Grit, Wind, and the Madeleine Cup: Mary Brigden Makes Navy Sailing History

In this installment of 50 Years of Excellence in Women's Athletics at the Naval Academy, we bring you Mary Brigden from the Class of 1981. Mary was an accomplished sailor by the time she was in high school, winning several junior national championships while growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

When she got to Annapolis, where Mary traded in her X-Scow for a 420 and rebuilt her game under coaches who sharpen her skills to get her ready for collegiate racing. She makes strategic choices to collect coed regatta starts, chases All‑American points, and engages is a daily strength training program that sharpens her edge. The result is a skipper ready for a defining test.

The ICSA Championships in Charleston, SC deliver that test. With whitecaps and wind in the high gears, rivals expect Navy to fade. Instead, Mary and crew Karen Mulvaney stack top‑three finishes, conserve energy where it matters, and attack when it counts. The final race is a clinic in control: hiking through gusts, holding shape, and driving clean while the fleet eases to survive. The payoff is a big time trifecta—the Madeleine Cup for winning the Women's A‑division, the Gerald C. Miller trophy, given to the best women's team, and the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy, crowning Navy as the 1981 national champions. Finally, there was Mary's history making achievement of being named the first woman All American in any sport at the Naval Academy, the culmination of a long held dream. 

If you like these kinds of stories, check out the episode. Follow the show, share it with a friend who loves college sailing or Navy sports, and leave a review to tell us your favorite moment from Mary’s rise.

Transcript

Lead In

Karl 0:15

It's the summer of nineteen seventy-three. You're twelve years old, and like previous summers, you're getting ready for another sailing season. Several years ago, your family started coming to Lake Beulah about thirty miles southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Your parents immediately enrolled you and your brothers and sisters in sailing school, and you've been learning to sail ever since. It's been pretty fun so far, but you haven't yet gained the experience needed to be competitive during racing season. Not only have you not won a race yet, you usually end up crossing the finish line last. But hey, you're still learning. Besides, you enjoy sailing, being out on the water, the feeling of the wind in your face, and experiencing the speeds your boat can reach when things are going just right. Today, you and your younger sister Irene are getting ready for the start of another race. There are about twenty to thirty boats out on the water with you, and it looks like it's going to be a great day for sailing. The boats you are racing are called excows. They are about sixteen feet long with a beam of just over six feet. The hull weighs just under five hundred pounds, and the mast is eighteen feet high. You and Irene go through some final checks prior to things getting underway. Like in any other type of race, the start is very important. And it's something you haven't quite figured out yet. Whether it's starting too early, getting pinned, or having to deal with an unexpected windshift, something always seems to happen that puts you behind the curve. This time you say, it's gonna be different. Unfortunately, it wasn't. You get pinned by another boat early and have to tack away quickly to get back to some clean air. Luckily, things open up and you have a little bit more room to maneuver. Even though you're behind, it could have been worse. So you quickly assess the situation, pick out a line that you want to take to the first mark, and instruct Irene on what to do to get back into the race. Now things begin to shift in your favor. The position you had going into the start worked out great. Even though it was a rough one, you've chosen a great line to take advantage of the existing conditions. You and Irene continue to tack up wind, and you quickly realize that you'll be in the lead at the first mark. As you begin the second leg, you can hardly believe it. In the past, you've been so far behind the leaders at this point that you were out of contention. In fact, your family tells you later that the crowd was totally shocked when they saw your boat in first place. You and your sister keep working together, and the boat's speed increases sharply on the way to the next mark. This is known as the reach leg. Everything is starting to click now and your lead continues to grow. Nothing changes as you make the turn to the third mark. The other boats haven't been able to cut into your lead, but it's not over yet. You still have one more upwind and downwind leg to complete before heading for the finish line, so you and your sister stay focused on maintaining your advantage. Finally, you make the turn for home, and it's pretty clear you're going to be the winner. As the finish line approaches, you have the most amazing feeling. Because this is when you've come to the realization that not only do you love to sail, you are now a sailor. From Navy Sports Central, I'm Karl Darden, and this is another special episode commemorating 50 years of excellence in women's athletics at the U.S. Naval Academy. This is the first of two episodes featuring Mary Brigden from the class of 1981. Mary entered the Naval Academy in July 1977 as an accomplished sailor, and she made her mark on the sailing team almost immediately. In 1980 and 1981, she earned All-America honors as a