Before Alabama’s Luisa Blanco dazzled on the balance beam, before Florida’s Trinity Thomas wowed the nation with her floor routine, and before Auburn’s Suni Lee impressed the world with her bar routine at the Olympics, there was the Crimson Tide’s Penney Hauschild Buxton, the first SEC gymnast ever to win an NCAA title.
Then she won three more.
For all her accomplishments with the Crimson Tide, the four-time NCAA champion, 10-time All-American and back-to-back Honda Award winner was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame last November.
“What an amazing and deserved honor for a trailblazer in both our sport and program,” head coach Ashley Johnston said in a statement. “Penney helped pave the way for our program to become a national powerhouse. She has helped set a precedent and created a legacy of excellence that our current athletes can look to for inspiration. We are so excited for her to receive this recognition.”
As a member of the 56th class, she will join 400 other honorees as a crucial part of Alabama sports history.
However, she will be only the 20th woman elected.
Buxton’s former coach, Alabama gymnastics legend Sarah Patterson, is one of those 20 women.
“I couldn’t be more proud of Penney’s accomplishments; she is so deserving of this honor,” Patterson said in a statement. “Penney was our first national champion, and created a legacy that has led Alabama gymnastics to a championship culture. It will be one of my greatest memories to have her join me in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and continue her influence and support of women.”
Buxton said the nomination was a complete surprise, but now that it’s settled in, she’s most looking forward to joining Patterson as an honoree.
“To be able to share this with her, I get teary-eyed just thinking about it,” Buxton said.
Buxton said she didn’t truly appreciate her time with the Crimson Tide until she had to leave, and her time there was much more than just earning national titles under Patterson’s dynasty.
“The things we learned went so far beyond athletics,” Buxton said. “I can honestly say it probably made me a better human being, and that’s no exaggeration. I look back fondly of my times in Tuscaloosa, I really do.”
After ending her Alabama career in 1986, Buxton turned to coaching. First at Maryland, then at Stanford, and eventually at home with her three sons. She took a break from coaching to raise her family, but as soon as they started expressing interest in gymnastics, Buxton jumped right back into coaching.
Coaching boys’ gymnastics was new to her, but Buxton said many of the skills transferred over and it was worth it to coach her kids. When they went off to college — one became a team manager for Alabama gymnastics — she retired, but her involvement with the sport hasn’t faltered. Although she lives in Michigan now, Buxton still attends Alabama camps and meets and impacts the program’s current gymnasts.
“I have known Penney for years not only as an Alabama gymnast, but also from my home gym back in Michigan,” graduate student Mati Waligora said. “She, along with other gymnasts before me, have served as great role models and inspired the desire in me to leave my own mark on Bama gymnastics.”
The ceremony will take place in the Birmingham Ballroom at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel on May 4.
