Homecoming's Grand Marshal Molly Brennan was in disbelief when she was contacted about the opportunity to serve as grand marshal this year. But immediately after, she felt an immense feeling of honor.
“It was overwhelming,” Brennan said. “You’re supposed to represent what’s good about the university. You’re supposed to embody that spirit and that tradition.”
Brennan, an alumna of MSU’s class of 1982, has a great list of achievements from her time at the university.
A prolific track and field athlete in college, Brennan was named an All-American twice, served as captain of MSU's first Big Ten women's outdoor championship team and was inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame. Off the field, Brennan graduated second in her class while studying both computer science and humanities. Her academic prowess earned her a Rhodes Scholarship to obtain a Master in Philosophy at Oxford University.
“I am profoundly grateful (for) the opportunities that MSU gave me,” Brennan said. “I recognize what it did for me, and I want other students to have that opportunity.”
A fearless girl to an athletic leader
While growing up, Brennan never thought of herself as a trailblazer. She remembers playing on the boys basketball and track teams in middle school but never felt out of place or as if she was breaking tradition.
“I didn’t have the mentality of women’s liberation," Brennan said. “I didn’t do it because of a rationale that it ought to be this way. I just wanted to play.”
It wasn’t until high school, Brennan said, when she began to understand the limitations society was attempting to place on her.
Brennan said she was barred from competing in the state track and field meet since girls were not allowed to run on the boys team, even though that was her only viable option. Facing the possibility of her daughter being unable to compete at the highest level, Brennan’s mother encouraged members of the high school board to allow the formation of a girls team.
“That’s when it first really struck me that sometimes you’ve got to push for those women's rights,” Brennan said. “It wasn’t there, and it was wrong.”
The disparities only became more stark when competing in college. Until her senior year, the women's track and field team could only compete in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women since the NCAA didn't recognize women's sports then. But in their first year of competition in the NCAA, Brennan’s team won the first women's track and field Big Ten championship.
“Athletes have played an important role in the civil rights and Title IX movements,” Brennan said. “We lived it. We didn’t realize we were living it, but we were that first group.”
Brennan's life after MSU
After finishing her education, Brennan joined General Motors Co. as both an engineer and driver for the winning GM’s Sunraycer solar car team in the first World Solar Challenge. There, she set four solar and electric land speed Guinness World Records.
Alongside creating a documentary commemorating the moment, Brennan went on a speaking tour for primary and secondary schools across the country with the goal of promoting STEM education.
“I’ve had people come up to me 20 years later that said, ‘You came and spoke to my school, and I’m now in engineering,'" Brennan said. “It obviously did have an effect on people.”
A forever Spartan
From the moment she arrived on campus, Brennan never doubted MSU's significance in her life. To her, MSU is the school that gave her the opportunity to study what she loved, compete at the highest level and create lifelong friendships.
“I love MSU,” Brennan said. “From when I was recruited and stepped foot on that campus, it felt like home.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Even after graduating, Brennan remained involved with the university by serving on a variety of committees and boards in the College of Engineering and the Alumni Office. Brennan and her husband, William Devlin, have put significant philanthropic efforts toward the establishment of a scholarship for students in the Honors College and College of Engineering, a faculty award in the Honors College and an endowed fund centered on the Honors College's sustainability.
“I will always be a very strong advocate for Michigan State,” Brennan said. “I bleed green.”
As Brennan leads the homecoming parade down Grand River Avenue on Sept. 22, she said one person will be on her mind: James Bibbs, MSU's former track coach who was named last year’s homecoming grand marshal.
“He was my coach and a phenomenal individual,” Brennan said. “I am humbled to follow him.”
From the moment Brennan donned a Spartan uniform, she has felt inextricably tied to MSU, she said. To her, being a Spartan is an identity that follows you for the rest of your life, impacting you in countless ways.
“I am a Sparty," Brennan said. "I will always be a Sparty. I am proud to be a Sparty.”