co-ed skipper in intercollegiate sailing. That made her the first woman that Navy to become an all-American in any sport, and it is my privilege to bring you her story. Mary Brigden grew up with eight brothers and sisters. With a family that large, you'd be correct in assuming that annual vacations would be quite a huge undertaking. And sure enough, going on a trip while trying to manage nine children proved to be a logistical nightmare. So her parents decided to go in a different direction. When Mary was in grade school, they bought a small cottage on Lake Beulah about half an hour's drive outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was where she spent part of her summers. It was all a new experience for her entire family. Outside of a swimming pool, they had never spent any time around the water before. And they noticed that just about everyone with a cottage on Lake Beulah had a small sailboat tied up in front. That's when her father decided that the whole family was going to learn how to sail. At first, it did not go well. They encountered so many mishaps and disasters, it would have made a great comedy movie. But things got better. Mary and her siblings would go to sailing school in the mornings and race in the afternoon. It was all pretty low key, and slowly but surely her skills began to improve. It would take some time for the results to show, though. It seemed like Mary's boat always ended up finishing last no matter what. But despite these less than encouraging outcomes, she stuck with it. And then one afternoon, everything changed. Mary and her sister Irene finished first in a double-handed race, and that was after getting off to a poor start. But everything seemed to come together on the water that day. Whether it was getting her boat in the right position on the course, deciding to tack at just the right time, or maximizing the boat's speed on the reach leg, it all clicked. It was an incredible feeling having all that hard work pay off. And now that she had picked up her first win, Mary decided to commit herself to becoming the best sailor she could be. The following year, she qualified for a junior national race in her boat class and ended up finishing second. So from one summer to the next, Mary had gone from bringing up the rear in virtually every race to runner up in her junior national division. She was a sailor now, and as her success continued, Mary became fully invested in sailing. She enjoyed excelling at academics in high school, but she'd loved sailing even more, and that's what she identified with the most. So from that point forward, sailing became Mary's primary focus, and every decision she made was tied to how much it would help her become better underwater. By the time she got into high school, Mary was winning junior national championships on a regular basis. Her skills and her knowledge grew at a rapid pace, so besides racing during the summer, she also taught sailing to the younger kids. And when the school year started, she had a part-time job at a sail loft making sails. Between school and going back and forth to her job, Mary's schedule was pretty busy. But she didn't mind. The more she could do to stay connected to sailing, the better. Before long, it became time to make college plans. And Mary basically had two questions. Which schools have the best sailing programs? And what is it going to take for me to get in? It's the fall semester of your high school senior year. Classes have already started, and you're busy going over applications for the colleges you are interested in attending. These schools all have very good sailing programs. Yale, Harvard, and Princeton are just three of the ones you have on your list. There's only one problem. None of these Ivy League schools offer any kind of athletic scholarships, and the annual tuition costs are pretty steep. That was one point your dad made very clear. So, it was time to come up with some creative financing ideas. Your dad mentioned ROTC scholarships. In exchange for a commitment in the reserves, the scholarship would cover tuition and books. So that would solve a lot of your problems right there. Now you began to look at which of the schools on your list offered these ROTC scholarships. Never mind the fact that you had no idea what the military was like. You hadn't even seen anyone in uniform up close. But none of that mattered. As long as it was a way to get into a college with a good sailing program, you were all in. At about this time, you receive a call from a recruiter from the sailing team at the U.S. Naval Academy. You'd never heard of the place. In fact, when he tells you they're located in Annapolis, you thought he said Indianapolis and replied that you didn't think they did much sailing in Indiana. Needless to say, nothing really became of that call. Meanwhile, your dad began to put a plan in motion. It was one that you would not become aware of until several months later, but it would change your life forever. It's a Saturday morning in the spring of 1977. You and your father have just completed a college visit to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. the day before. Georgetown is one of the schools you've applied to. Their sailing program is considered among the best on the East Coast. It's been a good trip so far. As you get to the car after leaving the hotel, your father casually mentions that the Naval Academy is only about 45 minutes away. Since you don't have to be back home until Sunday, he suggests taking a drive over to Annapolis to see what it's like. You agree, thinking it certainly couldn't hurt. When you arrive, the first thing you notice is a beautiful campus. The most prominent feature is the Naval Academy Chapel. With its dome rising to 210 feet, it dominates the skyline. As you and your father walk around the yard, as it's known, you reach the seawall and see quite a bit of action on the Severn River. It turns out that there's a regatta taking place, and Navy's intercollegiate team is competing. As a matter of fact, you see sailors from many of the schools on your list. And then you see the sailing center. It was gorgeous. The other colleges didn't have a facility anywhere close to this. That's when you get a bit of a sinking feeling in your stomach. You look at your dad and you tell him you may have made a big mistake. But all he does is smile and say, I tell you what, let's see if we can go meet the coach. Minutes later, you're speaking with the head coach of the Naval Academy sailing team. As he begins to tell you about the program, you take a quick glance at your dad. He still has this faint smile on his face, and now you're getting the sense that this has been all prearranged. When the coach is finished, he invites you to stay overnight with one of the women on the team. Suddenly things are moving pretty quickly, but you still want to learn more, so you take him up on the offer. Overall, you are very impressed with the visit. But the fact was it didn't really matter because it was in the middle of the spring and the incoming class was already being selected. You never even filled out an application. But your dad wasn't having any of that. As soon as you get home, he pulls out all the forms needed to apply. He fills them all out and has you sign. You also end up taking a physical somewhere in the next two to three weeks. About a month later, you get a letter from the admissions office saying that you are in fact medically, physically, and academically qualified to attend the academy. But you're also told that only 90 women would be accepted, and due to the late application, you're on the waiting list. If there are enough candidates who turned down the appointment, you'd be accepted. That was fine with you though, because you had a lot of plans for the summer, all of which centered around sailing. It's late June 1977. You are at North Sail, the sail loft in Milwaukee where you've been working for the past few summers. The phone rings and one of your coworkers yells out the call is for you. When you pick up, the man on the other end of the line says he's Senator Gaylord Nelson. He and William Proxmire both represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. Senator Nelson has called to inform you that he has selected you to attend the Naval Academy. And because induction day is next week, he needs to know very quickly if you'll accept. Your first thought was that your boss was playing a prank on you. You told him all about your trip to Annapolis in the spring, and you wouldn't put it past him to pull something like this. Eventually, you realize that it is in fact Senator Nelson, and no, he was not joking. This was the opportunity of a lifetime, so of course you accept the appointment. During the two and a half months since you had made the trip to Annapolis with your father, you had done some research and discovered that the Naval Academy had one of the finest sailing programs in the country. And now, one week later, here you are on a plane headed east. No one knew it yet, but by the time you're finished, you will have permanently stamped your name into the Navy Sailing Program Record Books. When Mary Brigden arrived at the Naval Academy on July 6, 1977, no one had any idea of the legacy she was going to leave behind. In fact, hardly anyone handling all of the induction day activities even knew she belonged there. Because she was one of the last candidates who accepted, that information didn't get to everyone on time. So that was just another issue that the people processing the incoming class had to deal with. Needless to say, it was just one more headache they didn't need. Things did get sorted out though, and finally, Mary began her transition to Navy life with the rest of her class. Without even knowing it, she was better prepared than she initially might have thought. She had plenty of practice keeping a low profile, coming from a family with nine kids, and she had always been a good student, so getting used to the academics wasn't much of a problem either. After the brigade returned to start the academic year and Mary was into her routine, she turned her focus on the sailing team and what it would take to earn a spot racing against the other schools. She knew it wasn't necessarily going to be easy, but she was more than ready for the challenge. You are in your second class year at the Naval Academy, and things have been going pretty well since you've been on the sailing team. There were some kinks to work at at the beginning, though. For starters, you are now racing in dinghies known as 420s instead of the scows you were used to in high school. The 420s were a little different. Their overall length was 13 feet 9 inches, they had a beam of 5 feet 4 inches, the draft was just over 3 feet, and the total weight was anywhere from 220 to 260 pounds. So they were lighter than the scows you were used to sailing on Lake Beula. And though it sounds a little counterintuitive, that meant more physicality was required to maneuver them effectively, not less. Your strengths as a sailor were drawn from your abilities as a tactician. You were very skilled at assessing the situation during a race and being one step ahead of things like shifts in the wind to