1. Mary Wise's father Richard Fischl was a dentist, and her mother Lila managed his dental practice.
17 Facts About Mary Wise
1. 2.
Mary Wise attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where she played for the Purdue Boilermakers volleyball team from 1977 to 1980.
3.
Mary Wise was a standout setter, and was twice named to the All-Midwest Regional team, while the Boilermakers won two Big Ten Conference championships in 1979 and 1980.
4.
Mary Wise was 21 years old when she became the head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones volleyball team at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa in 1981; she was the youngest Division I coach in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
5.
Mary Wise had been out of coaching for a year and living in Kentucky in 1986, when she was offered an assistant coaching position on the Kentucky Wildcats volleyball program staff at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
6.
Mary Wise rose from graduate assistant in 1986 to associate head coach in 1990.
7.
Mary Wise was hired as the head coach of the Florida Gators volleyball team at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in 1991.
8.
Mary Wise is one of only two coaches in conference history in any sport, men's or women's, to win as many as nineteen conference titles.
9.
Mary Wise's expertise has led to numerous appointments on international coaching staffs.
10.
In May 2006, Mary Wise guided the USA Volleyball A2 Team at the US Open Championships as the volleyball community became one of the first groups to compete in a large-scale event in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.
11.
Mary Wise's Gators showed a commitment to playing an active role in community leadership and involvement.
12.
In 2003, Mary Wise helped raise $7,500 for the Children's Miracle Network after more than 4,000 Gator fans packed the O'Connell Center for a match against South Carolina.
13.
Mary Wise picked up the number one recruiting class for the class of 2008, as she signed the Gatorade National Player of the Year and top recruit, Kelly Murphy, as well as five other recruits ranked in the top 50.
14.
On February 6,2025, Mary Wise announced her retirement from the University of Florida after 34 seasons.
15.
Mary Wise became the first ever coach to win 100 straight games and was the first female coach to coach in the NCAA national championship final, as well as being the first female coach to coach in more than one NCAA Final Four.
16.
Mary Wise became the first female coach in NCAA Division I history to win 15 conference titles in the first 15 seasons at one school, thus becoming the only coach to ever win 130 consecutive regular season conference matches.
17.
Mary Wise is the first coach to ever win 90 percent of matches in the first 16 seasons at one school and she reached the 500 win plateau faster than any other Division I female coach.