Interview of Betty Wiseman

Betty Wiseman: I’m Betty Wiseman and I’m eighty years old. Retired from Belmont, but back doing whatever God wants me to do here and today it’s you with an interview.

Eliza Davies: Thank you so much for that. So, you have been at Belmont for a while, and I was wondering if you would share how you came to Belmont and what has made you stay.

Betty Wiseman: I came to Belmont in 1961 right out of high school. I’m from Portland, Tennessee, which is about an hour, forty miles north of here. I came when I was eighteen years old, and I grew up on a farm. A rural area. That was 62 years ago. So, I spent four years here and then the president when I was a senior asked me to stay on and teach in health and physical education, but I would have to get my master’s degree. At that time, we didn’t have any masters programs, so I stayed on campus, worked in the dean of student’s office, and went to Peabody College which is near here. Across from Vanderbilt, a part of Vanderbilt now. Got my master’s degree in teaching, so that began my career here and it’s been a long time ago. And the reason I stayed here, ultimately, I know that it was Gods purpose and plan and will for my life. Maybe didn’t know that at the time but the older you get the more clearly you see when you look back and see Gods hand on it all. I probably stayed here and fell in love with the university because of the people and their investment in me. People who invested in my life and that’s why I continue to come and invest in other people’s lives today, and I think I’m giving back to what’s been given to me.

Eliza Davies: Yes ma’am, definitely. So, what leadership roles have you had within the Belmont community?

Betty Wiseman: Well, when I was a student I was in a lot of student activities and student government and leadership. Housing. Dorm counselor. Dorm monitor, whatever. I always took leadership roles, even in high school and then I was in the faculty and helped start the very first ever faculty senate on campus during that period of time. It was also during those first couple of years that I started women’s sports at Belmont with the first women’s basketball team. That was in 1968/69. I was on a lot of comities. I was the youngest faculty member for several years and was embraced by the older faculty. Let’s see, I was. I served two years as assistant dean of students when I got out of coaching, along with my teaching. I started women’s. Actually, the Belmont sports ministry program. Took student athletes around the world, using sports as a platform for sharing Christ, and that still goes on today. That is still very much a part of who we are here. In fact, we were the very first students to go to other parts of the world and do ministry. Sports ministry. And that’s still prominent today. And then when we went NCAA our sports program of course advanced, and I was a part of all the women’s sports teams that were established. When we went from NAI level to division one, NCAA level, they had to have what they call a women’s administrator, and SWA for sports. And so, I was asked to do that and work in athletics. My last several years were strictly in athletics, but I taught in a classroom for forty years. I chaired the department several years in the school of education sports science. So, I’ve done a little bit of everything. Whatever the school needed at that particular point and as the school evolved. And I retired from Belmont in 2013, I had come down with breast cancer and decided at seventy I would take care of myself, and I did and I went through a period of time of therapy and those things. Today I’m ten years free from cancer.

Eliza Davies: Congratulations!

Betty Wiseman: I’m a cancer survivor. So, I’m back on campus kind of as an ambassador. The new president, the Jones’s, asked me to come and because I know all the history of Belmont and I love students. I’m single, never married. This has been my home so, it’s good to be back.

Eliza Davies: It’s great to have you!

Betty Wiseman: You’re my reason for being here today!

Eliza Davies: Thank you!

Betty Wiseman: So, here you go.

Eliza Davies: You started the Belmont women’s basketball program, and I was wondering if you would take a little bit about your journey to create it and any challenges you faced.

