Donna Lopiano
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| Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation, member of the Softball Hall of Fame, credited with doing more for women's sports in the United States than any other individual.
Donna Lopiano was born in Stamford, the oldest of three children. At the age of eleven, she tried out and was chosen as a pitcher for the local Little League team only to have an adult invoke the "boys only" rule as she stood in line for her uniform. Denied the opportunity to play Little League as a child, she has spent her adult life making sure young girls have opportunities she didn't. At the age of sixteen, Donna began playing for the Brakettes, a women's softball team based in Stratford. By the age of seventeen she was touring Europe and Asia with the team and, in between tournaments, finishing high school and earning a bachelor's degree in physical education from Southern Connecticut State University. Her extraordinary athletic career included participation in twenty-six national championships in four sports: softball, basketball, volleyball and field hockey. Donna began work on her doctorate, which she received from The University of Southern California in 1972, the year the Brakettes, led by her hitting and pitching, won the national title. Donna coached basketball, volleyball and softball at Brooklyn College before moving to Austin in 1975 as Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women at the University of Texas. While she was at Texas her programs for women athletes won eighteen national championships in six sports and produced 314 All-Americans. The mean SAT scores of her players also went up 100 points. Lopiano became known for holding her coaches responsible both for winning and for insuring the satisfactory progress of their athletes toward a degree. She also made major strides in achieving financial equity for her programs with most women coaches receiving the same salaries as men. As director for the Women's Sports Foundation since 1992, Lopiano's mission is to ensure compliance with Title IX throughout the country. Donna is the author of dozens of publications, holds two honorary doctorates and in 1995 was named one of the 100 most influential people in sports by Sporting News. In addition to the Softball Hall of Fame, Donna is a member of the Texas Women's Hall of Fame and the national honors committee of the National Women's Hall of Fame. | |||||||||
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