1999

Catherine “Kit” Green

Catherine “Kit” Green served as an administrator for University of Washington athletics for more than 20 years. Under her guidance, women’s sports at the University of Washingtonblossomed. Green joined the Athletic Department in 1974 as Associate Director for Women’s Athletics, then as Associate Director for Intramural Activities and as an instructor in the Department of Physical Education.
At her retirement from the University of Washington in 1994, Green was serving as a Senior Associate Athletic Director. She oversaw all personnel, program and budget responsibilities for 21 men's and women's Olympic sports.

A graduate of Skidmore College, Green taught physical education at Middlebury, Seattle University and at the University of Washington before joining the administrative field.

Considered a pioneer in women's sports, Green has earned numerous awards and recognitions, including induction to the Husky Hall of Fame in 1999 and the NACDA Hall of Fame in 2000.

Della Durant

Della Durant served as Assistant Director of Athletics and Associate Professor for Physical Education at Pennsylvania State University. In 1964, she became the first coordinator of the women’s varsity program. Durant is credited with laying the foundations for the highly successful Pennsylvania State Women’s Athletics Program.

Durant’s passion for the advancement of women in athletics led her to serve on numerous AIAW and NCAA Committees, including the NCAA Council and NCAA Eligibility Committee. Durant also served as Chair of the NCAA Women’s Fencing Committee.

Durant is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame and was awarded the Katherine Ley Award in 1989 for her commitment to the expansion of opportunities for women in athletics.

Dr. Luella Lilly

A pioneer in University of California, Berkeley women's sports, Dr. Luella Lilly served as the Bears' Women's Athletic Director from 1976-92. During her 17-year tenure, the Bear women won 28 conference championships in eight of 11 sports, plus national crew titles in 1979-80 (varsity 8, varsity 4) and 1983-84 (novice 8, varsity 4).

When USA Today began ranking overall excellence of women's sports programs in the country in 1985, University of California, Berkeley ranked among the nation's top 12 each of the final eight years of Lilly's tenure, including an all-time high of fourth in 1989.

In 1999, Lilly was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by NACWAA. As the school's original Women's Athletic Director, Lilly established the Cal Women's Hall of Fame in 1977-78 with those inductees now part of the California Athletic Hall of Fame, in which Lilly is a member.

Dr. Maria Sexton

Dr. Maria Sexton was an influential leader in national and international efforts to provide equal opportunities for women in intercollegiate athletics. During the 1950s and 1960s, she helped bridge the gap between the Amateur Athletic Union and women physical educators by consulting on various aspects of women's athletics.

She also served as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committees for track and field (1964-72) and basketball (1972-76). In addition, she managed the U.S. women's track and field team at the 1967 Pan American Games, and served as the only female member of the World University Games Committee (1967-71). She was active in the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, and served as Vice President of its Ohio affiliate.

Sexton completed her bachelor of science degree in physical education at Western Michigan University in 1942, and spent the next seven years as an elementary and high school teacher. She earned her master of arts degree at Ball State Teachers College in 1951 and her Ed.D. at Teachers College (Columbia University) in 1953.

Known affectionately as "Doc," Sexton championed equal opportunities for women in college athletics at Wooster and beyond, and she laid the groundwork for women's varsity sports at Wooster, helping to establish field hockey and basketball.

The recipient of numerous awards and citations for her efforts to advance collegiate sports for women, including the 1982 Presidential Service Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women's Sports and the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award of NACWAA, Sexton was a member of four halls of fame, including the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 2001, the first woman in Wayne County to be so honored. In 2005, she received an honorary doctor of laws degree from The College of Wooster.

Dr. Mary Jo Wynn

Dr. Mary Jo Wynn retired in 1998 after 41 years at Southwest Missouri State University (SMS), including nearly a quarter century as a Senior Athletics Administrator. Wynn was named the first SMS director of women’s athletics in 1975, concluding her career as Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator.

Wynn worked as a teacher and coach, and helped make SMS a dominant member of the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference and Missouri Valley Conference after SMS moved to Division I in 1982.

A native of Hartville, MO, and 1953 SMS graduate, Wynn organized women’s athletics competition in 1958 with volleyball and tennis teams. Her tenure saw the SMS women’s program grow to 11 sports. Wynn coached volleyball until 1972, guiding the 1969 team to ninth in the first AIAW championship, and led the tennis program until her appointment as Director of Women’s Athletics in 1975. She also coached swimming and track.

Wynn played a major role from the days SMS women’s teams operated from within the physical education department to the time SMS became a charter member of the AIAW and then moved to the NCAA in 1982. Wynn was instrumental in the formation of the Gateway Conference the same year, with those 10 schools moving to the MVC in 1992 to put SMS men’s and women’s teams in the same conference for the first time. In addition to its team success since 1982, the university has produced six women’s All-Americans and 14 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. Wynn organized the SMS Women’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981. She received an Outstanding Alumni Award from SMS in 1995 and was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Dr. Mary Pavlich Roby

Mary Roby played a prominent and historic role in the development of women’s athletics at the University of Arizona. Her leadership provided the primary force behind the transition from an intramural and club program to a nationally successful intercollegiate athletic program for women.

A Wildcat athlete during her undergraduate years at the University of Arizona in 1944-48, Roby returned to her alma mater as a member of the faculty in 1959. In addition to teaching duties, Roby directed the Women’s Recreation Association program until 1972, when she became Arizona’s first Director of Athletics for Women. In 1982, with the merger of men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic programs, her appointment as the first female Associate Director of Athletics at the University of Arizona initiated a new era for women in athletic administration.

Roby was a founding member of the Council of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators, now called NACWAA. Her contributions for women in sport were acknowledged by NACWAA when they awarded her their "Lifetime Achievement Award."

With an M.S. from Smith College and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, Roby was a key member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences. During her years as a professor, she received Honor Awards from the Arizona Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; the Southwest Chapter of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; and the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Dr. Nell Jackson

A pioneer in women’s track and field, Nell Jackson served as both a coach and an administrator. In 1956, she became the first black female to coach an Olympic team, and she later served as Vice President and as Secretary of The Athletics Congress (forerunner to USATF).

After graduating in 1951, Jackson pursued a master’s degree at Springfield College, graduating in 1953. She later earned a PhD from the University of Iowa in 1962.

Jackson returned to her alma mater in 1953 as women’s track and field coach. Her coaching talents were not limited to track & field; she also was the first men’s swimming coach at Tuskegee, starting the program in 1958. She later coached at Iowa, Illinois State, Illinois, and Michigan State. At Illinois, she coached the Illini to a national team championship in the 1970 outdoor season. Jackson coached fellow USTFCCCA Hall of Famer Barbara Jacket at Tuskegee University, and one of her pupils at Michigan State was Karen Dennis, current women’s coach at The Ohio State University.

Jackson also served as an Assistant Athletic Director at Michigan State, and when she retired from full-time coaching in 1981, she accepted a position as Director of Physical Education and Intercollegiate Athletics, and Professor in the Department of Physical Education at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

In 1956 and 1972, Jackson served as the U.S. Olympic Team’s women’s head coach; she was the first African American to be named head coach of a U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team, men’s or women’s.

Jackson is honored in several halls of fame, among them the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame, the USATF Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Several awards are given each year in her honor by NACWAA, by Michigan State’s Varsity Alumni `S’ Club, and by Binghamton University.

Fran Koeing

Throughout her professional career of 37 years, Fran Koeing was a consummate advocate of physical education and women's sports. She taught physical education and coached all girls’ sports at Morrisville Central School, followed by teaching and coaching assignments at Concordia Teachers College, Michigan State University and Central Michigan University.                                                               

As a veteran coach and administrator, Koeing was instrumental in the development of women’s athletics at Central Michigan University prior to her retirement in 1989. She served as the women’s basketball coach for five years with a record of 26-24 before becoming Associate Athletic Director and Director of Women’s Athletics from 1974 until 1989.

Koeing served on 21 Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) committees, and she was instrumental in Central Michigan University hosting the AIAW gymnastics final and the 1980 Division I Final Four basketball tournament.