Betty Wiseman: Well, the first challenge was getting it started because obviously Belmont was a very small institution. It was less than four hundred students when I came in 1961 right out of high school. There were no sports for women. There really were very few sports in high school. I had played basketball and was a pretty good player and could have gone and played some semipro ball, but I chose to get my education. I think the challenges were. In this area there was no pattern. I mean, all that I knew was men’s sports and so I was with a lot of men early on in my life, at that point. Coaches going to coaching clinics, learning how to coach, etcetera. The challenges were money, first of all. Finding people to play those first two to three years until women’s sports began to evolve. Belmont is one of the first in the southeast to have a team and a program. And so, there was very little to work with. We used the men’s basketballs. At that point men’s and women’s basketballs were the same size. We got by with using a lot of the men’s facilities, but we had very little. We had enough to survive on, and we didn’t have a lot of money, so we took sandwiches and two old station wagons and traveled and took food to eat out of the cafeteria and we made do with one pair of tennis shoes for the year, were now they have five or six pairs or whatever. So, I think the challenges were the unknown, resources were limited, and then as a coach, I’m just a girl who wants to see women have an opportunity. And so, when I’m with my older players who come back and we visit and hand out and have a good time, we never talk about what we did not have we just talk about what a great opportunity it was for us to be in the beginning and to be a part of something that’s really big now. You know? And so, the joy of knowing and communicating where we have come from. We have history, and it’s a very prominent history before Title IX. That was four years before Title IX. So, that’s kind of the beginning. If I told you all the details you might just throw up or laugh.

Eliza Davies: Thank You! So, you have coached a lot of athletes over the years.

Betty Wiseman: I have!

Eliza Davies: What’s one trait that you have seen in them that you think makes them a better leader and teammate?

Betty Wiseman: Wow! One trait. That’s a good question, umm. Just, probably the desire within to do something that, and of course over the years it’s just gotten to be a fine art almost, but a desire to just be the best they can be. And for. Maybe more than that just a love for the sport, equal opportunity.

Eliza Davies: Yes.

Betty Wiseman: There’s a lot of different things that you know that you could say, but umm. I think, in my experience the opportunity. Now, it’s expected, and girls get a free education when they play sports, and most of the big universities and we have scholarships here now. All my players, up until the last four years I coached from 68’ to 84’, I didn’t give a full scholarship until I gave two scholarships in 1980. So, most of my girls played for a room grant or some books. Get their books paid for. They played for the love of the game. Now there are opportunities beyond for the girls, and umm, yeah. I just think. I think the biggest thing that comes from it is just joy of playing. Advancing your God given talents, yeah.

Eliza Davies: That’s great! Okay so, I know you’ve talked about this just now, but you participated in a lot of mission trips here at Belmont, and how have these experiences changed you and allowed you to become a better leader and person?

