Vonnie Gros, a pioneering women’s field hockey coach and player, has died at 90
She led USA field hockey to its last medal in the Olympic Games in 1984 and was a legendary college coach and player: “She really was an innovator and ahead of her time.”
Vonnie Gros, 90, of Westtown, legendary college field hockey and U.S. national team player and coach, Philadelphia sports fan, and avid bird watcher, died Saturday, Feb. 28.
Born in Camden, Ms. Gros played many sports, mostly with boys because of the limited opportunities available to female athletes.
While attending Palmyra High School, Ms. Gros met Mary Ann Ballantyne Porter and Jane McWilliams Kennedy, two teachers and graduates of Ursinus College. They took her under their wing and encouraged her to stay in athletics.
She played field hockey, basketball, and softball, and became the first Burlington County basketball player, for girls or boys, to score 1,000 career points. She found her calling in field hockey and lacrosse — a sport that was not offered in high school. At Ursinus, she was the school’s first All-American in both sports in 1957. She also played 13 years with the national field hockey team and 10 with the national lacrosse team.
When she became a field hockey coach, Ms. Gros transformed the game.
“She grew the sport by recognizing there was a better way to play the game than the traditional way, which had been brought to this country from England,” said longtime friend Elizabeth Thun, who was a teammate of Ms. Gros at Ursinus. “She modified the game so it became much more competitive and made changes in the way she coached, so they became much more effective winners.”
Ms. Gros coached at Upper Darby High School, West Chester and Princeton Universities, and Ursinus. She led both field hockey and lacrosse programs at West Chester from 1964 to 1976. She guided her field hockey teams to its first two Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championships and had an overall record of 100-7-16.
After Ms. Gros left West Chester for Princeton, she also served as Team USA’s head coach and prepared to lead her group to the 1980 Moscow Games, the first time that women’s field hockey was part of the Olympics. However, the United States boycotted the games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, so U.S. players and Ms. Gros got their first chance in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games.
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“Back then, money wasn’t it,” said Beth Anders, a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School and Ursinus graduate who played on the 1984 team. “She had a passion for the game. She loved the game. She wanted to figure it out. United States didn’t have resources like other countries did. The kids, the women, grew up with field hockey. We did not grow up with field hockey. Vonnie had a passion that she was going to develop us, teach us, and learn about the game. And she did that.”
In 1984, Team USA defeated Australia for the bronze medal, the last time the women’s national field hockey team medaled in the Olympics.
“She really was an innovator and ahead of her time,” said Karen Shelton, the former North Carolina field hockey coach and West Chester graduate who played on the 1984 team. “She was the first field hockey coach that actually studied European soccer and formation. At the time, we were stuck in this British way of playing, and Vonnie looked at other ways to play the game.
“I can hardly remember doing the same drill twice. Every day, practice was fresh and new, and she made us analyze situations and then apply it to ways that would improve our chances to win and score goals. An inspirational human being. … I owe everything to Vonnie. I’ve never known anybody like her, she’s one of a kind, a coaching genius. At one point, she was referred to as the Michelangelo of field hockey.”
Ms. Gros is survived by a sister, Elaine Gros Rudman, and other relatives.
“She was always around,” said her niece, Jennifer Rudman Curry. “If my kids had a game and she could get there, she’d get there. She really would. … She was always watching Philly sports, too. Sports meant a lot to her. That was her life.”
Ms. Gros retired from coaching in 1988 and turned to growing field hockey at the youth level. She started the Futures program with USA Field Hockey, known now as Nexus. It serves as a development program for ages 14 and up.
Ms. Gros was enshrined in at least eight Halls of Fame, including for USA Field Hockey, the National Field Hockey Coaches Association, and USA Lacrosse. West Chester named its field hockey and lacrosse field after her in 2008.
Outside of field hockey, Ms. Gros and Thun met for breakfast once a week at Nudy’s Cafe. She enjoyed talking about the evolution of field hockey, what was happening with the Phillies and Eagles, and birds or animals she spotted near her home.
“She loved going to Maine. She loved golf, loved all her friends at Penn Oaks [Golf Club], loved gardening, loved birds,” her niece said. “She loved her friends, her teammates, and her players. … She was a caring, wonderful person, and always was wondering what you were up to.”