Nancy Cahill '79 began swimming at an early age in her home state of Washington. By high school, it was apparent she was talented enough to continue on at the collegiate level. Cahill, though, wanted more from her college experience than just swimming accolades. She wanted a life experience.
 
"I visited schools where I could hear coaches say to an athlete `you missed practice,' and they would say 'I have an exam,' and the coach would say 'what kind of excuse is that,'" Cahill remembered.
 
That kind of environment was not for her.
 
"I was horrified to think of that," she said.
 
Thankfully, she discovered Yale. The swimming coach, who spoke to her by phone, was impressed with her times. Equally important, the admissions office was impressed by her academic credentials, and she was accepted. Despite never visiting Yale, she headed off to campus in the fall of 1975.
 
It's a decision she has never regretted.
 
Cahill took full advantage of the Yale experience. In addition to excelling in the pool, she wrote for the Yale Daily News and served as the PA announcer at women's basketball games.
 
"I always felt very encouraged by the coaches to share about what I was studying," she said. "They really cared about what I was learning. There wasn't ever a sense of that extra work you are doing on a paper is going to impact our team."
 
The Bulldogs enjoyed plenty of success in the pool, capturing the Ivy League championship in her junior season.
 
That same year, Cahill took on a new challenge – joining the Yale softball team which was just beginning.   She served as the team captain her senior year in 1979.
 
Cahill was a good all-around athlete but hadn't played formal softball since her grade school days.
 
"Nobody was expecting anything of me when I came out for softball," she said.
 
She and her teammates – many of whom also played other sports at Yale – proved any doubters wrong.
 
Cahill worked her way into the starting lineup and the Bulldogs won four games in 1979, despite playing a challenging schedule against far more established programs.
 
"Our first team was a really cool combination – two field hockey players, two swimmers, one that played volleyball, a couple basketball players," Cahill said. "We were all competitive, we were good athletes, and we were willing to work hard. We didn't get blown out like we could have. Our focus was just to get the bat on the ball, and we weren't afraid once we got on base to have an aggressive running style. We used a lot of good, common-sense aggression. It was really fun because that scrappiness defined us."
 
The Bulldogs' home games were played on what is now an intramural field and a parking area for football games at Yale Bowl, a far cry from the lavish field next to the Carol Roberts Field House, Yale's current home for softball. The original field had no backstop and the benches had room for maybe six players.
 
"There wasn't an outfield wall. If you hit a home run it was because the outfielder could not get to it in time, but that was similar to where we were playing elsewhere," she said.
 
There were great memories off the field as well as the team shared a very close bond.
 
Cahill remembers manager Janet Rosenblum making up board games for the team to play on its long bus rides. Rosenblum also had memorized the entire script, including songs, to the Wizard of Oz and would recite and sing them to the amusement of the team.
 
"Only at Yale could you have this sort of creativity," Cahill said.
 
Cahill was also close with her swimming teammates – both on the men's and women's teams. Because of her speed in the breaststroke, she often trained with the men during her first two seasons at Yale.
 
"There was great cooperation between the teams," she said.
 
Following graduation, Cahill, a history major, spent two years as a teacher and assistant swimming coach at Greenwich High School in Connecticut before she elected to return to her home state and attend law school at Seattle University. She's spent more than 30 years practicing law and is now a principal with Holman, Cahill, Garrett, Ives, Oliver & Andersen in Seattle. Cahill has established several dozen public and private foundations in the non-profit sector and advises on charitable giving to benefit entities and programs in the United States and third world countries. The charities have made grants in excess of $800 million to support programs in the U.S. and elsewhere.

 

Cahill also has remained active in athletics. In 1988 she started volunteering at the University of Washington as mentor for the women's basketball team.
 
"I began to think of what it would have been like when I was at Yale if I could have talked to someone who had been through a Division I sport and understood how to balance busy time commitments and academics," she said.
 
That helped lead to a role with the WNBA's Seattle Storm where she has served as the team's volunteer chaplain since 2003. During her time, the Storm has captured four WNBA championships, and she has watched the league undergo tremendous growth.
 
More importantly, she has been an outstanding role model for many players that have been a part of the organization.
 
"It's allowed me to love and care for them in totally non-basketball ways," she says. "Because I don't get paid by the team, because I don't determine their playing time, I get to be a safe person in their life. It's been really fulfilling."
 
She's remained close to many of the players she has mentored, some who now have families of their own; she sees them as positive influences in their communities.
 
Cahill also maintains close ties to Yale and Yale Athletics. She was one of nine founders of WISER, an endowment that has raised more than $2 million to support women's athletics at Yale. In 2011, she was a recipient of the George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award.
 
She also remains a close friend of the swimming and softball programs, offering advice – both personal and career – to student-athletes. More than anything, she stresses the importance of serving the community.
 
"What's important to me is how are ways that that kind of network can help for good," she says.
 
That was one of the many lessons she learned at Yale.
 
"I do believe it's not an accident that so many Yalies go on to do lots of volunteer work and make a difference," she says. "It becomes contagious. It's by design that Yale admits people that are more than one dimensional. That was something that was important to me, and from the people I come into contact with at Yale now, I see those same qualities."