Betty Wiseman: Changed everything for me! Everything. God placed a call on my life, I gave my heart and my life to Christ as an eleven-year-old because I grew up in the church. In God’s word. And it says in his word that for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, and to give you purpose and meaning and fulfillment in life. You know, and at an early age, as a young Christian, I was very active in my church. I studied missions. I was a leader from the time there was leadership opportunities. I think, God’s. I was good at basketball, and I wanted to pursue that, and I was active, I was always healthy and active, and I wanted to pursue that. And, you know, as you get in life, as you grow and you mature, and you go into different phases of your life you begin to see things a little bit differently and as, I’ve always loved people and I’ve always wanted. Basically, I’ve given my life away to people. Invested my life in other people. And so, as I got into sports, and traveling a little bit, and then when I gave up basketball, I gave it up because I was teaching full time, I was coaching, and basically my salary was for teaching and I knew that to advance the sport itself I, and Title IX had come along, and we were beginning to accept federal funds. Early on we didn’t because we were a church related school. And so, as I began to move forward in my own life I began to see and feel God’s call to do more ministry-oriented mission activities, even here and in the community. I had given up basketball and I went on my first overseas mission trip with my church, and I went to South America, and I went to Muco which is a very rural area, and it just kind of took me back in time to the early years of my own life on a farm with not a lot. We were just basically ordinary people trying to make a living on a farm. Anyway, it was during that trip, I was doing women’s ministry with some women from churches over Tennessee, all over the state of Tennessee. I just remember, just, by myself at one point outside and I was looking at some volcanoes in the distance, and I was overwhelmed with God’s world. Cause, I grew up in the country and my world was Nashville and my home, and that was my world for a long time, and then God began to show me more of his world and I felt him calling me more into the world. At that moment, outside, leaning against an old gate, in a very distant land, I just felt God say, “Betty, I’ve got so much more to show you. Life. There’s more, there’s more for you, and I’m calling you. I’m calling you into my world, I want you to see it through my eyes and not yours.” I was humbled to the core, and it was during that time that I went into some schools and communities and these children in these schools, these elementary schools. It broke my heart because they didn’t have any to play with. They didn’t have any balls or like we have in our schools here. And I started thinking about how blessed I had been to start this basketball program, and that I’d traveled a lot, and I could pick up a ball anytime I wanted to. And so, I was humbled to the core that there’s a big world out there and there are needs. Simple things like things for children to play with in schools. So, I came back to Belmont and I was getting ready for my only sabbatical, like a semester off, and I changed all my plans and went back and spent the rest of the semester with a missionary that I was working with there and I just collected duffle bags full of balls, and parachute play for parachute play, and all kinds of activities, and I just went into these schools and communities and worked with kids and in schools. I just saw the joy on kids and young people’s faces when they began to experience some things that I experience every day here. And that changed my, everything for me. So, when I came back and we were under the Tennessee Baptist Convention then, and they called the university, the school of religion, and wanted a sports team to go to Poland. They had a partnership, and nobody in the school of religion knew anything about how to do that and they called me, and I said yeah I’ll do it. I didn’t know how to do it either, but I could. I knew I loved people and I have students and student athletes. So, in 1995 I took my first team, spring break, and I took athletes to Poland and went into Polish schools and high schools and talked to kids. We would talk in classes and then we would play games and activities with them using basketball. That basketball that I keep, you know I gave up an opportunity to play semiprofessional basketball as an eighteen-year-old to come Belmont. God gave me that back with starting this basketball program. I gave up basketball coaching here and just was teaching, and God called me to take that basketball and go all over the world and use it to share Christ. Ministry. Then I began taking soccer, I never took just one teams players, we would do soccer, whatever. We even took footballs and played football. Sports is a universal language and when you walk down the street with college athletes, I mean you’ll gather a crowd in just no time. And then you play with them etcetera, and their skills and they watch us play and then you’re in the right and privilege sit them down and say “hey, I’m going to tell you why were really here” and so you share the gospel. Who Christ is. The difference he makes in your life, and this is how etcetera, etcetera. Through this whole time, I went on mission trips with my church, with medical teams, and I just go and sit and share the gospel with the doctors. They see me before they see the doctors, so. It’s just a part of the ministry. So, I’ve been all over the world and here I am, sitting here with you, which I think is just as important as anything else I’ve ever done. Does that make any sense to you?

Eliza Davies: Oh no, yes ma’am it does. Thank you!

Betty Wiseman: I know I’m telling you more than you want to know, but you can….

Eliza Davies: Oh no ma’am, its perfect.

Betty Wiseman: You can take it and do whatever you want with it.

Eliza Davies: No ma’am this is… Thank you so much. So, what experiences have been the most influential at shaping you into who you are today?

