Five Women Elected to Foxcroft School’s New Sports Hall of Fame

“This Sports Hall of Fame honors not only our founder, Charlotte Haxall Noland, but also the School’s motto, ‘mens sana incorpore sano’ -- a healthy mind in a healthy body,” Leipheimer said. “I can think of nothing more fitting to celebrate Foxcroft’s Centennial.”

The inductees were elected by a panel of eight voters comprised of Athletic Director Michelle Woodruff, Director of Riding Kate Worsham, former athletic director Joan Eliot, and five alumnae who played and/or coached at Foxcroft: Cricket Bedford ’85, Jessi Coil ’06, Stewart Chapman Herbert ’77, Victoria “Vicky” Howard ’71, and Jennifer Sgro Orfield ’91. Fred McMane, a coach and unofficial historian of Foxcroft athletics, prepared the ballot of nominees and supervised the election. For more on the Hall's nomination and selection process, please see our Sports Hall of Fame page.

Clark, a member of the Class of 1973 who rode and played field hockey and basketball during her years at Foxcroft, is chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, founded by her grandfather. She is also an influential force in the equestrian community.

A former president of the American Horse Shows Association (now U.S. Equestrian Federation), Clark is also a past president and CEO of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation. She has also served as a senior vice president of the U.S. Equestrian Team, director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and member of the Fédération Equestre Internationale Executive Board. She owns a number of world-class dressage, driving, and show-jumping horses, including three that won medals in the Olympics (1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney, and 2004 in Athens). Clark also owns two bulls -- Evil Doer and Ludicris -- on the Professional Bull Riders circuit.

“It's such an honor to be voted into the Foxcroft Hall of Fame,” Clark said. “To be part of the same class as Juliet Graham, Nina Fout, Miss Charlotte, and Teresa Shook is an incredible feeling."

Fout, a 1977 graduate of Foxcroft who still lives in Middleburg, is one of the leading performers in United States equestrian history. She helped the U.S. win the team bronze medal in three-day eventing at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and has represented the U.S. at the most challenging CCI four-star competitions in the world, including the top three in Great Britain. She continues to compete in horse trials as well as to teach and to conduct riding clinics.

As a 16-year-old Foxcroft student, Fout earned the title of Junior National Eventing Champion by winning the Peters Trophy at the 1975 Radnor Three-Day Event. At Foxcroft, however, she rode very little. “My goal was to concentrate on team sports,” said Fout, who played field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and tennis, and was also Captain of the Hound Team her senior year. At Hollins College (now University), Fout played field hockey and basketball, earning a place in the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.

"I was voted into my college hall of fame, but I never expected that Foxcroft would have one,” said Fout, who teaches, conducts clinics, and continues to compete in horse trials. “It's quite an honor to be in the first class.”

A member of Foxcroft’s Class of 1972, Graham was born in England and raised in Calgary, Alberta. For 10 years, she was a member of the Canadian Eventing team, competing in three World Championships and earning a team gold medal in 1978. Graham also competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics on her mare, Sumatra.

"I was speechless and very honored," Graham said after receiving a phone call from Leipheimer informing her of her election to the Hall of Fame.

“I did only riding while I was at Foxcroft and rode solely on campus,” she added. “We competed in events all over the area and, of course, I competed in Canada in the summer as well.” Graham first tried out for the Canadian Olympic Equestrian team in 1972 -- the year she graduated from Foxcroft -- and now serves on the Selection and High Performance Committees for the Canadian Eventing Team.

An Upperville, VA, resident, Graham still rides a lot -- hunting with Piedmont Foxhounds and competing at local horse trials -- and teaches with the Piedmont Equine Practice in The Plains, VA.

Noland, or “Miss Charlotte” as she was called, founded Foxcroft School in 1914 at the age of 32. She served as headmistress until 1955 and included sports as part of the School’s curriculum from the start. A graduate of the Sargent School of Physical Education at Harvard and an avid rider, Noland taught riding and, according to the first school catalog, “personally superintend[ed] the sports and exercises.” She introduced a campus horse show, fox hunting, and a 60-mile field trip by horseback to the Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley, all of which persisted as School activities for many years.

An accomplished basketball referee, Noland also introduced that game to Foxcroft students, both as the centerpiece of the beloved Fox/Hound intramural tradition and on an interscholastic level. Serving as her own athletic director, she scheduled the School’s first interscholastic basketball game in 1917 and its first road trip in 1921. Foxcroft sports steadily grew under her leadership. Noland died in 1969.

The other posthumous inductee, Shook, or “Shookie” to the Foxcroft community, graduated from Foxcroft in 1930 and returned to the School shortly after her graduation as a member of the faculty. For 35 years -- from 1932 to 1967 -- she taught at Foxcroft, serving as head of the athletic program, director of riding, basketball coach, and director of the military drill program.

As a student, she was a starting forward on the 1929 and 1930 Foxcroft interscholastic basketball teams and her contribution to the growth of Foxcroft sports in her years as athletic director and coach were exemplary. This was recognized in 1967, when the Teresa E. Shook Award was initiated in her honor. The prize is given annually “to the girl who has shown skill in performing a sport and has made and outstanding contribution to the spirit of good sportsmanship.