Cheryl Hitchings, South Carolina's first female athletic trainer, will never say she's a legend

COLUMBIA — Even before Cheryl Hitchings was woven into women's athletic history, she witnessed it.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with an official race number and Hitchings was there watching.

Before Title IX passed on June 23, 1972 − a civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government − men dominated the world of sports, especially the athletic training space.

In 1974, two years after Title IX, Hitchings changed the standard.

Hitchings was the first woman to work as a full-time athletic trainer in South Carolina, when the University of South Carolina hired her to take care of the newly created women's varsity teams.

As Hitchings reflects 50 years later, she says she never strived to make history. That was never the plan. Hitchings said she just did what she wanted to do.

“I feel I am very lucky," Hitching told The Greenville News. "I believe in chance and I happened to be in the right place at the right time for a lot of things. I was willing to take a chance and they were willing to take a chance on me.”

Cheryl Hitchings, South Carolina's first female athletic trainer

Hitchings' story began 25 miles west of Boston, in a town called Hopkinton. Her father owned a taxi business and her mother answered the phones for the company. Her parents encouraged her to follow her dreams and her aspirations to teach brought her to the University of Massachusetts.

Hitchings continued to be a magnet to the historic firsts.

With Title IX's work, UMass had women's varsity teams but the male trainers didn't care to work for them, especially for free. UMass offered the job to students, in return for a full-time athletic trainer certification.

Hitchings was the first woman who became a certified trainer at UMass, begging for more ice, ankle braces and advocating for more supplies for the women's teams.

Once Hitchings realized collegiate athletics were her thing, she chose South Carolina’s masters program over other options, solely because she wanted more sunshine.

Roughly 900 miles away, Helen Timmerman was the first women's athletic director at South Carolina. Timmerman had a $41,000 budget and seven women's athletic teams to manage. One critical step: hiring someone to take care of the injured athletes, which is where Hitchings came along.

A shower stall turned into her office, with just a table and various supplies, Hitchings worked while completing her master's degree. For $200 a month after taxes, she ensured the self-appointed “Carolina Chicks” received proper athletic care.

“I had no idea it was historic at all, I was just doing what I wanted to do," Hitchings said.

The 12,000-seat Carolina Coliseum, the largest arena in South Carolina at the time of its completion, became a hub for athletic accomplishments.

Nicknamed, "House that Frank Built,” after legendary men's basketball coach Frank McGuire led the Gamecocks to national prominence, the Carolina Coliseum represented greatness to the community.

In 1974, the women's basketball team played there for the first time, the biggest accomplishment at the time for the program.

Only 25 people showed up for the game, but if 25 didn't, maybe the women's basketball program under coach Dawn Staley wouldn't have three national titles 50 years later.

Cheryl Hitchings, a mentor to many without a mentor for herself

Having spent her entire life on the East Coast, Hitchings a sought new life out West, applying for a job at Cal State University Los Angeles. Hitchings was an assistant basketball coach in addition to teaching and serving as an head athletic trainer from 1976-82.

“It was quite the job,” Hitchings chuckled.

That opened the door to a PhD program at Southern Cal followed by a job with the USA field hockey national team. Hitchings traveled across the world, went to Pan American Games and eventually worked two Olympics, in 1994 and 1996.

Many male trainers supported her at the time but she had few female trainers around her, and none before her to look up to.

What she lacked from mentorship, she made up in inspiring mentees.

"We always joked that Cheryl had more letters after her name than in her name," Marika Conway, a former student of Hitching said.

Conway was one of Hitchings students at Bridgewater State, where Hitchings taught for over 20 years. Her teaching career didn't delay any of her own individual progress with six different published works and multiple licenses in the field.

Hitchings was a hands-on professor, she could tape an ankle in 37 seconds.

"She was noticeably the most different of all our teachers,” Conway said. "Just so much more comprehensive, endlessly curious and a great listener, one of my favorite people of the whole experience."

Athletic training at South Carolina in 2024

Kelsey Chambers answered the phone last week from the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon. She started working at South Carolina in 2020 as the head athletic trainer for the track and field team.

Growing up an athlete, Chambers wanted to be an athletic trainer in the NFL, NHL or at the college level but her goals were met with intense skepticism.

"The athletic training world has changed dramatically in some ways but it also has stayed exactly the same in some ways,” Chambers explained.

She was told only an internship was possible but to never get her hopes up.

As she now is responsible for over 100 athletes, some wanting to be just like her, she finds herself smiling looking at the stark differences, with more mentors, more change and more women in athletic training positions.

Chambers said the staff at South Carolina is almost equal with men and women, having a more blended staff than most Division I schools.

“It has been a really positive change where the goals that young women have seem more attainable and more achievable," Chambers said.

'I don't think of myself as a legend' Cheryl Hitchings said

The 2024 NCAA women's basketball tournament set viewership records with the championship drawing 18.7 million viewers. In this boom of interest in women's sports across the country, the environment and demographics of athletics trainers is shifting as well.

Less than 1% of trainers were female when Hitchings curated her lengthy resume of accomplishments, and now nearly half are women, according to a study from Zippia.

Someone had to be the first woman to earn trust, to demand respect and to carry the weight of attending to some of the greatest athlete's injuries.

Hitchings was one of the first but she never thought of it that way.

“I don’t think of myself of ever trying to become a legend, it’s just something that happened,” Hitchings said.

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin