Leader of the pack

Shopping for undergarments for football coaches whose luggage was lost on a road trip isn’t part of the equipment manager’s job description.

But delivering the new duds in Victoria’s Secret bags is pure Ginny Knox.

That is why Eastern Washington University coaches and athletes will miss Knox when she leaves at the end of the school year.

“I know how lucky we have been,” Eagles football coach Paul Wulff said. “It’s one of those deals, you just kind of bite your lip and wish you could have her forever. I’ve always said that, she is the absolute best part of our program.”

Though Knox is responsible for equipment, uniforms and facilities for all 14 of Eastern’s NCAA programs, she is one of only two females directly in change of a football program.

“I never thought about it, I was just doing a job,” said Knox, who just finished her 17th season with the Eagles football team. “To be honest, I still don’t think (it’s that big of a deal.) It’s no different that a man doing women’s volleyball or basketball.”

Knox is leaving because her husband Paul, a master sergeant in the Air Force, is being transferred to Hawaii.

Knox had no intention of sticking around after she earned a degree in recreation management in 1987 and got married.

“I was hoping Paul would get a job overseas and I would get a job in a youth center on base,” she said.

That would have been quite the experience for a girl from Wilson Creek, a bump in the road 30 miles north of Moses Lake where her father was manager of the grain elevator, her mother worked in the grocery store and she was one of eight in the Class of ‘82.

Though she was involved in every aspect of school, she was quite an athlete, playing volleyball, basketball and running track before going to Spokane Falls Community College to play basketball.

To say Knox’s life revolves around sports is an understatement, especially once she became Eastern’s assistant equipment manager in 1989.

Close friends Janet Skaife and Annette Pedersen said Knox knows sports inside out, from trivia to game knowledge – from how to battle a more athletic opponent to making the best chicken wings to eat while watching games. Other stories, such as city league basketball wars, they knew couldn’t be printed.

The three have won Hoopfest nine or 10 times, but Knox is the only one to never miss – perhaps because she is the only one without children. She also plays various intramurals at Eastern and for a few years played on a women’s hockey team.

Knox became the head equipment manager when Kerry Pease replaced retiring Ron Sperber as Sports and Recreation Center Director in 2000.

By then the transition was smooth. Knox had earned her stripes early, lugging 35 equipment bags and 100 pound trunks on football road trips.

“I loaded everything on the bus by myself, in a dress,” she said. “I didn’t ask for help, I wasn’t about to ask for help. I just thought it was part of the job. I had to pay my dues. I had to earn my respect.”

The respect is obvious as players and coaches are now quick to lend a hand without being asked. “Athletes like us, because when they come see us it’s like Christmas. They get a whole bag of equipment,” Knox said. “There are ways we can be nicer to some people than others.”

She didn’t call football harder to work than other sports, but it is the most time-consuming one – except for the logistics of track and field, because that is the only one that requires the equipment manager and one of the 17 student assistants to travel.

“She does everything for us,” Wulff said. “She is one of those people that has been the glue for our whole football program. … It’s very demanding, very time consuming for her. No one works harder from start to finish on a trip than her. She is the person behind the scenes that makes it smooth for all the coaches and the players.”

Usually the two managers alternate road trips, but Knox, who has become a fanatical football fan, took every trip on her last season.

“There are a lot of athletes and coaches to take care of but a lot are the same needs,” she said. “In track, everything is different and is just about as time consuming. Football is more about people, track is more about equipment. … I don’t like dealing with track equipment.”

Track coach Stan Kerr understands – and appreciates her knowledge.

“All equipment orders go across her desk,” he said. “In track we have 80 to 90 athletes. Like shoes, in football she has those numbers but they’re all football shoes. We have a variety of specialty shoes (for men and women). … Then there is the equipment itself.”

That means knowing specs for javelins, the difference between an indoor and outdoor shot put, the indoor weight versus the hammer, and setting up pits for high jump and pole vault, indoors and out.

“It spreads her staff pretty thin,” Kerr said. “She deals with all that effortlessly. … She’s very involved with the department and the university. She’s a great colleague.”

It’s that kind of respect that interim athletic director and former volleyball coach Pam Parks knows is going to be difficult to replace.

“What a great role model for women she is,” Parks said. “She’s a woman as a Division I equipment manager and a manager for a male-dominated sport like football. She’s just the best. That says so much about the kind of professional she is. … I want her to understand how extremely valuable she is to us. I can’t even put it into words.”

Knox said the Eastern coaches are easy to work with.

“If they come from a smaller school, they appreciate everything you do for them,” she said. “If they come from a bigger school, they have expectations about what we should do for them. I can’t think of any coach that was difficult to work with, with one exception.”

She wouldn’t name names, just like she couldn’t – or wouldn’t – pick favorite athletes.

She can, however, pinpoint the reason she loves her job.

“I won’t miss the facilities part of it. I’m really going to miss the people,” she said. “I think, because of the age group I work with, my favorite part of the job is watching a kid come in as a freshman – shy, quiet, not very confident – and grow into an adult. That’s especially true with the kids that work for me.”