Poly eBriefs

Maureen Braziel, Director of Athletics, has played an important role in the development of Poly’s athletic department and the history of women in sports. When Maureen first came to Poly 26 years ago, physical education was mandatory, “gym” classes were held in outside facilities, and the school didn’t have any women’s sports teams.

As Maureen moved up in the ranks of the athletic department it began to expand and improve. Today, Poly is an NCAA Division III institution with eight women’s teams (lacrosse was recently added), eight men’s teams, and an on-site gym that was added in 2002 to become the home of the Polytechnic Fighting Bluejays.

A key event on the timeline of Poly sports is Maureen’s founding of its judo team in 1982. At the time, judo, a modern Japanese martial art and combat sport, was little known — it didn’t become an Olympic sport for women until 1988. But for Maureen, judo was the focus of much of her life for nearly three decades. (After the jump, read more about Maureen’s history-making judo career and see pictures from the mat to the trophy block at the end of the story.)

Maureen was first exposed to judo in the early 1960s when she was a young karate student at the School of Scientific Judo and Karate housed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Soon after, she was practicing it five to six days a week and beginning to compete in tournaments.

Her skill and passion for the sport could have been hampered by the fact that there were few women to practice against. But Maureen was undaunted. She practiced with men and played in every regional U.S. tournament available to reign as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the East Coast from 1967 to 1977.

Maureen’s record of achievement is impressive: she holds four national judo titles in her weight division; is a three-time Grand Champion of the U.S.; was the first American to win the British Open in judo; and received the Outstanding Player Award from the Amateur Athletic Union for both men and women in 1974.

Maureen’s legacy to the history of women is sports is preserved in Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women’s Sports by Ernestine Miller and Encyclopedia of Women and Sport in America by Carole A. Oglesby.

Click on a thumbnail to see a full-size picture with caption.