Saturday, January 28, 2006
Sally Ward is a distinguished person, a woman who not only dreams big things but one who applies them to her everyday life. She lives those dreams, and to the fullest.
Perhaps that is one of the main reasons why Sally has been so successful and why she was inducted into the Mercer County Hall of Fame last weekend.
An outstanding basketball coach at Hickory High, Ward took over in the 1972-73 season and racked up a 22-year record of 324-167 before her retirement in 2000.
Her teams won five Mercer County championships and finished runner-up four times. She won a District 10 championship in 1983 and finished district runner-up seven other times. Twice her teams made it to the Elite Eight in the PIAA tourney (1989 and 1991).
This story, however, is not to simply highlight Sally's coaching record, but to document one of her more unique accomplishments -- scaling Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro -- in the summer of 1964.
Sally called her highly successful journey "the greatest thrill of my life."
She is one courageous lady
What makes Sally so special is she's not afraid to tackle anything.
The tougher the task, the better. Encountering the dangerous slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro certainly is not child's play.
"It's something I always wanted to do," said Ward. "When I was a youngster I thought the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weismuller, were the greatest. I also read Hemingway's book entitled the Snows of Kilimanjaro, so I said that's for me."
Her story began in Hagerstown, Md., where she spent her childhood.
"I had been to a travel agency in Sharon when I was spending my summer months in the Summer Recreation program in Patagonia," said Ward. "I returned home to Hagerstown and told my dad that I didn't have quite enough money to make the trip to Africa. I was $200 short. My dad gave me the $200 and told me, 'Go now, or you will never go.'
So Ward purchased her round-trip ticket to Washington D.C., then to Kenya, and to the site of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Upon arrival in Africa, a briefing of the climb took place. Ward was the lone woman and her group included four men. Two dropped out on the second day, the other two on the third day. But to make matters worse, on the final night of the briefing in Arusha, it was pointed out that a seven-man French Alpine climbing team didn't make the summit.
Here she goes, up and up
So Ward, an idealistic young woman with no climbing experience except for the stairways in her home, was about to attempt Mount Kilimanjaro.
Ward didn't like to lose even then. At that time, she was still heartbroken over the bad break she received in the 1964 United States Olympic Trials in New York. She placed in both the shot put and discus at the National Outdoor Track and Field Championships, but an injury impeded her chances. That was one of the reasons she felt she had to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro.
"I was trying to make peace with myself," she said.
The days of her climb were treacherous. She departed from base camp with temperatures in the 70s but on the way up, encountered temps in the minus 40s. They started out at an elevation of 3,000 feet, heading for a summit of 20,000 feet, all in five days.
"At 15,000 feet, we had to stop eating," Ward recalled. "We had only glucose tablets, tea and water and we had difficulty breathing due to the height. We had helmets with carbide lights and the whole works. We lived in those metal lean-to's.
She got real sick
"At 17,000 feet the volcanic ash was frozen solid," she continued. "We still had a tough time breathing. One night the guys (there were now two others who had joined the group) were cooking stew. It smelled so good, so I went over and stuffed myself. I wound up vomiting and got deathly sick. I had visions of dying right then and there. I kept telling myself I should go back to base camp but then I realized it would all be over and once again, I would feel like I had failed."
On August, 9, 1964, Ward reached the summit. For about two hours she had no recollection of the events. "I remember pulling myself up to the summit," Ward said. "It was like I woke up or something but what I witnessed was something so spectacular, so beautiful. It looked like five-or-six story glaciers. The colors were just gorgeous."
Ward had completed her dream, except for the descent. That was the easy part.
"It didn't take us long to get back down." she said. "It was just like skiing."