CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 1

NEWMAC, Seven Sisters, MAIAW and
New England championships.
In her time at Smith, her teams
and athletes have made 26 NCAA
national appearances, had three
individual national champions and
over 60 of Smith student-athletes
have received All-America honors.
Grills has had two state winners in the
national NCAA Woman of the Year
program and she also celebrated with
eight athletes as they hit their 1,000th
career point in basketball.
Grills also received numerous
accolades for committee work over
the years. She served on the 90th
Anniversary of Women’s Basketball
Committee in 1993 and coordinated
the festivities at Smith that received
national coverage, including the
reenactment of the first game played
at Smith in 1893. She served on this
committee again in 2003 when Smith
celebrated the 100th anniversary.
As Smith College was a founding
member of the Seven Sisters
Championships and the NEW 6 (now
NEWMAC) conference, Grills was
a representative who attended the
inaugural meetings. During the first
three years of the NEW 6, she served
as the conference’s official basketball
statistician. She compiled the minutes
from the first four years of all the NEW
6 meetings, wrote the first policies
and procedures handbook for the
conference and also served as the
NEW 6 treasurer.
Grills also volunteered for many
years in the media room during the
Basketball Hall of Fame’s Tip-Off
games.
“Carole was also a trailblazer,”
Crosley noted. “She was one of the
first female sports information directors
in New England, and was a constant
proponent for the advancement of
women in college athletics. Many of
her former students have gone on to
very successful athletic administrative
careers, and all of them have given
Carole much of the credit for their
success.”
Ann King, SID at The Sage
Colleges said of Grills that “In her
retirement announcement to her
colleagues, the underlying concern
expressed by Carole was not that of
concern for herself but that of others,
such as what the cutbacks in the
sports information profession at Smith
would do to the students and coaches
she has worked so hard to promote
and advance through her tireless
dedication. She also expressed
a concern for her fellow sports
information professionals as to how
this would affect them in their work.”
“Having known Carole since the
late 1980’s, she became a mentor, a
colleague, and a dear friend, added
King. “I cannot think of a more worthy
candidate for this unique honor as
she will become the first female
from Division III to be the recipient
of CoSIDA’s Lifetime Achievement
Award!”
Grills is the mother of two
daughters and has one grandson and
three granddaughters. Both of her
daughters are graduates of Smith who
went on to pursue graduate degrees.
Jennifer received a law degree from
Villanova and Amie a doctorate in
clinical child psychology from Virginia
Tech.
Daughter Amie commented that
“it wasn’t easy sharing my mom with
her ‘needy other family’ - the coaches,
not the athletes - but what I realized
as an adult is what an important role
model she was for my sister and me.
She was one of only a few working
moms among our friends’ families and
she often had to find creative ways to
manage her professional and personal
lives. We saw flexibility, dedication,
and most important her ability to have
work and family life balance. She also
pushed us to strive for excellence,
which is what she modeled through
her own work.”
CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 62