Sport: Field Hockey
Born: April 2, 1957
Town: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Elizabeth Anne Beglin was born April 2, 1957 in Teaneck and grew up in Upper Saddle River, NJ. Beth’s town did not have its own educational system so she attended school on the other side of Rte. 17 in Allendale. She played a wide range of youth sports and noticed quickly that the moms and dads coaching her teams were more cheerleaders than tacticians. So by the age of seven, Beth was devising her own defensive strategies and offensive plays. She also competed against her three brothers and sisters.
At Northern Highlands Region High School, Beth was a couple of grades ahead of future FBI Director James Comey. She starred for the Highlanders field hockey varsity in the mid-1970s, helping coach Nancy Wirkmaa’s team win Northern Bergen championships in 1973 and 1974. In 1973, Beth scored 40 goals in 10 games, with the rest of her teammates totaling 17.
Beth was also an accomplished softball player and the star of the basketball team, regularly scoring 20 or more points a game. She was also a champion tennis player. The 5’7” left-hander played all of these sports wearing eyeglasses. She was an avid reader of coaching books in these sports and was a particular fan of UCLA John Wooden. In the opening round of the 1975 state basketball tournament, Beth outscored Glen Rock 41–354 in a 68–34 victory for the Highlanders. She scored 26 in the next round in her final prep hoops game, a loss to Holy Family of Bayonne.
As a senior in 1974–75, Beth was hailed by the Bergen Record as the best all-around athlete in Bergen County. She graduated with 11 varsity letters. Unfortunately, Title IX had not made much of an impact on college sports at this point, so no one actively recruited Beth. She ended up in a good spot, playing as a defender for another coaching legend, Vonnie Gros, at West Chester College.
As a sophomore in 1976, she scored one of the team’s two goals in the AIAW championship game against Ursinus. The Rams allowed just one goal in four games during the 16-team tournament to capture their second straight national title. The following spring, Beth played lacrosse for the first time and was named to the Pennsylvania College Lacrosse Association’s all-star team. A couple of months later, Beth was named to the Olympic Field Hockey team, which was scheduled to compete in Moscow at the 1980 Summer Games—the first time women’s field hockey was an official sport. West Chester teammates Jane Glass and Karen Shelton also made the cut. Vonnie Gros was named head coach of the Olympic squad.
Over the winter of 1977–78, the US sent field hockey and lacrosse teams for a two-week exhibition tour of England. Beth was chosen for both squads but chose to play field hockey. More than 60,000fans paid their way into Wembley Stadium for one of the matches, making it the largest crowd in women’s field hockey history. Beth returned for her senior season in 1978 and led the Rams to a fourth straight AIAW national title. She scored the opening (and winning goal) in the 3–0 championship victory over the University of Delaware.
Following a 14-game European all-star tour in April 1979, Beth graduated with a degree in Physical Education, with plans to teach and coach down the road. She traveled to Colorado Springs that summer for the final tryouts for the Olympic team.
In 1979, the women’s Field Hockey world championships were held in Vancouver, with the top five finishers automatically qualifying for the 1980 Olympics, along with the Soviet hosts. The Americans reached the semifinals to qualify and Beth was officially named to the final Olympic squad in March of 1980. During Beth’s time on the team, its world ranking rose from #11 to #3.
In May, the situation changed. The Carter administration announced that US teams would boycott the 1980 Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Beth began her coaching career and set her sights on 1984, when the Summer Games were scheduled for Los Angeles. As the host country, the Americans automatically qualified for the six-team round robin tournament. They beat Australia 4–0 in the opening game, with Beth Anders scoring three times and Beth accounting for the third of her team’s tallies. After dropping a close game to the Netherlands, Team USA rebounded to beat New Zealand, 2–0. A loss to the Aussies and a tie with West Germany landed Beth and her teammates in a shootout with Australia for the bronze medal. The Americans scored on all 10 of their shots to win 10–5.
After the Olympics, Beth was hired to coach her alma mater while preparing for the 1988 games. In 1987, she took the head job at the University of Iowa, where she turned an afterthought program into a national powerhouse. Beth led the Hawkeyes to six Final Four appearances before retiring in 1999. They reached the title game in 1988 and again in 1992, losing to Old Dominion both times. In 1988, the US qualified for the Seoul Olympics and Beth captained the team. This time, the Americans failed to medal, and were eliminated after two losses and a tie in the preliminary round.
Beth decided to switch careers after 1999 victories and earned her law degree at Iowa. After passing the Iowa bar in 2005, she became a county prosecutor. In 1994, Beth was inducted into the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame along with longtime teammate Sheryl Johnson. In 2007, Beth was one of more than 400 1980 US Olympic athletes to receive a Congressional medal. That same year, she married her longtime partner, Pam Lee, a physical therapist. And in 2010, Beth was inducted into the Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame.