Almost every morning, three stray cats on campus come running to the back door of the women’s locker room waiting for Diana Higgins, the locker room supervisor, to feed them.

These cats have come to trust her, and if anyone else comes to the door, the three black cats will scurry away, said Brittney Crossland, her staff assistant.

“They trust her,” Crossland said. “All three have different personalities, but one lets her pet him.”

It’s not only the cats that depend on Higgins; the kinesiology and athletic departments depend on her for everything from passing out equipment to the students to cleaning all the athlete’s jerseys.

“She’s the person you go to if you need anything,” said Toni West, assistant women’s basketball coach—whether it’s a bag to borrow or a piece of chalk to draw out plays. “She provides anything and everything you need.”

After 40 years working as the locker room supervisor and a total 42 years working at SF State, Higgins announced her retirement.

“When she leaves here, it’s the end of an era,” said Vivian Petrucci, Higgins’ friend and athletic department administrator. “That’s how important she is.”

“Her professionalism, warmth, personality and humor—that’s all going to be greatly missed.”

Higgins started working at SF State in the university administration offices in 1966. After a friend told her of the locker room position opening, she jumped right on it.

Higgins oversees the women’s locker room and has staff to maintain the men’s locker room. Higgins manages events that take place in the gym, but that’s only part of her job description. She is also involved with the athletes behind the scenes.

“She does a lot of stuff that doesn’t get recognized,” said Krystle Mays of the women’s basketball team. “It shows her true character.”

Higgins’s duties include washing all the teams’ uniforms, ordering equipment, handling players’ guest lists for games, setting up before games, staying after the game to help clean up and dealing with ticket sales.

Coach Jack Hyde of the women’s soccer team said he relies on Higgins to help order equipment and that she helps set up everything for the fall.

“She comes across firm,” Hyde said. “She wants her system to work because she has so many teams to work with.”

It is expected by Higgins that all athletes pick up jerseys the day after they are washed, Hyde said.

Mays said she will miss Higgins’ yells over the intercom, both serious and joking, asking students to pick up their jerseys or telling random movie trivia.

“As for the incoming freshmen, they won’t know what they’re missing,” Mays said. “But as far as the people who’ve been here know, she won’t be replaced.”

Thinking of all the people, memories, and experience, Higgins said she will miss the students the most.

“The students have kept me young,” said Higgins, who said she enjoys the same things as the students.

“You’ve got to know that when I first came here, I was younger than the students,” Higgins said, adding that now she’s old enough to be a grandmother, though she declined to state her age. “We didn’t have computers. Things are much faster now.”

Higgins realized that she will not be alone when it comes to transitioning into unfamiliar territory when she retires. For support, she seeks the students who will be graduating and are experiencing a similar transition.

Higgins constantly and energetically runs around the gym to maintain her daily routine in her warm-up pants and a sweatshirt and works out on her lunch break to stay healthy.

“I have to be doing something,” Higgins said when she retires. She’s excited that there is now a chance for her to find a hobby such as painting and visiting museums.

Higgins has always had a passion for working with the sheriff’s department and plans to volunteer there or with the highway patrol.

This was something she wasn’t able to pursue when she was younger because when her son was young he was injured on the playground. She focused on her son and was not able to pursue her goals of working with law enforcement.

“People always say when you’re leaving that you will be missed,” Petrucci said. “She will be missed, but she will not be forgotten.”