When Colgate Volleyball secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament in 1996, Victoria Chun '91, MA '94 and her assistant coaches went out to celebrate.
 
The revelry turned into a bigger event than she had planned. 
 
They brought the Patriot League championship trophy with them to a restaurant in downtown Hamilton. It was then that Chun, the head coach, found her players doing their own celebrating at a nearby establishment. 
 
The players insisted the coaches join them. 
 
"It was absolutely amazing," Chun said. "The players called us over. We brought the trophy with us. Then the most unbelievable thing happened. My team lifted me up, which freaked me out because I thought they wouldn't have the strength to do that. We sang the Colgate fight song."
 
The team was celebrating an enormous milestone in Colgate Athletics. Not only did the volleyball team clinch its first trip to the NCAA Tournament, it was the first program in Colgate history to do it.
 
Guiding the Raiders on their historic run was Chun, one of the most influential figures in maroon and white. Whether as a student-athlete, coach, or administrator, Chun was a pioneer for women in higher education.
 
Years later, she became the first Asian American woman athletic director in NCAA Division I history when she was named Colgate's Vice President and Director of Athletics. Now at Yale, she made history again as the institution's first woman and first Asian American to serve as its athletics director.


 
By helping to set a foundation for the success of women at Colgate, Chun and four others were named Trailblazers of Distinction in September. 
 
The recognition was given to women who were impactful leaders at Colgate during the Title IX era. 

As the push to eliminate injustice and inequity spread across the U.S. in the 1960s, gender barriers were gradually eradicated. At college campuses, campaigns for coeducation were underway. 

The effort received an enormous boost in 1972 when President Nixon signed the Title IX bill, which protected people from being subjected to discrimination on the basis of gender at any educational program or activity that received federal money.
 
Colgate, which fully supported Title IX, had become a coed university in 1970. When the first class of women arrived for the fall semester, they quickly launched their own club sports. They wasted no time in pushing for varsity status. 

They got their wish in 1973, when basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, swim and dive, tennis, and volleyball became varsity programs.

The first coed class featured 214 women. By 1973, the total surged to 600, and it continued to grow. With enormous support from students and faculty, Colgate lifted a cap on the number of women who could enroll.

More women were hired as faculty. More women took on leadership positions and established campus organizations. Slowly they made their presence known. 

As more women enrolled at Colgate, the athletic department grew as well.  
 
Today, as Colgate celebrates 50 years of women's sports, 13 of the 25 varsity sports are women's teams. Women make up nearly half of all Colgate student-athletes. 
 
Despite the many significant achievements of women in collegiate athletics, the "firsts" for women in sports are still not part of the past. 
 
Chun wants to see that change. 
 
"Women are still a small percentage when you look at leadership positions, like head coach and director of athletics positions," Chun said. "I think we, as a society, have a responsibility to help and support women in sports."
 
FROM CALIFORNIA TO HAMILTON
Growing up in Los Angeles, Chun wanted to attend a college in the east, following in the footsteps of her cousin, Joyce, who studied at Wellesley. 
 
While playing club volleyball in high school, Chun learned about Colgate through a teammate. Using a typewriter, Chun wrote a letter to Colgate's head volleyball coach, Janet Little, to express her interest.
 
One day, Chun was at her friend's home after school when she was surprised to learn she had a phone call. On the line was Little. 
 
"I really connected with Janet on the phone. She reminded me of my favorite high school club coach, Cindy Tokar," Chun said. "I got to meet the team on my official visit and Joellen Kelleher Wall '88 hosted an incredible visit. That was the first time I ever had wings. I had the opportunity to go to some classes. I loved the fact that all the classes were small. In one class, I got to participate."

Wishing to play Division I volleyball at a university with an exemplary academic program, Chun committed to Colgate. She studied political science and education. 
 
As a student, one of her biggest influences was Political Science Professor Robert Kraynak, who she credits as the reason why she got her degree in political science.
 
To say that Chun made the best of her Colgate experience is an understatement.
 
She excelled in the classroom and became a volleyball star, earning Patriot League Player of the Year and First Team all-Patriot League honors. Chun was voted the team's most inspirational player twice. Today, she ranks sixth at Colgate in assists with 2,440. 
 
