When Robin Hamilton came to the University of Puget Sound 20 years ago, the school was looking primarily for a sports information director someone who serves as a conduit between the athletic programs and the media and someone to coach a spring sport.
"I was hoping golf was available," Hamilton said Tuesday.
Instead, the then-24-year-old took over the softball program.
She became the winningest coach in school history when she earned her 406th victory two weeks ago, bettering the 405 wins compiled by Don Zech, who coached the men's basketball team from 1968 to '89.
"Cal Ripken is sort of my hero," Hamilton said, referring to the Baltimore Orioles great who owns the major league record for consecutive games played. "It's an old-school thing. But I'm proud of it and what it took to get it. It has had to do with perseverance. People don't stay at the same school for very long anymore."
But Hamilton has. After playing volleyball and softball at Idaho State, she graduated with a degree in journalism and was hired by the school as its SID. She worked for the Bengals for three years before hearing about the SID opening at UPS.
"At the time, there were only about four women SIDs in the country working at a school with a football program," Hamilton said. "So that was part of my motivation to take the job. The SID position was the main reason I was hired.
"I feel very sorry for the kids I coached in my first few years. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing."
Hamilton remained as the SID at UPS until three years ago, juggling the responsibility along with her softball duties.
"I'd come back from a road trip (for softball) and do baseball stats and game stories and send them out," Hamilton said. "It was a challenging combination. The people I felt sorry for were the spring sports, they didn't have an SID at their events."
Which is why UPS made the SID a full-time position three years ago. Hamilton also serves as the Loggers' associate athletic director and events coordinator.
She does her day job pretty well, too, with 14 winning seasons, two NAIA national runner-up finishes and five all-conference and all-regional coach of the year awards.
This season the Loggers started 15-5, and are in third place in the Northwest Conference with a 5-3 record.
"I still get a big kick out of the student-athletes," Hamilton said. "They're so energetic, and college students are much more resilient than we are as we grow older. It's refreshing.
"I've never won a game or gotten an out or a hit. I sit on my bucket and drink Diet Coke and eat sunflower seeds. The players have done all of the winning."
Hamilton does her part to keep her teams together. For 20 years she has used what she calls Logger buddies, where players and coaches each pick someone to give a small token to before every road game. Hamilton says she has a pretty impressive, if unusual, assortment of trinkets she has saved over the years.
During spring break two weeks ago while playing in a tournament in Southern California, Hamilton took her team to a taping of American Idol. The Loggers sat in the fourth row.
"How many 45-year-old women get to do that over spring break?" Hamilton said. "The minute I don't look forward to going to practice, it's time for me to retire."
That likely won't be anytime soon.
After being media chief for the Goodwill Games at the Tacoma Dome in 1990, Hamilton worked in the press box of the softball portion of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. She took a six-month leave from UPS in 2000 to be the media director of softball at the Olympics in Sydney.
"I was one of those press people that knew something about softball," Hamilton said. "That's one of the advantages of being at the same place for so long. I'm given latitude to grow professionally and try new things. I've lived an adventurous life and I've been very lucky. I really like what I do."
The Loggers could say the same thing.