An only child, Nunnelly looks back on her childhood days in Hueytown.
“It was a great place to grow up, and I loved it,” she says. “My mom was 36 and my dad was 41 when I was born. They were a little stricter on me compared to what my friends’ parents were. Later, I realized how important that was to me.”
During this time, there were no interscholastic school sports for girls in the state. Nunnelly played sports in friends’ backyards, and they would gather in vacant lots for a neighborhood game. Her dad took her to watch the Barons baseball games at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.
“He was a great amateur baseball player,” she says. “He taught me not only the game of baseball, but also about football, basketball and softball. It was not just the techniques and skills, but player positions, strategy of the game and how to keep score. It was everything you need to know about a sport.
“Dad only had an eighth-grade education. He worked as a construction engineer with the crew that built the now famous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. He always talked about those ‘Georgia Tech engineers’ not knowing what they were doing and that he had to teach them. I wouldn’t take anything for that time together.”
When Nunnelly came to Auburn University in 1966, her roommate was a good friend growing up even though they attended different elementary schools. They became close in junior high school when they were both in the band. Her name was Susan Rhodes.
“In our freshmen dorm, Alumni Hall, you had an intercom in your room to get messages from the desk girls who answered the phone,” says Nunnelly. “If you had a phone call, you went down the hall to the ironing room to answer one of the two extensions. They would buzz our room and say, ‘Susan has a call on line one.’ If I went down the hall, it was for her or if she went, it was for me.
“Finally, the desk girls said they were just going to say Rhodes or Nun. Then everybody in the dorm started calling us Rhodes and Nun, and we have been called those names ever since.”
Nun graduated from Auburn in 1970 and received her master’s degree in 1972, the same year of the Title IX. It stated any extracurricular activities in education offered for boys had to be offered for girls as well. That opened the door for girls and women to play school sports.
“We were fortunate at that time. Auburn’s Athletic Director Lee Haley supported the fact that women’s sports were important,” says Nun. “I really felt like Auburn was a leader across the Southeastern Conference. Auburn did things Coach Haley was willing to do for our women student athletes that a lot of athletic directors did not want to do. He was very open to doing the right thing. Physical education, recreation, and athletics shared, scheduled and used all the campus sport facilities.”
At the time, Nun was an adjunct instructor and officiated women’s college volleyball and basketball. Sandra Newkirk, the first women’s athletic director, was her mentor and faculty advisor.
“When each of her seniors graduated, she gave us a rock with the words painted on it that says, ‘To win the game is great, to play the game is greater, but to love the game is greatest.’ I have always been grateful for it, and it still sits on my desk 56 years later.”
Nun was teaching when Coach Aletha Bond decided to return to fulltime teaching and asked her if she would be interested in coaching the women’s basketball team. Nun coached from 1973 until 1976. She retired from coaching and returned to full-time teaching, then became assistant director of Recreational Services in 1976 and director of Campus Recreation in 1984.
When Nun retired from coaching, she became the public address announcer for AU Women’s Basketball. She served as the announcer for the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament for more than 40 years.
Nun also served as a member of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee and became the first Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Officials coordinator in 1983. Every NCAA conference now has coordinators who assign officials to the games. Many on Nun’s officiating team are now coordinators.
She has been involved in many ways to support women’s athletics as well as giving back to the university. She served as faculty advisor to the AU Cheerleaders from 1989 to 2004 and has been a member of the Camp War Eagle Staff since 1994 with “Fun with the Nun” at each session.
Nun has also received many honors and awards, including one of three Auburn women recognized as SEC Trailblazers on the 50th anniversary of Title IX. In January 2008, Nun was awarded the title, director emerita Campus Recreation.
Currently, she is teaching the “Art of Sports Officiating” course in the School of Kinesiology. She invites speakers who have been or are currently officials or involved in officiating. Members of the table crew and sideline chain crew also speak to her class.
“With everything going on in officiating and sports,” she says, “we don’t lack anything to talk about. The students bring it up on YouTube, we watch what happens and then discuss the pros and cons of the action taken.
“It is unfortunate now that the younger generation does not want to get into officiating,” she adds. “They have grown up playing sports and listening to their parents yelling and screaming at officials. It is not an environment they want to pursue. If they played and loved the game, I think they would enjoy officiating the game.”
Since officials are now able to watch videos of plays, she feels it is easier to train officials and easier to learn how to officiate.
“You have to be mentally, physically and emotionally ready for officiating,” she says, “if you are going to do a good job.”
Nun expresses her disappointment with the NIL.
“I hope in the near future, the NCAA, conference commissioners, and athletic directors will evaluate and determine the best way to distribute NIL money equally and fairly to every athlete,” she says. “It is important for student athletes to be committed to their team, their coaches and their school. I am disappointed in the way things are going now, and I hope there will be a turnaround soon.”
As in more than 50 years ago, Nun still loves the game, and the game of life, as a five-year cancer survivor.
“My dad and mom were big Auburn fans and so excited that I was coming to Auburn” she says. “I hate that my dad didn’t live long enough to see me graduate. Dad passed away the summer before my junior year in college. Then Mom passed away in 1976.
“I still enjoy teaching and am glad to be doing that in the School of Kinesiology. I have been very fortunate and blessed. I thank the Lord every day for putting me where I am today.
“War Eagle! It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger!”
