Some of us were born to be leaders – to accomplish great things despite adversity along the way. One of these great “leaders” is a woman well known on the Prairie View A&M University campus; Barbara Jacket, a member of the Panther women’s coaching staff since 1964. She began by coaching swimming, and a couple of years later, organized the first campus women’s track team, not only is she credited with a long tenure of coaching and teaching, but for her success as the head coach for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Women’s Track and Field team.
Great accomplishments in today’s society are always recognized, and the media have made it possible for Jacket to receive her share of accolades. The first was in an autobiographical inclusion in Twenty Two Texas Women, authored by mother and daughter team Michele and Barbara Bennett; and then followed by a more extensive feature in Texas Wise Women Speak by B.J. Pierce. The Austin-based author included Jacket’s story among other famous women, including Liz Carpenter, Wilhelmina Delco, Linda Ellerbee, Juliet Villarreal Garza, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Barbara Jordan and others. However, a new book featuring Jacket, and exclusively detailing her personal and professional life, should be in print by next year.
What propels a woman like Jacket to excel despite the hardships of poverty in her childhood Port Arthur homestead, and the prejudices concerning race, which were so proliferate in the 1950s and 1960s in regard to minorities? Also, the women’s sports segment was very “unbalanced” with no gender equality. It was a male sports-oriented world and if a female wanted to compete in track, swimming or basketball, it just didn’t happen. In fact, when the Prairie View A&M gymnasium was built in 1964, it didn’t even include dressing facilities for women. And what about scholarships for female athletes? That was an impossibility until Title IX legislation forced the sports elitists to offer scholarships and accommodate facilities for women’s sports, according to Jacket.
A fierce sense of competition was the factor that instigated Jacket to overcome race and gender biases, which resulted in her “claim to fame,” as a child, and then later as head coach for the 1992 Olympic Women’s Track and Field team. Her women’s sports program at PVAMU, of course, extended her competitive spirit and she began to receive coaching positions in international competition through her determination to make her players “winners.” Then only a decade later, came the Pan American games and world championships.
“I was born wanting to compete…it was in my blood then and still is, although now it is directed toward my physical education and coaching students,” said Jacket.
However, sports competition isn’t the only word in Jacket’s repertoire, but the importance of academics and using one’s talents to succeed in life is high on her priority list. With a hint of a smile, but a gleam in her eye, Jacket is always ready to convey her philosophy for those who want to hear it: “When I see kids who have potential that they aren’t developing, I raise hell with them. I push them to do what they are capable of.”
Jacket’s former students can attest to their coach’s firm belief in self-discipline and exhibiting respect for themselves and others.
“Coach Jacket is one of a kind. She expects no more from her students than what she would be willing to give. I really like her and what she stands for. She expects our best, which has made me a better person,” said Billie Holstein, a teaching candidate in the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education at PVAMU.
However, Jacket is elated that many other people who helped chart her life such as family members and former Olympic students, including track star Mary Miller (now Mary Miller Young), will also have a place in the upcoming book. “B.J. (Pierce) is going to great lengths to interview all those people who have been so important in my life,” she concludes, then smiles that beguiling smile.
As a former student myself, I would have to say it (her smile) is her best feature, and surely reveals that beneath all that outward dignity and tenacity, there also resides a very active sense of humor, as well.