Nancy (Perry) Hendricks has witnessed nearly 40 percent of UW-Eau Claire's 105-year athletics history, including eight different Directors of Athletics (two interim) and 108 different head coaches.
She was the behind-the-scenes glue that connected a vast program that grew to 25 intercollegiate sports during her tenure and encompassed between 600-800 athletes and over 400 events per year.
The tools of her trade as the department's lone full-time secretary changed significantly over the years. When she started, documents were typed on dittos and mistakes were corrected with a razor blade or retyped.  Several innovations that improved her job included liquid paper, offset printing, self-correcting typewriters and eventually computers in 1984. She was the face of the department as the department receptionist, directing visitors, media and recruits to coaches in a building that did not feature a central office area for the entire staff.
When she started, the only copying capabilities in the office were carbon copies or ditto machines. For the first 37 years of her tenure, the athletic offices were located on the upper campus and printing services was on lower campus. With no delivery or pickup service available, anything that needed immediate printing required a trip down and up the 165-step staircase through Putnam Park that divides the university's upper and lower campus. Eventually, the department obtained copy machines and with technology, those eventually included duplexing, collating and stapling capabilities which in her early years was done by hand. In addition, printing orders could be emailed and the finished products were delivered later in her career.
At one time, the university maintained a fleet of vehicles and Hendricks worked with coaches to schedule vans for travel to away meets or games and practices in some cases. When the university eliminated its fleet, Hendricks was then responsible for scheduling buses or vans from outside agencies.
Until recent years when the technology existed for coaches to do recruiting through social media, Hendricks would often have to send out recruiting letters to all of the coaches in Wisconsin and Minnesota plus some select states beyond in various sports.
She would work with coaches and the admissions office to track athletes as they were admitted and with the housing office as athletes were scheduled into the allotted rooms once they were admitted.
In the years preceding email and the internet, the sports information department's press releases were mailed out weekly to local, state and hometown media.
As all athletes are required to have a physical exam and complete numerous forms before they can practice, Hendricks would have to help schedule physicals and checklist the forms for every sport.
She assisted in the eligibility process, particularly with distributing eligibility documents or sending out tracers for every athlete that transferred in.
In advance of every sport, Hendricks would develop schedules and contracts for game personnel other than officials assigned by the conference office for home events.
Hendricks would be responsible for typing up the final nomination forms for athletes who were nominated for all-conference, all-region, All-American, all-academic and other team awards as well as all the bid paperwork necessary for hosting post-season events.
When coaching positions opened up, Hendricks worked with the Directors of Athletics and the human resources office to schedule interviews and arrange the necessary lodging for candidates. In later years, all job searches started and ended with her.
Hendricks was also a key cog as the department ran regular golf outings as fundraisers and other fundraisers such as the Final Four Fun Fest.
While some sports enjoyed more success than others, there was plenty of work involved for everyone when a sport hosted post-season competition. That included the 1984 NAIA men's ice hockey Final Four, the 1986 NAIA women's Gymnastics Championship, the 2003 and 2011 NCGA gymnastics nationals, the 1994 NCAA Division III women's basketball Final Four, the 2004 NCAA Division III men's and women's cross country championships and six NCAA Division III softball national championships (1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2010 and 2013). The latter were major events that involved eight teams and competition spread out over four or five days. All of the national events also involved hosting a pre-meet banquet for which Hendricks did a lot of the planning.
In addition, during Hendricks' tenure, the university hosted six NCAA softball regionals, a volleyball regional, two cross country regionals, a soccer regional, two women's basketball sectionals and a baseball area tournament.  The Blugolds were also hosts for many single regional or NAIA District 14 games in the team sports.
Many post-season events involved late selection and administrative pressure to pull them off in a condensed timeline and Hendricks could be found working after hours to help with the preparations.
Her position also included the routine duties of scheduling meetings and appointments, maintaining files, ordering and maintaining an inventory of supplies for a staff that numbered upwards of 60 individuals. In her later years, the job also included the cash management duties of counting receipts, invoicing and paying invoices.
With the support of many colleagues, Hendricks received the university's Classified Staff Excellence in Performance in 2009.
Marilyn Skrivseth, who worked alongside Hendricks for over 30 years, said that she "was the heart and glue that kept things going smoothly during transition after transition with personnel." She said that the thing she will always remember was her "unending kindness and helpfulness towards everyone who came in contact with her. Never once did I ever hear her say 'It's not my job.'" Skrivseth pointed out that while a lot of people have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, "I can't think of a single person who had a greater positive impact on more students, coaches and administrators than Nancy. She is the definition of an MVP, an All-Star and now a well-deserved Hall of Famer."
Scott Kilgallon, the Blugold Athletics Director from 2004-14, said "The great successes of our coaches, student-athletes and myself during my time at UWEC would not have occurred without the hard work, dedication and athletics knowledge by Nancy. I often said Nancy had the equivalent of a PhD in Athletics Administration, particularly when it came to the planning and successful hosting of many NCAA Regional and National Championships."
Dan Schumacher, who became AD in 2014 and subsequently moved the athletics administrative offices, including Hendricks, into Brewer Hall on lower campus, said "You will find nobody more kind, patient and knowledgeable than Nancy when its Blugolds athletics and the university. Her guidance and knowledge allowed me to navigate my first years of my tenure as AD."
Tim Petermann, who worked alongside Hendricks for most of her Blugold tenure as sports information director, assistant to the AD and two years as interim AD, said "I am amazed at the calm and even-tempered disposition that Nancy displayed over the years, considering how many coaches thought she was their personal secretary and how many different personalities she encountered between coaches, student-athletes, recruits, game personnel, officials and fans. There was nothing she couldn't handle and handle well."
During the course of her Blugold tenure, Hendricks married one of the student sports information workers in Marty Hendricks, and the couple had two children, Chad and Ashley, and two grandchildren. Chad ended up being a Blugold tennis player and currently works for Amazon in Seattle while Ashley works for Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire. Nancy's husband, Marty, is a senior account executive for Fox 25/48 television in Eau Claire and covers the Green Bay Packers for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Packer Plus.
