For Dan Cruttenden ’73, honoring his wife, Linda Repp Cruttenden ’71, is about much more than love – it’s about celebrating a lifetime of achievement, perseverance and advocacy for women in sports.
In 2020, Dan established the Linda Repp Cruttenden Scholarship through the Lock Haven University Foundation (LHUF). Since then, the scholarship has provided $1,000 annually to a student-athlete on the women’s basketball team who embodies leadership on and off the court. Recently, Dan and Linda decided to take their commitment one step further, pledging a major estate gift to ensure their scholarship, and its impact on young women, will be endowed in perpetuity.
“It’s all about helping women and supporting equality,” Dan said. “Linda worked so hard and accomplished so much, often without the support or recognition she deserved. I wanted to ensure her legacy lived on in a way that inspires future generations of women to keep pushing forward.”
Dan and Linda’s story began at Lock Haven in 1969. He was a freshman athlete competing in four sports, including soccer, track and basketball, while she was a junior Delta Zeta sister, active in Greek life and representing her sorority on Homecoming Court. Linda and her roommate worked as scorekeepers for intramural basketball, which is where Dan first noticed her. She initially turned him down – she wasn’t interested in dating a freshman – but eventually agreed to go with him to a dance in the Parsons Union Building (PUB).
That night a relationship began that has spanned more than 56 years of love and partnership. Married since 1974, the Cruttendens have shared life’s victories and challenges side by side.
After graduating from Lock Haven, Linda returned to her hometown of Allentown and became a health and physical education teacher at Louis E. Dieruff High School, and she quickly made her mark as a trailblazing coach.
“I felt really blessed to be part of what she was doing when she was coaching,” Dan reflected. “I got to experience all that joy and success right alongside her – it’s truly been a blessing.”
Under her leadership, the Dieruff girls’ basketball team soared to back-to-back PIAA state championships in 1975 and 1976, achieving a national ranking as high as No. 7 in the country.
At a time when resources for women’s athletics were scarce, Linda’s accomplishments were remarkable – especially given she coached with no assistants, while the boys’ program had multiple. “She was winning state championships, while being paid less than the assistant coaches for the boys’ team,” Dan said.
Her fiery advocacy for women’s equality drew national attention. When asked by Sports Illustrated in 1976 about gender disparities in athletics, Linda famously quipped, “If boys had to play in skirts they probably wouldn’t even try out.”
Linda didn’t stop with basketball. She became one of the first women in the region to coach boys’ volleyball, leading her teams to three consecutive District XI Championships from 1978-80, and later went on to officiate boys’ volleyball at the state championship level.
Her record of success and her relentless advocacy earned her inductions into multiple halls of fame, including the Dieruff High School Athletics Hall of Fame and the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2018, Dieruff High honored her legacy in the most fitting way possible – by dedicating its gymnasium floor as “Linda Repp Cruttenden Court.”
Yet beyond the titles and accolades, what defined Linda most was her ability to connect with her athletes. “Even today, if one of her former student-athletes sees her, they run up to hug her,” Dan said. “They love her to death. She has this incredible knack for coaching – kids played hard for her because they loved and respected her.”
For Dan and Linda, supporting CU-Lock Haven students through their scholarship is both a personal joy and a way to carry forward values that shaped their lives. They regularly attend LHUF’s scholarship brunch and women’s basketball games, where they’ve met and cheered on their scholarship recipients.
“Being a donor is an absolute win-win for everyone,” Dan said. “It’s good for the students, good for the university and good for us. There’s no downside to helping young people succeed.”
Linda, always humble, admits she wasn’t sure about having a scholarship in her name at first – but today, she feels honored and deeply moved by the opportunity to inspire others. “It’s good for my heart,” she said. “It makes me proud to support these young women. Not everybody has help or a chance in life, and if I can be part of giving them that opportunity, it fills me with joy.”
“Lock Haven is a place that’s near and dear to my heart – it’s where I met my husband, where I grew up as a person and where I gained the confidence to succeed,” she added. “I hope this scholarship encourages our recipients to realize how special they are, and to go out and do great things.”
Through the scholarship that bears her name, Linda’s legacy will forever live on at CU-Lock Haven – one rooted in excellence, equality and the power of mentorship. For Dan, it’s the perfect tribute to the woman he has loved since that first dance in the PUB more than half a century ago.
“I’m just so proud of her,” Dan said. “She deserves every bit of this recognition. She worked so hard, she achieved so much and she changed so many lives. This scholarship is just one way to make sure that her incredible impact on others will carry on forever.”