The University of Detroit Mercy will induct seven new members into its Hall of Fame on Jan. 28-29, 2017. The Class of 2017 includes one team, the 2004 Women's Soccer Team, standout student-athletes in Teresa Emery (Softball), Shireese Statin (Track & Field), Tony Kaseta (Baseball), Jack Szczepaniuk (Track & Field) and Mark Sommerfeld (Golf), along with former women's basketball coach and women's athletic coordinator Susan Kruszewski. As we count down to Hall of Fame weekend, DetroitTitans.com will feature each of the seven inductees.
DETROIT (1/20/2017) -- There have been many great trailblazers in women's athletics and in Detroit, Sue Hardy (Kruszewski) is most certainly near the top of the list.
Hardy, the first women's basketball head coach in Titan history, helped shape and define women's sports at the University of Detroit during the late 1970s and early 1980s. She also helped start the Titan softball program and was the cheerleading coach.
Hardy led the Titans to 70 wins and national prominence in her three seasons at the helm of the women's basketball program.
For her trail-blazing, Hardy is set to be among six individuals enshrined in the Titan Hall of Fame with her induction in the Class of 2017 on Jan. 28-29.
"It's a wonderful honor, I'm very pleased to be receiving it," Hardy said via phone from her winter home in Florida. "It'll have a special place in my heart."
A Titan alum and highly successful high school basketball coach prior to joining the University of Detroit Athletic Department, Hardy was asked to start the women's basketball program at U-D by then-Athletic Director Dick Vitale.
Hardy said that there was no one more supportive in helping usher in women's basketball at the University of Detroit than Vitale.
"It all began with the support," she said. "I came there because of the support from Vitale. He gave us scholarships and a beautiful locker room and gave us the support to develop quite quickly."
Develop quickly they did. Hardy brought in assistant coach Lydia Sims, a University of Michigan standout player to help run the program.
"I had a very, very good assistant in Lydia Sims and she was one of the best," Hardy said. "She was just as important as I was as far as developing the team. She recruited the city and the players knew her. I was a high school coach at Detroit Dominican that was known in the city.
"We brought these kids in and had funding to offer them scholarships. For women back in those days, to have that many scholarships was pretty much unheard of. Right at the beginning we had a full slot of athletic scholarships. Lydia knew where the good kids were and it was new to these kids, an opportunity to play college basketball on scholarship."
The Titans won immediately under Hardy, earning an 18-3 record in the first season of women's basketball in 1977-78, including starting the program with a 15-game winning streak.
"We brought these young ladies in that had been so successful in the Detroit high school programs," Hardy continued. "Giving them a chance, it just wasn't done back then in women's basketball. We had some of the best athletes in the state. We had a top quality program immediately."
In addition to recording 18 victories in the first season, Hardy and the school started the Coca-Cola Classic, which brought in some of the top teams in the nation.
"We brought in 15,000 spectators to see those games and we had a lot of media support," Hardy said. "We didn't win the Classic the first year, but we were playing the best in the land."
By her second season, Hardy had the Titans among the best teams in the Midwest with the squad finishing with a school-record mark of 27-4. Under Hardy, the Titans won 25 of their last 27, which included wins over Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana and Wisconsin. The 1978-79 team won the state title and placed second in the Midwest Regional.
"We were well known right away," she said. "We were getting top quality players in the program in just the second year. Some of our Hall of Famers -- Lisa Blackburn, Cheryl Williams, Lydia Johnson, Mary Lillie -- were coming in.
"Mary Lillie walked in one day and she was a basketball player from a small town and she asked if there's anything that you can offer me and we went and watched her play and said, 'Oh yes,'" Hardy chuckled. "Lillie ended up being our floor general. This is the quality of kids that came in here.
"We became the dominant team in the state."
Under Hardy, the Titans were ranked inside the Top 20 in the Associated Press poll nearly the entire 1979-80 season, earning a spot as high as No. 12 as the Titans finished with a 25-8 record. The team won its second-straight state title and advanced to the AIAW National Tournament.
Hardy's teams weren't just talented, they were fun to watch. The Titans liked to get up and down the court.
"We had a very up-tempo offense and an aggressive defense. We were a little quicker down the floor and our kids played together all of the time. Once they came together, they were tough to stop."
Hardy finished her tenure with the Titans with a 70-15 record for an .823 winning percentage. She received the United Way Torch Drive's Sportswomen of the Year award in 1979, while coaching at the University.
"I was very excited to receive that award, it was very prestigious back then" Hardy said. "I got it the same year that Tommy Hearns got it for the men. It was quite an honor to receive that and it was humbling to be put into the same category as some of the people that had got it before me."
After three seasons with the Titans, Hardy took on a new challenge, heading the University of Washington women's basketball program, which was also in the first few years as a team.
"It was with sadness that I left the University of Detroit, because my kids were still there," Hardy said. "But I had an opportunity to go to three different top schools, Ohio State, Indiana and Washington. I would have always wondered if I didn't go and see and Washington wanted me to develop a team. I went and I was happy there and got total support there, too. But I had to come back because it was just too far away."
She spent three seasons with the Huskies before returning to Michigan to coach for three more seasons at Oakland University. Following her stint there, Hardy became the Alumni Director at Mercy College.
Hardy earned two Class A state championships in 1973 and 1974 with Detroit Dominican High School, earning 306 victories as a high school coach. Among other honors, she was also inducted into the Polish Hall of Fame and the Catholic League High School Coaches Hall of Fame.
Hardy is a great link between the Titan past and present not only because she started and coached the first Titan women's basketball team, but because she still follows all of her teams closely, connecting with former players and teams now through the internet and social media.
She reiterates that all of her success wouldn't have been possible without the support of Dick Vitale and the entire University.
"We would not have had success without the support of the University, our A.D. Dick Vitale and the support from the media around town," Hardy said. "It was a pretty special time, our team stood out and the people rallied around them.
"All I can say is, 'Thank you.' It could not have been done without the support of many."
