The 1981-82 Southern Utah State College women's volleyball team set the precedent for volleyball excellence in Cedar City. The team finished fourth place in the NAIA circuit, and ended the season with a 28-13 overall record.
More impressive, the team finished 11-0 at home, ending the season with a perfect record on the campus of Southern Utah State College.
The team has left a lasting legacy, and provides inspiration for the volleyball team on campus today.
The team that won the NAIA District Seven Playoffs and advanced to the national tournament included: Amos James, Bob King, Robert Lee, Pete Rencher, Mike Daniels, Monte Widdison, Dave Petty, Dave Meyer, Quinton Davis, Eric Daniels, Kerry Rupp, Scott Appleby, Steve Hodson and Brad Blackner.
Rick Phillips was the assistant coach for the team that went 21-7. Once the team advanced to the district playoffs they beat Grand Canyon for the third time that season. They then best Mesa for a chance to advance to the nationals a team that had beat them twice earlier in the year. The team then advanced to the national tournament in Kansas City where they fell to Southwestern Oklahoma, 99-89.
When Challis started his career in front of the microphone the T-Birds were an NAIA athletics school with seven sports. Over the years Challis has traveled to 48 states following the Thunderbirds. He has broadcast more than 1,500 athletic competitions involving SUSC and SUU teams, primarily football and men's basketball.
Challis also spent many years at the diamond sharing the exploits of the T-Birds baseball teams with listeners on various radio stations. He has only missed a handful of games during the 43 years since he started and they were mostly for family milestone events. Challis has been teaching at SUU since 1982 in the communications department that he now chairs.
Natalie Gibson had an enormous impact on the track and field program at Southern Utah University. Gibson garnered All-American status while at Southern Utah by finishing in seventh place in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 58.38.
She was Southern Utah track and field's first DI All-American and the first runner in what has become a long line of track and field athletes at Southern Utah to earn the same honor of being an All-American.
Gibson was also a member of the 1998 women's track and field team at SUU that won the 1998 Summit League Championships for the indoor and outdoor track and field.
To this day, Gibson holds the school record in the 400-meter hurdles, with a time of 57.5 in 1998. Gibson also holds the fourth fastest time in the 400-meters and 110-meter hurdles.
According to coach Houle, Gibson got the team moving in the right direction and laid the foundation for the women's program at SUU.
Gibson concluded her track career as she competed in the 2000 Olympic Trials. She has since had six children and spends most of her time raising her kids and competing in triathons when time permits.
Keenan Hart was extremely influential in regards to helping build the Thunderbird track and field program to the point it is today. Hart was an NAIA All-American, finishing fourth place in the five-mile run in a time of 24:40. He competed at that NAIA National Championships in both track and field and cross country during his tenure at Southern Utah.
Hart is still featured in the Thunderbird record book with the sixth fastest mile time in school history, when he ran a 4:20.67 in 1980.
Hart competed for SUU back when it was still SUSC (Southern Utah State College).
Keenan Hart currently lives in the Cedar City area, as he teaches sixth grade at Escalante Valley.
Grant started competing in the all-around right away for the Thunderbirds, and did so all four years she was a member of the gymnastics program.
She was once the school record holder on beam and qualified for NCAA competition multiple times as an individual, putting the Thunderbird gymnastics program on the map nationally and laying the groundwork for future generations of gymnasts at SUU.
Grant was named GTE Academic All-American First Team in 1997 after being named to the Third Team in a previous year. She was named Most Outstanding Gymnast in 1996 and Female Athlete of the Year in 1997. Grant graduated from Southern Utah in 1998.
According to SUU head gymnastics coach Scott Bauman, Julie Talbot Grant was the first true level 10 gymnast that the program recruited. Bauman also noted that Julie set the bar for a higher standard of recruits throughout her competing years, and over the duration of Julie's time as a Thunderbird, the team was structured around her.
Following her gymnastics career, Talbot Grant spent a couple years as an assistant coach for the Flippin' Birds before moving to Dallas, Texas, where she currently lives with her husband, raising their four children.
Sean McCaw was a leader for the Thunderbird basketball program during the mid-90s. In 1994, he lead the team in scoring with 16.8 points per game and blocked shots with 6.6 a contest. He led the team in the same two statistical categories the following season, with 15.2 ppg and 5.9 blocks per game.
McCaw went on to play professional basketball, where he played for several teams all around the world. He played for eight teams in six different countries, starting with the Kapfenberg Bulls in Austria and ending with the Science City Jena in Germany.
He has since entered a career in coaching in Germany, most recently coaching professional European teams. Since 2012, he has served as the assistant coach of the CuxHaven BasCats, Lowen Braunschweig, and Spot Up Braunschweig.
