Sport: Field Hockey
Born: 1935
Town: Fair Haven, NJ
Phyllis Stadler was born in Fair Haven, NJ in 1935. Her family owned the Willowbrook Inn, a popular restaurant on Fair Haven Road, and later moved to neighboring Rumson. Phyllis was focused and athletic. She was introduced to field hockey at Rumson-Fair Haven High by girls coach Alma Titman and continued her playing career at Linden Hall, a college prep school in Lititz, PA. She was the star of the basketball and field hockey teams at Linden Hall.
Phyllis became a nationally recognized field hockey center forward while playing for Ursinus College in the mid-1950s. Among her teammates was Vonnie Gros, from Palmyra, NJ. Phyllis returned to New Jersey after graduation and took a job as a Phys Ed teacher at Audubon High School. She continued to play club field hockey and ranked among the nation’s top scorers.
In 1958, Phyllis joined the US national team. Women’s field hockey as an Olympic sport was still more than two decades away, but the US squad competed in several international tournaments. Phyllis’s scoring prowess made he a mainstay of the US team until she retired in 1965. Phyllis married Charles Lyon, a member of the 1932 Olympic sailing team and holder of several world outboard speed records.
Phyllis was enshrined in the Ursinus College Hall of Fame in 1985. Three years later she and Vonnie Gros were among the inaugural inductees at the US Field Hockey Association Hall of Fame, which was established on the Ursinus campus. In 1998, she started the Phyllis Stadler Lyon Endowment at her alma mater, Linden Hall.