That’s What Friends Are For: The Story of Women’s Basketball’s 1986 Ivy League Championship Team
2/14/2026 12:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball
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When Jayne Daigle Jones '86 thinks about the 1985-86 Dartmouth women's basketball season, a song comes to mind.
That's What Friends Are For.
"That was the number one song at the time [on the Billboard Hot 100], and that was essentially our team's theme song," said Jones. "We just pulled together. There were some hard things that we overcame, which glued us together.
"It was a very special team."
Looking back to the season 40 years ago, the Big Green finished 15-11 overall and 9-3 in the Ivy League in sharing the championship with Harvard.
It marked the second Ivy crown in the career of the senior class, who also won during the 1982-83 season. Among the senior class was Jones, along with Sue Stoddard Santos '86.
Jayne Daigle Jones
"What comes to mind [about that season] is the teammates and the people," said Santos. "I never thought of myself as a big mentor, but as a senior, I got really close to this freshman class. This past summer, I went out and visited Liz Walter (who went on to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year that season) in Montana. It was a very, very close-knit team — the seniors, the freshmen and everyone in between."
Santos credits Walter to bringing up the level of intensity.
"She was a very intense person, very competitive and very aggressive on the court," said Santos. "That helped drive our success for that year."
The 1985-86 season was the start of five straight Ivy League championships.
The Big Green were under second-year head coach Jacqueline Hullah. They began the season with losses to Wake Forest and Vermont, but quickly responded with victories over Yale and Brown. Dartmouth was just 3-5 over the next eight games, but was gaining chemistry as a group.
One of those moments of chemistry, and one of Jones' favorite memories, came off the court.
"New Year's Eve, we had a slumber party in the suite where Sue and I lived, so we got to celebrate that together," said Jones.
It was one of many examples of camaraderie, which would translate to the court. Beginning January 10, the Big Green won three straight games and seven of the next eight, five of them being Ivy League victories. Seven of those games were also at home.
Dartmouth did not lose a regular season home conference game. The Big Green were receiving strong support from the home fans, due partially to Jones and Santos being local (Jones grew up in Lebanon, N.H. and Santos was from Newport, N.H.).
"Our parents would get together and travel around to many of the schools, but being local, they could go to every home game," said Santos. "There was a decent local crowd who would come to the games and really give a homecourt advantage. The 1985-86 season was the last year in the old Alumni Gym."
Jones was a proven star in the Ivy League. She immediately earned Ivy Rookie of the Year, was a four-time first team All-Ivy honoree and was named the league's Player of the Year in 1986. She went on to be named to Dartmouth Athletics' Wearers of the Green and a Legend of Ivy League Basketball.
Most of Jones' numbers as a senior were slightly lower than years prior, but it was all about what was best for the team.
"By my senior year, I was often triple teamed, and I was just beaten up in there," she said. "I never really thought about how many shots I was taking. It was all about if I had a good shot, I would take it. Jackie (head coach) had a different philosophy [than previous years]. She would put us out there for fewer minutes and want us to give everything we had, then we could rest."
Jones was a staple at center and surrounded by plenty of talent.
"You had Sue and Terry Fortin at guard; Terry was incredibly fast," said Jones. "Sue could drive in while Liz Walter was a workhorse, and so tough underneath."
During that 1985-86 season, Jones averaged 17.4 points and 8.8 rebounds, with Walter finishing the year with averages of 14.8 and 8.6 per game, respectively. Stoddard tallied 8.7 points per game while dishing a team-leading 76 assists. Bev Hagerdon averaged 8.7 points and 4.1 rebounds, respectively.
"We just kept moving," said Jones, when asked about the team's style of play. "We were coached to get to the open spot. Our coach was really good on fundamentals. Sometimes, we would push it and sometimes, we would try to slow it down and read whatever the other team was doing."
The seniors set a winning culture, which spread to the rest of the team.
"This was our last time through the league," said Jones. "This was it; there was no redo after this. The class of 1986 featured really hard workers, and the four of us seniors were just like 'Let's Go.'"
The group knew how to win, because they had (as first-years). But after that point, they had been through a lot of change, including a coaching change from Chris Wielgus to Hullah when they were juniors.
Jones' individual accomplishment speak for themselves. She left a lasting legacy, with endless awards and accolades, but championships trump them all, especially that championship as a senior.
Sue Stoddard Santos
"Our team met a lot of tough challenges [over the course of the season], so it was really meaningful to get the banner," she said. "When people see that banner, they don't know everything that was behind it. It's a very special banner."
Through challenges of the season, the student-athletes had each other to lean on.
And the relationships have continued post-Dartmouth as well.
"Part of the beauty of the Dartmouth women's basketball program are the connections with each other," said Jones, referring to both teammates and alumnae who played before and after her. "We celebrated Laurie Lopes' 60th birthday in Rhode Island this past fall (a junior on that 1985-86 team)."
Whether it was 40 years ago at the slumber party or today celebrating birthdays, the 1985-86 team remains glued together.
