Before there were the stars of the Hall of Fame women’s basketball team of 2002-03 or the 2018-19 national championship squad, there was Carlene Wolfram (maiden name of Gebhard). Wolfram stood out as the first 1,000-point scorer in the history of Concordia Women’s Basketball and as the MVP of a Concordia Volleyball team that once beat both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Kearney State (now UNK) on the same day. Appropriately, Wolfram was inducted into the Concordia Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
Years later, it is a certain bus trip to northeast Iowa that Wolfram remembers vividly. A Houston, Texas, native, Wolfram began her Concordia career in 1975 – and not even a ferocious Midwest blizzard during the 1976-77 basketball season could stop her from excelling in four different collegiate sports.
Recalls Wolfram of the harrowing bus trip, “Little did we know, the hydraulics in the bus were going out and a blizzard was coming our way. It was 75-below wind chill. We had put all of our coats underneath because our bus was pretty packed and we needed some room. The windows in the back of the bus blew in, so it was getting cold in there. (Bus driver) Luther Klenke used his radio and called for help, and they said they were sending out a school bus for us. It seemed like forever before they finally found us. Coming from Texas, it was very, very cold. We drove and drove looking for a truck stop on the highway. About 35-40 minutes later we found it. That was one I don’t think any of us will ever forget.”
The blizzard was a minor blip in an astounding career. The adoption of Title IX came three years before Wolfram arrived at Concordia, where women’s sports were beginning to grow with the help of trailblazing coach and professor, Dr. Eunice Goldgrabe. Wolfram took advantage of the opportunities she was gifted as a well-rounded athlete who wanted to be involved in everything. She competed in basketball, softball, track and volleyball while earning a combined 12 athletic letters. From The Lone Star State, Wolfram followed in the footsteps of two siblings who had graduated from Concordia – a brother in 1971 and a sister in 1972.
The choice was not a difficult one for Wolfram, who grew up in the Lutheran school system and developed a desire to pursue a career in Lutheran education. Concordia felt like a natural fit.
“I said, well I’m going to go there too,” Wolfram said. “I always wanted to be a teacher, so it was a good place to go. There was a Concordia in Austin, Texas, but it was only a two-year college. I thought at that time that Concordia-Seward had better sports than they did. They had also had a four-year program.”
Wolfram believes she was three or four years old when her older brother began introducing her to sports. She enjoyed swinging a plastic bat in the backyard and improved her basketball skills through drills her brother taught her. When she came to Concordia, Wolfram honed her abilities while being coached by the likes of Goldgrabe, Kathy Calder, Berniece Jones and Kristin Shields. As a senior, Wolfram was honored with a game ball from Goldgrabe after reaching the 1,000-point mark. That was no easy task to accomplish at a time when Concordia was playing only 20-25 games per season.
She also did it at a time when women’s sports lagged far behind men’s sports. Explained Wolfram, “We used a guys’ ball. There was no 3-point line. A lot of us had to buy men’s shoes because they didn’t have good shoes for women. That’s a big change from now. Everything has improved. There are so many jobs available now to women. They’ve moved up the ladder and are AD’s and have coaching and administrative jobs. I really think Title IX had a lot to do with that.”
You’ll find no bitterness in Wolfram. She was all about making the most what was placed in front of her. That’s exactly what she did on that memorable day in 1977 when, as a junior, Wolfram led the Bulldog volleyball team to two unexpected victories. Just a couple years earlier, Wolfram had shown up late to her first-ever volleyball practice. That was long forgotten by ’77. As a season summary from that campaign read, “Concordia entered this triangular meet as underdogs but as the night wore on, they had beaten both UNO and Kearney.” Incredibly, the Bulldogs bounced back to defeat UNO after losing the first set, 15-1.
Says Wolfram, “They put in their subs and we came back and beat them the second game, so we played a third game. We won. UNO is a big school. Then we played Kearney and we upset them that night. That’s the only time we ever beat Kearney. That momentum carried us far. We beat Kearney in the third game like, 16-14. On the way home, we got to eat at a good place. Usually we didn’t stop to eat. We would normally have Brommer box lunches. We won two big ones in one night.”
Wolfram’s formative years at Concordia laid the groundwork for her career in teaching and coaching. She and her husband Ted (also a Concordia grad) moved back to Carlene’s hometown of Houston, where she taught and coached volleyball, basketball, softball and soccer. Early in 1990s, she was called to Houston’s Lutheran High North and coached basketball there for 16 years. In the present day, Lincoln, Neb., is now home.
Carlene and Ted sent two daughters to Concordia. Their daughter Carly was a freshman on the 2002-03 Bulldog women’s basketball team that rose to the status as one of the greatest in school history. That squad, coached by Todd Voss, went 36-2 overall and advanced to the NAIA Division II national semifinals. At that time living in Houston, Carlene and Ted would sometimes drive through the night on Fridays after high school games and arrive in time for Saturday afternoon contests at the old PE Center Gym.
As Carlene says, “There’s nothing like the Doghouse.” Before the glitzier Friedrich Arena came about, Bulldog fans packed into the old gym and made it an intimidating atmosphere for opponents. Being back in that gym surely resulted in memories flooding back to mind for Carlene. Not much had changed cosmetically in that gym between the late 1970s and early 2000s.
In 1999, members of the family converged for Carlene’s Hall of Fame induction. Of course she told everyone about the blizzard-ravaged bus trip to Decorah, Iowa. She was proud to see her parents in attendance. They weren’t able to make the journey to see her compete as a collegiate athlete, but at that moment they saw her take her place among other elite Bulldogs. Said Carlene, “It was awesome.”
Back in the 1970s, Carlene was one of those female athletes that tore apart the notion that women couldn’t excel at a high level in collegiate sports. Before there could be a Bailey Morris, a Philly Lammers or a Camryn Opfer, there had to be a Carlene Wolfram to show what was possible.
Said Carlene, “Way back when they didn’t think girls could play five-on-five basketball. That’s why they had 3-and-3 (six players total for both teams). When you see little girls out there playing basketball, it warms my heart and puts a smile on my face. I was there once too.”
