Very rarely do athletes of non-revenue sports become celebrities.
A non-revenue athlete agrees to long days, hard work and personal sacrifice. They agree to toil away at their sport in complete anonymity. But every once in a while, an athlete can break free of this mold and become a star.
But such a non-revenue athlete is very rare. Yet somehow Duke housing put two such athletes together in the same freshman dorm. The story only got better when the next year they decided to be roommates.
For the last four years, Jenny Chuasiriporn and Vanessa Webb have been more than just a golfer and a tennis player. They would be the last to admit it, but during their Duke careers they have become superstars.
They have graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, they have competed in their sports' Open tournaments and their images have been plastered on a poster. The accolades are too numerous to list, but in their time at Duke, Webb and Chuasiriporn have amassed seven All-Americas between them and five ACC player of the year awards.
Both graduated this May, but the duo still had NCAA tournaments to attend. Now that the spring season is complete, however, after four years of athletic dominance, Chuasiriporn and Webb have left for good.
But their legacies will remain for much longer.
They have brought their teams into the national elite and leave behind programs much more prominent
In 1998, Webb became the first Blue Devil woman to win an individual championship. This past May, Chuasiriporn became one of the first Blue Devil women to win a team championship.
"We've had a great friendship slash genial rivalry," Webb said. "We always push each other to do better. I remember when I won [the NCAAs] at Notre Dame, she called me up and congratulated me, and I said, 'Now it's your turn.' And of course she won the title this year, so she did it and I guess she won between us, bringing home the big one."
The big one is the team championship Webb was never able to grasp. Four years, four Final Fours, zero championships. Last year she guided her team to the finals and won the individuals tournament, but she came to Duke to win the team title, marking perhaps her only failure in collegiate tennis. And although she never won that elusive national championship, she has no regrets.
"I've thought about what it would have been like if I went to [powers] Stanford or Florida a lot recently," Webb said after the NCAAs. "But I don't think I'd do anything differently.... It's more than just the tennis. Duke is Duke, which says a lot.... When I made my choice to come here, I thought it was the best choice and when I leave here, I still do."
Chuasiriporn is equally enamored with Duke.
"These four years have summed up what golf means to me," she said. "The team play and the team camaraderie is what I like about golf, and it's why I play this game. I love the team and it's been such an important part of my development in golf. I really owe it to the coach and the team for helping me get better."
Chuasiriporn stole the hearts of golf fans worldwide when she sank a 40-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Women's Open to force a playoff in 1998. Agents pursued her after the Open, but Chuasiriporn wanted an NCAA title, which she finally got this past May. And while Chuasiriporn did not have her strongest tournament, the talent around her would not have been possible four years earlier. Duke was good B.C. (before Chuasiriporn), but not good enough to legitimately compete for a national championship.
"Over the last four years, I don't think anyone has represented Duke as well as Jenny Chuasiriporn has," Duke coach Dan Brooks said in a speech dedicating the national championship to her.
The same can be said of Webb. Who else can claim they were a triple major in a four-year collegiate career that also happened to include over 180 tennis matches and an NCAA title?
Two athletes like Chuasiriporn and Webb are truly tough to come by. It's hard to believe they were once living in the same room.
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