put your boat in the best possible spot. But you were going to need a little bit more now to compete with these other sailors at the collegiate level. You had to become more skilled at handling these smaller, more maneuverable boats. To put it in baseball or even golf terms, you needed to rebuild your swing. And for that, you turned to your coaches. Two of them in particular were especially helpful. They had been intercollegiate sailors prior to graduating, and they had been temporarily assigned to the academy while waiting for their next set of orders. They were the ones who taught you the nuances of sailing these 420s, especially when it came to body position during the different phases of the race. Knowing these little subtleties could be a big difference maker. And it was because of these coaches that you became more proficient sailing these boats. Sure, there are a couple more gaps to fill in here and there, but you were well on your way to becoming one of the best skippers on the team. By the time your junior year began, you believed you were ready to make a big breakthrough. But there was one other issue that was hanging you up. During your first two seasons, you had plenty of chances to race in regatta's up and down the East Coast. You could race in either the coed division or the women's division, and you racked up your fair share of wins. But there was just one problem. The point totals that determined who would become an all-American came only from the coed races. The women's races were not considered. At first, you didn't have a big issue with this. Early on, it was all about getting reps for as many sailors on the team as possible. And if a weekend came up that had both women and co-ed racing in the same or maybe even different regattas, you were okay competing in the women's division if that resulted in putting a solid fleet of boats out there across the board. But your goal was to become an all-American. And that wasn't going to happen unless you had a chance to race in more co-ed regattas. Besides, after two years of being one of the top skippers, you figured you'd earn the right to approach your coach about this and see what he had to say. And just to help influence the decision a little, you told him that your crew was going to be one of the male team members. That fact alone removed any possibility of competing in the women's division. Your coach agreed, if you were one of the top two skippers that week, you would race in the coed regatta in order to begin accruing points to become an all-American. It turned out to be a great season, and by the time it came to an end, you had been named as an honorable mention All-American. That was pretty awesome, and it represented a huge achievement for both you and the Academy. But you knew that wasn't enough. And next year, you plan to take care of some unfinished business. It's the fall of 1980, the start of your senior year. At your first sailing meeting, your coaches get everyone together to share some pretty good news. The fitness company Nautilus has entered into an agreement with the Academy to showcase some of their new fitness machines. They would like to select three teams, develop individualized programs for the athletes, and track their progress. The sailing team is one of the three that's been chosen. This is something completely new to you. Over the years you've done your share of aerobics classes, but weight training? The thought never really crossed your mind. Still, if there was even the slightest chance that these weird new weight training machines named after a seashell could help, then you were more than willing to give it a try. So for 30 minutes each day during your lunch period, you and your teammates make your way over to the Holiday Field House to get those workouts in. They aren't easy, but whenever things get a little bit tough, you remind yourself of why you're doing this in the first place. Over time, you definitely started to see the results. When getting the boat ready to sail, certain tasks where you needed your crew's help before could now be completed unassisted. And during races, the evidence was even more clear. Being a little bit stronger translated into being faster and even more efficient at getting your boat in the right position on the course. And when you put that together with both your skills and those of your crew, this became an unbeatable combination. Throughout the racing season, you and your team racked up wins in one regatta after another, and by the time the national championships rolled around, Navy was considered to be one of the favorites. That was all well and good on paper, but all you cared about was getting it done on the water. Because at the end of the day, that was all that anyone was going to remember. It's the spring of 1981 in Charleston, South Carolina. You and your entire team are getting ready to compete in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships. At stake is the Leonard Foal Trophy, which is awarded to the best college sailing team in the country. This will be determined by how well the teams perform across all divisions. You and your crew, Karen Mulvaney, will be competing in the women's dinghy division. Over the course of four days, you will be going against 20 of the top schools in the country in 18 races. These championships will use the low point scoring system. This simply means that the points awarded will be based on where each boat finishes. So the crew that finishes first gets one point, second place gets two points, and so on. After 18 races, the crew with the lowest point total is declared the winner. The