NU's first women's AD Jeanne Rowlands passes
When Rowlands retired in 1991, she left one of New England's exemplary programs behind at Northeastern. She devoted 25 years as a professor of Physical Education, coach, and athletics director to women's issues in collegiate sports, both before, during and after Title IX raised the collective conscience of administrators nationwide. She expanded the women's athletics department from a nucleus of six varsity teams to 10, all of which have been competitive at the conference and regional level. Northeastern honored Rowlands in 1991 by awarding her an Honorary Doctorate degree and she was inducted to the Northeastern Hall of Fame in 1993.
Rowlands carved an impressive niche as coach, guiding the women's basketball team from 1966 to 1978 and also coaching varsity volleyball. By no coincidence, Rowlands' tenure paralleled a period of astronomical growth in women's intercollegiate athletics. In addition to NU, Rowlands was the Manager of Team USA women's basketball team for the World University Games in Moscow, Russia, in 1973 and the World Championship in Bogota, Columbia, in 1975. She was appointed Manager of the 1976 Olympic Basketball team which won the silver medal at the Montreal Games. She served as Chief of Mission for Team USA tours to Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in 1978.
A graduate of Ohio State, Rowlands became Chair if the EAIAW Ethics and Eligibility Committee and served from 1975-78. She served in several leadership positions, including the Board of Directors, of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, which honored her with the Lifetime Achievement and Administrator of the Year awards. The ECAC honored Rowlands with the coveted Katherine Ley Award in 1986, and Northeastern presented her with the prestigious Founders Day Award in 1988. Displaying the Rowlands name is the North Atlantic Conference Team Championship trophy, as well as the first boat to compete for the women's varsity crew. The annual women's crew race against Radcliffe is named the Rowlands Cup in her honor.
Rowlands will be missed by her partner of 29 years, Jane Betts, and her brothers Jack and Robert Rowlands.
A celebration of the life of Jeanne Rowlands will be held on April 26 at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Sudbury, Mass., at 10:30 a.m. and will be followed by a luncheon reception at Northeastern University's Henderson House in Weston, Mass. Memorial tributes my be sent to Avow Hospice, 1095 Whippoorwill Lane, Naples, FL 34105, or the Alzheimer's Support Network, 660 Tamiami Trail N., Suite 21 Naples, FL, 34102.
April 4, 2008
Boston, MA
Jeanne Rowlands, a women's athletics pioneer and Northeastern University's first women's Athletics Director and varsity women's basketball coach, passed away this week. Rowlands was a professor of Physical Education at Northeastern and became Northeastern's first varsity women's basketball coach in 1966, serving in that capacity until 1978. She was named Northastern's Coordinator of Women's Athletics in 1974 and served as NU's women's AD until she retired in 1991.
