May 17, 2001
Four of the women who have molded the IHSA Girls State Final Track Meet into the Spring Spectacular that it has become have been named Honorary Referee for 2001.
They are Paula Coker of Mattoon, Jane Davis of Chicago, Dorothy Dawson of Chicago and Mabel Holle of Lake Forest.
Paula Coker worked the finish line at the girls state meet for 23 years, first as a finish judge, then the last 22 years as head finish judge. She has been to every meet since the first one in 1973. The first time at the state meet 29 years ago she coached Mattoon High School's lone qualifier. The second year she watched as a coach. Then she became one of the many volunteers to be an official at the meet. She also has worked at the boys state meet.
She retired from teaching and coaching at Mattoon with 35 years of service. In addition, she served as the school's Girls Sports Coordinator. Paula earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Eastern Illinois University.
Jane Davis, who has served as president of the Board of Control of the Chicago Public League and as athletic director at Chicago (Harlan), is both a swimming and track and field official. She has spent her career as a teacher, coach, and administrator in the Chicago school system. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and two master's degrees from DePaul University.
In 1975, she became a volunteer official at the state meet for the first time serving at the 440-yard relay clerk. Now she is Clerk of the Course, and will be working her 26th consecutive meet this year.
A native of Ft. Benning, GA, Dorothy Dawson earned her bachelor's degree from Grambling University and was a member of its faculty before becoming a teacher and coach in the Chicago Public League at Dunbar High School. In 1962 she became boys assistant coach at Dunbar and girls coach in 1975. Later, she coached the Chicago Zephyrs Track Club and was women's track coach at Chicago State University. Dorothy currently serves as vice president of youth athletics for USATF and was the first women inducted into the Illinois Track Coaches Hall of Fame.
She, too, first became a volunteer official at the girls state meet in 1975. Her first assignment was as a timer. She has served in several other capacities at the state meet over the years. This weekend she will be a volunteer official for the 26th consecutive year, serving as a timer and be a member of the Dugout Staff.
Jacksonville native Mabel Holle was the first person to chair the IHSA Girls Track and Field Advisory Committee. Mabel served as a member of the Advisory Committee during the early years of the girls state series, and then on the Games Committee of the girls state meet. She worked the first state meet as a volunteer at the finish line and ended her track officiating career at the line timing and finish judging.
She was a teacher, coach and athletic administrator in the Waukegan schools for most of her professional career. But in 1943, she was a member of the original South Bend Blue Sox of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League ("A League of Their Own"). On Nov. 5, 1988, Mabel Holle was one of the 530 women in that enterprise to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.
So, in the grand tradition of girls track and field in Illinois, it is fitting these four pioneering women be honored this year as the Honorary Referees of the nation's Spring Spectacular.
PAULA COKER
Mattoon
JANE DAVIS
Chicago
DOROTHY DAWSON
Chicago
MABEL HOLLE
Lake Forest
All-Time Girls State Meet Honorary Referees
2000 - Ola Bundy, Bloomington
2001 - Paula Coker, Mattoon
2001-Jane Davis, Chicago
2001 - Dorothy Dawson, Chicago
2001 - Mabel Holle, Lake Forest