One sunny afternoon, four women got together for a game of pickleball in a backyard in Olivenhain, CA — just outside Carlsbad and Encinitas. The weather was perfect, the company was great, and before long, everyone was chatting and laughing between points.
That’s when two of the players realized something surprising: they had both graduated from PLNU… 50 years apart.
Lynda Coe, née Kinard, graduated from PLNU in 1976. She was a serious tennis player during college and even competed on the men’s tennis team with her doubles partner, Margie Feller Gundert, since this was before Title IX existed. These days for Coe, tennis has taken a back seat to pickleball, and she now has her own beautiful court in her backyard, where she plays several times a week.
Their story is a fun reminder of how pickleball has a way of bringing people together — across families, across generations, and even across a half century of PLNU history.
Coe started out at Pasadena College in 1972. Then came the big move her sophomore year, when the entire school shifted down to Point Loma and took over the campus of California Western University. Her class is special because they’re the last group who attended both Pasadena College and what eventually became Point Loma Nazarene University.
She remembers the campus move as bold and exciting — a huge step with tons of potential for the university. And she couldn’t have asked for a better new home: a gorgeous oceanfront campus on the Point Loma peninsula.
Five decades later, Hannah White (25) completed her Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a minor in graphic design. She grew up active and competitive, doing gymnastics and tennis at La Costa Canyon High School, where she was MVP her senior year in gymnastics. Recently, she’s gotten hooked on pickleball, thanks to her parents, Ed and Eleanor, who pulled her in whenever they needed a sub for their matches.
White isn’t just athletic — she’s musical too. She played bass guitar at PLNU and at local churches, and she serves on the media team as well. She has a deep love for the Point Loma campus and feels grateful for students like Lynda who helped shape the school in the 1970s.
White and her mother first picked up pickleball in 2020, playing in the street of their La Costa Valley neighborhood. Her dad is an enthusiastic pickleball player as well, and she shares a musical streak with her two older brothers. Through her mom, White eventually met Coe on the court. Although their undergraduate experiences were separated by 50 years, only a net stood between them the day they were introduced. They quickly realized that their shared PLNU roots had shaped them spiritually, personally, and academically.
Their story is a fun reminder of how pickleball has a way of bringing people together — across families, across generations, and even across a half century of PLNU history.
