League title at Harvard in 2009.
In January, Green plans to become president of the Black Women in Sport Foundation.
“I am extremely proud of my mother and all that she has accomplished in her lifetime,” Green said in a phone interview.
“She’s carried this tremendous legacy of leadership and education throughout her career. So we are proud of everything she’s accomplished. And this award will definitely hold a special place in her heart and ours.”