One of her biggest influences was Debbie Green, a 5-foot-4 California native who played in the Olympics and is regarded as the greatest American women's volleyball settler of all time.

'WE FELT LIKE WE HAD EVERYTHING WE NEEDED'
The first women's varsity sports were launched in 1973, but providing the programs with necessary resources was a slow process that was still evident when Chun arrived at Colgate, even though she and her teammates didn't notice it. 
 
Her team shared a locker room with women's basketball. Once the volleyball season concluded, the team had to empty their lockers to allow for other teams to use them.
 
Volleyball used two vans for traveling to away games, with the head coach and the student manager having to drive. The team's athletic trainer was a student who later became a physician. 

Their uniforms consisted of T-shirts with their numbers on it and "Colgate" screened on the front. The training table consisted of whatever the coaches would buy from the supermarket and put in a cooler. 
 
The resources for women's teams are vastly improved today. But when Chun was a student-athlete, her coach made sure the team didn't notice the gaps in equality.
 
"I have to hand it to my coach Janet Little," Chun said. "She never shared with us her frustrations or lack of resources, and we felt like we had everything we needed. Instead of having a pregame meal at the Colgate Inn or Seven Oaks, she would host meals at her house."

While resources were limited for her team, Chun knows that the women before her had it much tougher.

"The women in the 70s and 80s, they felt it," Chun said. "They had to do everything for themselves. For us, we didn't know what we were missing."

RISING TO A LEADER
After graduating from Colgate, Chun landed a job as an assistant volleyball coach at Cornell. She was there for the spring semester before she returned to Colgate as an assistant volleyball coach while enrolled in the Master's of Arts in History program. 
 
She took over for Little in 1994, and served as head coach for three seasons, going 67-27 with two Patriot League titles, an NCAA play-in game and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
In her final season as head coach, the team went 27-7. She led a roster that included Autumn McKenzie '97, who also became a Trailblazer of Distinction.

Chun and her players developed friendships that would last to this day.
 
"That team is one that I will never forget," Chun said. "I've never coached a group of people with so much personality. They were all so different with Colgate Volleyball being the only common denominator. That senior class was only five years younger than me. How we all came together to produce championships was amazing. How we stayed as dear friends through these years is the most rewarding."
 
After coaching the Raiders for three seasons, a stint at the NCAA national office, and serving as a commissioner for a Division III conference, she returned to Colgate as an interim assistant athletic director. Chun was promoted through the ranks eventually being named interim athletic director.

Hoping to land the role on a permanent basis, she needed the fall teams to have great seasons.
 
That's when the coaches rallied around her.
 
"I remember our football coach, women's soccer coach, and volleyball coach said to me, 'Vicky, we are going to win the Patriot League championship for you,'" Chun said.
 
"At the time, the odds weren't that great. I was very appreciative. When it came down to it, all three teams came from behind to win. I was so touched for many reasons."

Chun said she's grateful for the support she received from all corners of the Colgate community.
 
"The support and mentorship I received from the faculty and alumni was the game changer in taking the 'interim' off my title and the department finding success athletically and academically," she said. "Dan Hurwitz '86, P'17,'20, Brion Applegate '76, Mike Herling '79, P'08,'09,'12, Mark Murphy '77, Jill Harsin, Connie Harsh, Jeff Baldani, Gary Ross '77 changed my life for the better."
 
Chun has many more fond memories of her days at Colgate. They include seeing the Colgate banner among teams like Duke, Virginia and UNC at the Elite 8 tournament, where the men's lacrosse team competed. It was a moment that brought tears to her eyes. 

She also saw the women's hockey team rise to a program that battled for a national championship.
 
"To see that program go from the bottom of the NCAA to losing an OT game in the national championship was pretty amazing," she said.
 
She is honored to be a trailblazer, and thankful for her experiences at Colgate.
 
"When I think upon my days at Colgate, whether as a student-athlete, a coach or administrator, I absolutely loved my time there," she said. "It's where I cut my teeth. I wouldn't be where I am without those experiences."