SEATTLE – He coached the 1978 men's soccer team that won the first national title in any team sport for Seattle Pacific– and Cliff McCrath went on to coach four more NCAA championship squads.
 
She served as the first head coach of a fledgling women's gymnastics program that has since gone on to become a national powerhouse – and Virginia Husted then moved to a different part of Brougham Pavilion to help get the women's basketball going at the varsity level.
 
He was the anchor man on the 4x110 relay team that set a school record in 1968, which still stands today – and John Glancy has gone on to serve SPU in numerous other capacities on the academic side during the 46 years since then.
 
Glancy, Husted, McCrath, and that '78 soccer team will take their rightful places among the most distinguished athletes in school history when they are inducted into the Falcon Hall of Fame.
 
The brunch and ceremony in the Fine Center at First Free Methodist Church, just across 3rd Avenue West from SPU, is scheduled for Homecoming Saturday, Feb. 11, as part of Seattle Pacific's 125th anniversary celebration. It begins at 9:15 a.m. The day will continue with a women's-men's basketball doubleheader, followed by the All-Athletics Reunion, both in Brougham Pavilion.

 

During a 37-year tenure that began in 1970, McCrath coached the Seattle Pacific men to five NCAA Division II soccer championships: 1978, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1993. The Falcons played in 10 national title games altogether, were postseason participants 30 times, and put together 37 consecutive winning seasons.
 
At SPU, McCrath's teams went 512-190-87, the best mark in Division II history. In 49 seasons overall, he was the second-winningest coach regardless of division at 597-233-95. That included one season at Wheaton College in Illinois, seven at Gordon College in Massachusetts, and three at Spring Arbor College in Michigan.
 
 

The 1978 team under McCrath's direction put together an overall record of 19-5-4 on the way to winning the national crown.

In the Far West Regionals at Seattle's Memorial Stadium, SPU beat Chapman College, 2-0, then downed San Francisco State, 2-1.
 
From there, the Falcons flew off to Miami for the Final Four. They beat Southern Connecticut State in a triple-overtime semifinal thriller, 1-0, then went double-OT in the next day's championship match to beat Alabama A&M, 1-0.

 

Seattle Pacific's very first gymnastics team, with Husted at the helm in 1974, immediately set the tone for the national-caliber success that would follow. Those Falcons won all four of their dual meets, took first place at the Northwest Regional Championships, and placed fifth at nationals.
 
The following winter, Husted coached the women's basketball club team to a 15-6 record. She remained in charge for the following two seasons as the Falcons became a full-fledged varsity program, posting records of 15-7 and 14-10.
 
Before any of that, the 1963 graduate of what then was Seattle Pacific College made her mark as a national-caliber javelin thrower, under the guidance of legendary track coach Dr. Ken Foreman, himself a charter member of the Falcon Hall of Fame. She went on to compete in two U.S. Olympic Trials.
 
Glancy still owns a share of one of SPU's longest-standing track and field records, as he was the anchor man on the 440 relay in 1968.

 

But he didn't focus exclusively on that event. As a sophomore, he had the team's best 100, 220, and 440 times, and was on four different relays. He also played basketball on Falcon Hall of Fame coach Les Habegger's teams, and was a sharpshooter from all over the court. Glancy had a career average of 6.1 points, shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 83.5 percent from the foul line.
 
He has gone on to spend 46 years at the school, in capacities ranging from admissions counselor to director of college communications to director of the 125th anniversary festivities.