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Mary Eggers Tendler

Mary Eggers Tendler

Illini Athletics HOF | Volleyball coach, Elon | Class of 1989

The first stop on UI volleyball legend Mary (Eggers) Tendler’s trip down memory lane: Bromley Hall, Floor 7.

“My first year, I shared a room with my teammate, Sandy (Scholtens) Hamilton," says the All-American player turned coach, now in her 15th year at North Carolina's Elon University. 

"I don’t remember the room number, but as you got off the elevator, we were in the first room to the left, which was connected by a bathroom to a triple room. 

“It was an active floor full of normal students, and I was one of them. We formed an innertube water polo rec team, in which we lost almost every game — or at least it seemed like it. I, occasionally, played in the weekly card game. 

“A student from the southern part of Illinois taught me how to rope a cow in the hallway, which was a lot more difficult than hitting a volleyball. 

“It took forever to catch the elevator and it was awful trying to parallel park in the snow outside, but I loved Bromley Hall.”