Betty Wiseman: I think. First of all, I think God had a plan for everybody’s life and so much of that plan is getting to a certain point. I think he is still working out his plan in my life. So, I think everything that I’ve been able to do is just a piece of that plan. You know, when I was retired and dealing with cancer and therapy, radiation, etcetera, I did a lot of puzzles. One-thousand-piece puzzles at my home. Had never been still, I’ve never been still. I was forced to be still for a whole year practically. And so, I worked these puzzles, and I began. I think life teaches you things and I could talk to you about that for two hours, but I began to see as I put these puzzles together that you are hunting for pieces and you finally get something and it’s an aha when you finally say “Ahh that’s ok, ok”. So, I began to see my life as a puzzle. It’s God’s puzzle. And only when we are really ready for something else does he give us that next piece to our life. And that’s the aha moment in my life where I realized that everything I’ve done is a part of a puzzle of my life. You know I’m getting older, and the older I get the more clearly I see these pieces and I see stories. I see how the people, these missionaries have influenced my life. I see how different eras of my life, and it’s not all. I haven’t been perfect by any means, and I have some regrets, but everybody does, but I’m beginning to see the big picture now and the puzzle, and there are some more pieces to put in and put together, but every little piece I think of your life is just part of the process. And if I could say anything to you today, the prize is always in the process. The prize is always in the process. You come in here as a freshman, and you know that you want to graduate out of here and this diploma is your goal, but honey what happens to you between here and here is the real prize and the older you get you’ll see that. And I can see that my college days at Belmont and the people, the experiences were very significant pieces of the puzzle. And in that puzzle, you’ve got to do the outline first and this is what you are doing now, the outline of your life and then you’re going to be starting, putting these pieces, and working towards your very last piece. And, for me that’s when I see Jesus, face to face. That’s just who I am.

Eliza Davies: Yes ma’am, that’s wonderful! Thank you!

Betty Wiseman: I hope this makes sense to you.

Eliza Davies: Yes ma’am it does. How would you characterize your leadership style?

Betty Wiseman: I would characterize it as teamwork. Building a team. Being a leader but designating responsibilities. Allowing people to preform those activities being there as an advisor. And collaboration. Leadership. There must be a leader and there has to be some subleaders trying to get the people in the outlying area, a little bit outside the box, to come in and again, it’s a little bit like a piece of a puzzle that you are working together in a smaller realm of thinking, so to speak. Maybe I would characterize it as collaboration, with designated responsibilities and encouraging and facilitating people and building people up. It’s like building a house, together, together for the final pieces.

Eliza Davies: Thank you! How do you learn from and overcome any failures or obstacles?

Betty Wiseman: Well, I go back to the old, old philosophy I learned in college, you learn by doing. Old John Dewey theory. They may not even teach that now, I don’t even know, but I think. I think my cancer journey helped me look back at my own life and how I’ve been an overcomer. I feel like I’ve been gifted and blessed throughout my life, but I had to overcome. I overcame homesickness, I was an hour away from home when I came here, I was a freshman, and I was so homesick I thought I would die, and my parents… We cried together on the phone, and I wanted to go home, and they asked me to stay one semester, just to see, just Betty, we want you home too but we want… we know that.. I mean, I owe my parents so much. I owe my parents so much, but I know that I had to overcome that, and you know I was homesick and then after a semester I got adjusted and it was a whole different world to me here. If I had somewhere else it would have been the same thing because I lived in this little bubble. A little small country town and my life revolved around home, and church, and school. So, I had to overcome that and then.. I know I’ve had a blessed life and I’ve been protected somewhat here, and yet I’ve been out in the world, but when I had breast cancer and something that I had no control took over control of my life and I’ve basically been.. I’ve been a physical education health teacher. I’ve been very healthy. I’ve watched what I eat. I’ve been an exercise guru and you know, I get up and walk every morning. And so, I was proud that… I guess pride is a part of it, of that I have been disciplined all my life and I’m a disciplinarian and I’m disciplined in my own life, but something, cancer, invaded my body and I was angry. I wasn’t angry so much that I had it, but that something I had no control over, cancer, came in and took control of me for over a year, and I had to go through that. And so, it caused me to have to be still. To give up things. To sit. To take care of getting rid of this. I went through radiation for seven weeks straight ever day. That just…. That just took everything out of me physically and I never asked God, I never said why me. Never. I cried out to God a lot, help me, help me. So, I was in a whole new world with my body and mind and my spirit, but I spent a lot of time in God’s word and little by little I began to recover, and I kept asking God, what’s next. What next, I’m seventy, I just turned seventy-one, and I just kept saying what next, what next, and I know that he said this to me, as only he could. He said, Betty it’s not what anymore, it’s who. who am I going to put in your life. Really, it’s always been about who, it’s not what you do, it’s who. Who do you need to reach out to. Who is going to be before you. And so, I began, since that cancer journey, just who every day and so, you’re my who today!

