Louise Glenn Breedlove (CSM Class of 1974)
First CSM female varsity swimmer
Early-stage Genentech employee
“I had always been the type to swim with every ounce of competition you’ve got, then leave it in the pool. I found that again in myself when I swam for CSM.”
After the 1972 federal law known as Title IX mandated educational equity for women, the first female athletes to benefit were often those who could join men’s teams.
CSM’s first female varsity swimmer was Louise Glenn, an elite youth athlete who had quit the sport several years earlier but returned for the new opportunities for competition. Her year as a Bulldog paved the way for other women athletes and helped Glenn expand her own horizons and forge a new career path.
“It was me and 11 guys,” Glenn remembered. “I didn’t have a clue about Title IX. But a guy I used to swim with told me about it. I decided to join the team.”
Swimming coach Leon Faure welcomed the Mercy High alumna on deck. “I don’t remember him being surprised,” Glenn said. “He was very, very receptive. He gave me the No. 1 sweatsuit for being the first girl. He always complained about unlocking the women’s locker room, but as a joke.
“And he changed my name to Louie, so I would fit in.”
At first, her male teammates were unwelcoming.
“Nobody would talk to me at practice for maybe two and a half weeks,” she said. “Then one of the guys cracked a dirty joke and I laughed. And everything was fine after that.”
As an 11- and 12-year-old swimming for a top San Mateo club, Glenn said, she had logged top-25 world times in the individual medley and butterfly and had traveled widely for meets. Yet returning to practice four hours a day was tough.
“I was so tired after practices that I’d go home and fall asleep talking to my mom,” she remembered. Worried about her grades, Glenn decided to quit after a certain big meet that would cap off her season. At that meet, Glenn beat several male opponents and lifted the Bulldogs from seventh to fourth.
“I had told Mr. Faure I’d decided I was going to quit, that maybe it wasn’t my time, and he told the guys. We were down in Santa Cruz in a restaurant after the meet and all the guys went down on their knees and begged me not to quit. Imagine: 11 guys down on their knees. And I swam the rest of the season.”
Glenn went on to Chico State University and competed for its women’s swim team. She later returned to CSM for more science classes. She married her physics lab partner, James Breedlove, ’78, earned a degree in clinical science at San Francisco State and became a laboratory analyst.
“A friend from CSM and said he was working at this new place called Genentech. I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds interesting.’ I became something like badge number 150. The stock allowed my husband and me to buy our house.”
Glenn has a pool and still swims. She swam recreationally in a Genentech triathlon open-water swim. She treasures her CSM memories.
“CSM was very encouraging in all kinds of things. ‘You can do anything’ was the attitude. Be what you want to be. If you have to figure it out as you go along, do it.
“It was a wonderful place and I would go there again.”
