Photo 1: Marlene Stager as a Morris Catholic Crusader (courtesy of Marlene Stager)

By Steve Sears

When Marlene Stager looks back on her basketball career with the Morris Catholic Crusaders and her college years with the University of Connecticut Huskies, she fondly recalls the enjoyment she had in a sport that she didn’t start playing competitively until her sophomore year in high school.

Darrell Halloran, who in the 1970’s coached the boy’s basketball team at Morris Catholic, assumed the role of the girl’s team as well. During her freshman year, Stager didn’t play basketball, but watched through the windows of the gym. In Stager’s sophomore year, Halloran was her Cultural Foundations instructor. He would also, eventually, become her head coach, he continuously encouraging her towards the hardwood. “He pushed me to give it a try, and then spent a lot of time during my high school career with me developing my skills, developing my understanding of the game. I was just very fortunate in that capacity,” Stager recalls.

During her three seasons at Morris Catholic, the team was competitive, participating on a few occasions in the Morris County Tournament, and made an appearance in the state tourney as well. The seed was sown, as a few years later, the Crusaders would compete at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands. “My mother was the one who kept reminding me that we were pioneers,” Stager says. 

College was not yet in sight for Stager as she approached her final years at Morris Catholic, until there was the possibility of an athletic scholarship. Her junior and especially her senior season buttressed that possibility. During her final 1977 – 78 campaign, she averaged 15.3 points and 12.8 rebounds per game for the 16 – 4 Crusaders, and had her greatest game, connecting on 19 of 22 shots for 39 points in a triple overtime loss to Morristown. Afterwards, she was spotted at a summer league game at Franklin High School by a UConn men’s basketball player, who notified then-Huskies’ coach, Wanda Flora. “I was 6’ tall, strong, and I was blessed to also have some speed,” Stager says. “And, because I had the high school coaching I had, I could handle the ball.” She was recruited by the Huskies, and headed north. “It was a tremendous gift. Basketball presented a tremendous opportunity for me, and the opportunities that have come from that continue.”

With UConn, Stager became a record setter for what at that time was a humble program. During her steady four-year career, she averaged six points and five rebounds per game, but most of all was a formidable player in the “paint.” In addition to her scoring, she was always given the assignment of defending the opposing team’s tallest inside player, and to also keep them away from the boards for rebounds. “I was always defending someone who was two to four inches taller than me,” Stager says, who also was a good shot blocker. She was the first lady Huskie to play every game of her collegiate career, and holds the single season record for free throw percentage. She shot 88.1% from the charity stripe in her 1980 – 81 junior season. 

There is an interesting rejoinder to her art of free throw shooting, and it happened early in her collegiate career. “Interestingly enough,” Stager says, “somewhere along the line, there was an article about how much my free throw shooting had improved, which it did. But I was shooting free throws – and I’m right-handed – with my left hand because I had broken my wrist and they taped it up so tight. I couldn’t actually bend my wrist. I played at a time where they would tape up your wrist as opposed to saying, ‘Okay, you’re done for four weeks.” It also made her a better player, and it harkened back to Halloran’s tutelage. “My high school coach was definitely adamant that there was no value to having a one-sided game. That was something we always worked on.” Proficient at shooting layups with the left hand, Stager started bettering her aim 15 feet from the basket with the left hand as well. “Close range, short  range shots, my left hand got better. It kind of forced that.”

Stager, who graduated from UConn in 1982, finished with 608 points for her career, and was still a member of UConn’s top 20 all-time female scorers when the Huskies won their first national title in 1995.

Stager (who now works as a counselor for a not-for-profit in Westchester County, New York) and her husband, Chris Bledsoe, have been married for 36 years. The couple has three sons, Jordan, Dylan, and Ethan.