Maureen Stuhlman honored during SLT Council meeting as member of historic Mighty Macs

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In honor of Women's History Month, Maureen Stuhlman of the South Lake Tahoe Code Enforcement team was celebrated during Tuesday's City Council meeting. Not only has she been an integral member of the Vacation Home Rental (VHR) enforcement team since 2013, but she was also a member of the championship college basketball team known as the Mighty Macs from small Immaculata College. The school is credited with being the birthplace of modern American women’s basketball and the subject of the 2011 movie, The Mighty Macs.

The idea of highlighting Maureen's contribution to women's basketball and the City of South Lake Tahoe was brought forward by resident Noel Farmer.

"Maureen is pretty quiet about this sort of thing. She probably does not remember telling me about her history, but it came out during a conversation regarding a VHR situation I believe in 2015," said Farmer. "Somehow the topic of what I was doing came up and I reveled I was pursuing my first love of acting after retiring from the high tech industry. She bought up that there was a movie filmed about her college basketball team, The Mighty Macs. My curiosity took over and I did some research and was shocked with I found out the significance of what she and her teammates had contributed to women’s athletics."

With Farmer's daughters involved in sports, he has had an interest in woman’s sports for some time. He lived in Seattle and neighbors with the president of the company that owned the Seattle Supersonics when the women's team, the Seattle Storm, came into the league. He used that connection to present Maureen with a basketball signed by the team during the meeting.

Maureen started with the City in 2013 on a part-time basis as the VHR auditor, then moved into a full-time position in 2017 as the code enforcement investigator.

The Mighty Macs were coached under Cathy Rush. She took the small women's college team Maureen was part of to three national championships 1972-74.
They played in six straight AIAW basketball tournament final fours from 1972 to 1977, five straight finals from 1972 to 1976. It was 50 years ago this week that Immaculata won the first National Women's College Basketball Championship.

There were only 400 students at the time.

On January 26, 1975, Immaculata played in the first nationally televised women's intercollegiate basketball game. Facing Maryland at Cole Field House, Immaculata won 80–48.

On February 22, 1975, they played in the first women's college basketball game ever played in Madison Square Garden. Immaculata won 65–61.

Immaculata University, now coed, is a private Roman Catholic university is in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Shown below is an ESPN segment about the real-life team.