Eliza Davies: Thank you!

Betty Wiseman: Is that pretty cool?

Eliza Davies: Yes ma’am! It is.

Betty Wiseman: Really?

Eliza Davies: Yes ma’am!

Betty Wiseman: You know I look at my calendar, my calendar and… I have this messy calendar at home, and it has just these people’s names every day and… And so, I don’t see it as what am I doing tomorrow. It’s who am I doing tomorrow. Who, who. And I like that, because who is a whole lot more important than what, so many times. For whatever that’s worth.

Eliza Davies: Thank you! Okay, so who or what has been your greatest influence?

Betty Wiseman: It began with my parents. My mom and dad were just simple ordinary people. My dad was the youngest of twelve and he had an eight-grade education. My mother graduated from high school, and they married, and my mother worked from home, and then she worked as a country registrar for a while, in the county seat of Gallatin. They set the standard for me, but I’ve always had people in my church, teachers, people who invested their lives. They spoke into my life just like I’m trying to do with you today, and for whatever you are going to use this for. It’s all about people. When I came to Belmont, the college president Dr. Gabhart, he was so instrumental in my life. I never applied for a job Eliza! I have never.. I’ve never filled out an application for a job except something I did in high school to do in the summer. Because he saw something in me that he valued that was conducive to who Belmont was. Every president I’ve been under, four of the last five presidents, and teachers, and ministers, and pastors. It’s all about people in your life and again, you look back and you see that… Just two weeks ago I had six girls come to breakfast, meet me at cracker barrel, who played basketball for me on the second team in 1969. They all came in, and then they came to my condo, I live in a fifty-five plus community, and we sat and reminisced and we all just... We all old stories, reminisced and there were tears, laughter, and I pulled out all of these Belmont t-shirts, out of my closet, from sports, and you know, just.. They just took t-shirts home, but through the whole thing it’s about people. It's about people. Investing yourself in people, in others. So, the more people you know, that you can give yourself away, then it will be given back to you, tenfold. It has with me, all my life.

Eliza Davies: So, this is the last question. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to become a leader within their community?

Betty Wiseman: Being a people person. Look outside yourself, always see people as people of value and worth. How can you, how can I give myself away in a productive way. Invest in other people. Be willing to meet. Be willing to go into uncomfortable situations and listen, observe, and ask questions. You know, if I were you, and I say this to students a lot because it was said to me, and I used to tell my students when I was teaching, find you an older person, or older persons, that you can sit at their feet and ask questions. The more knowledge that you gain from other people, people who have lived their lives. Sit at the feet of people and ask questions. And I would say to you, even today, take some time and sit down with your family, your parents, your grandparents and ask them questions. What happened? You know there are questions I wish I’d asked my grandparents. I only knew my grandmothers, my grandfathers passed before I was born. But, you know, tell me about how you grew up, tell me about your frustrations, tell me. You know, we are so caught up in where we are, and where were going, and what we are doing, and what’s next, and this, and making this grade, and getting that done. We don’t take the time to know about our ancestors. You’ll learn a lot about yourself by learning about your family. Parents, Grandparents. Ask questions. Ask questions. Be willing to listen. I think I’d probably. I’ve been a good listener through the years and I’m usually not the one who is always out in front. I’m listening, I’m observing, and I’m taking things in, and then when the time comes then the leadership... The leadership comes from listening first and establishing yourself and thinking. Think first. I don’t know if that’s what you need to hear or not, but that’s what, that’s important. If there is an opportunity and you feel, even if it’s a challenge, do it. Do it. The more things you do now the more you’re going to be ready for the next step, the next step.

Eliza Davies: Thank you so much! And thank you for doing this with me today!

Betty Wiseman: Well, thank you. I hope you get a good grade!

Eliza Davies: Thank you!