key in these championships is consistency. It's not necessary to win every single race. Putting together a long streak of top three finishes is far better than one or two first place finishes, followed by several that are outside the top five or top ten. That's what you and Karen plan to do. You'll take the wins if they come, but the primary objective is to pile up as many top three finishes as possible. If you could do that, that's going to make you very tough to beat. You are very familiar with your competition, and while you do respect them, there is a certain amount of trash talk going on. In these championships, your opponents believe that they have the upper hand. That's because the weather forecast calls for very, very windy conditions. They know the Navy women are good sailors, but they have also been known to have a tougher time when the wind is really up. The crews that do the best in these circumstances are usually among the strongest physically. That has not been your rep in the past, and the opposition knows it. They think they have you over a barrel. After engaging in a little back and forth with the other boats, you look right at Karen and tell her, We got this. These girls have no idea what's about to happen to them. From there, the fight was on, and it didn't take much time for the other boats to realize that they were in for a very long competition. Those high winds that everyone thought would be so tough didn't even begin to spell the word problem for you. In race after race, you were consistently among the top three boats by the second mark, and as each one ended, you started to rack up quite a string of top three finishes, even winning a few of the races. With just one more race to go on the last day, it looks like you're in the driver's seat. You're confident of another top three finish, but you really want to make a statement to close out the competition and win the national championship in the women's division. Just like in the other races, the wind was an absolute monster. As you and Karen prepare for the start, there are whitecaps everywhere you look. The starter's horn sounds, and all the boats jockey for position in order to be the first to the upwind mark. You and Karen are perfectly in sync as you tack your way up the course. Same as before, you are among the top three boats to make it to the first turn. The three of you begin to get a little separation for the others, but it's still anybody's race. You continue to work your way around the course, holding onto your position as you clear one mark after another. The wind is whipping like crazy, and you could feel the spray of the water hitting you in the face. There is no place on the planet you'd rather be right now. You round the final lured mark with the rest of the fleet in tow. The Madeleine Cup that goes to the A-Division winner, and the Gerald C. Miller trophy, which is given to the winner of the women's team title, both hung in the balance. You could sense that the other crews were just about at their physical limits, and this is where you decided to make your move and turn out the lights. You tell Karen to get ready to attack, and upon giving the command, both of you execute it as you head for home. The wind is relentless, but you don't shy away from the multiple gusts that hit you as you come down this last leg. Instead, both of you hike out aggressively, making the wind work for you, while the other crew seem to be fighting it. Your bodies are locked in a rigid, powerful line that keeps the boat driving forward. Meanwhile, the competition was faltering. Your rivals were forced to ease their sails on this final leg just to stay upright. In those final hundred yards, your boat slices through the chop like it was nothing. The other boats are far behind. And as you cross the finish line and secure the championship, you look at Karen and say, See? I told ya. With her win at the 1981 ICSA National Championships, Mary Brigden took home the Madeline Cup, recognizing her as the best sailor in the Women's A division. Over the course of 18 races, she and her crew, Karen Mulvaney, slowly ground their opponents to dust. That was due in no small part to the Nautilus workouts that became part of the sailing team's practice routine earlier in the year. Mary's win was so dominating that it gave the Navy women the team title as well, earning them the Gerald C. Miller Trophy. And to top everything off, this solid performance combined with the win in the men's division meant that the Navy sailing team walked away with the Leonard M. Fole Trophy, recognizing them as national champions for 1981. Then there was the matter of that unfinished business from last year. When the ICSA put out their list of coed All- Americans, Mary's name was right there front and center. It was the culmination of a dream that was several years in the making. And as it turns out, she wasn't quite finished dreaming yet. By the way, if you like what you've heard on this show, please be sure to follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcast. And by all means feel free to share it with every Navy Sports fan you know. The music for this episode was provided by Nathaniel Wolkstein from Fiverr as well as Audio Jungle. These are two terrific sources for finding music for just about any kind of project while supporting those who create it. And finally, the content and opinions shared on Navy Sports Central are my own and in no way represent the views of the Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. Talk to you soon, everybody, and until next time, this is Karl Darden. Go Navy. Beat Army.