Our second in a series honoring our
2019 Hall of Fame, today we would like to highlight San Francisco women's basketball's first-ever head coach, Walt Bugler. Formal induction ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 22, at the Father Hubert "Hub" Flynn Hall of Fame Dinner in War Memorial at the Sobrato Center on the USF campus. The festivities will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the dinner program at 7:30 p.m. The inductees will also be honored at halftime of the USF-Gonzaga women's basketball game on Feb. 23.
The men's basketball program at the University of San Francisco already had a storied history that spanned decades when the mid-1970s rolled around. But it was then that the women's program would start a storied history of its own. And it all started with Walt Bugler, who would serve as the Dons' first head coach for four years, from its first intercollegiate competition in 1976 through the 1979-80 season.
"I got a phone call one morning saying, 'We're going to start a women's basketball program and we'd like you to come start it for us. We have no money, we have no budget, we can't pay you.
"And I said, why not. It's USF."
Bugler's position was only part-time, but he invested his passion, knowledge and desire into the program to rise it from its beginnings. Bugler helped grow the program from its roots playing local teams to taking on nationally recognized names like UCLA, Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech.
"It was so exciting being around that," said Bugler, "and it made it easy to recruit being out there (with the USF name). I'm nobody, I happened to be a guy who did the right thing at the right time."
The Dons found immediate success under Bugler, who took them from a 5-15 record in their first-ever season to a still-school-record 28 wins and a Northern California Athletic Conference championship in 1979-80. The Dons made their third straight appearance in the national tournament that year after finishing third in Region 8 of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. He was also named NorCal Coach of the Year in 1978.
Bugler will join two of his own former players in the USF Hall of Fame – Mary Hile-Nepfel and Suzanne Enos O'Meara. Hile-Nepfel's name still litters the USF women's basketball record book, including all-time records in career points (2,326) and rebounds (1,602). Enos O'Meara was a two-sport star at USF in both basketball and volleyball, and even participated in the 1976 U.S. Olympic Basketball Trials.
"I was kind of shocked," said Bugler of the moment he found out he was being inducted into the USF Hall of Fame. "Mary HiIe told me. I'm born and raised in San Francisco so I'm pretty familiar with USF history. I was a little kid growing up on Geneva and Mission when USF won the NIT (in 1949)."
The rich and storied tradition of USF Athletics will come alive on Friday, February 22 with the induction of six new members and a team into the school's distinguished Athletic Hall of Fame.
USF's Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2019, the 45th group of inductees, includes:
Teresa (Russell) Fowler '04 (volleyball),
Chubby Cox '78 (men's basketball),
John Cox '05 (men's basketball),
Dominique Carter '08 (women's basketball),
Coach Walt Bugler 1976-80 (women's basketball), and
Felipe Magalháes '81 (men's soccer), as well as the 2009 women's cross country team.
With the inclusion of the new members, USF's Athletic Hall of Fame now includes 278 individuals and 23 teams.
Formal induction ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 22 at the Father Hubert "Hub" Flynn Hall of Fame Dinner at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center. The festivities will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the dinner program at 7:30 p.m. The inductees will also be honored at the women's basketball game on Feb. 23 against Gonzaga..
Individual reservations for the Father Hubert "Hub" Flynn Hall of Fame Dinner are priced at $100 while a table of 10 may be purchased for $900.
The Athletic Department has announced the formation of an athletic alumni association whose mission will be to engage and connect former students across different sports, generations and geographical areas in an attempt to build and foster an on-going association with USF Athletics.
All former students who have competed for a minimum of one year in an intercollegiate sport are eligible, as are team managers and spirit squad members who compiled at least three years of service as an undergraduate
Join the Dons Honor Club
