Judy Sweet:

 Trailblazer of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW)

Judith M. Sweet Commitment Award

Judy Sweet is no stranger to change. In fact, for most of her life she has been a proponent of change in sports. She pioneered the landscape of college athletics and helped transform it from a barren scene for women to one full of opportunity and promise. The idea of diversity is more commonplace today, but when Judy Sweet was growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1960s it was radical. Her first groundbreaking move came when she walked onto a sandlot to play a game with her brothers and cousins. She quickly proved herself and enjoyed plenty of opportunities to play sports, as long as she didn’t stray outside the confines of the neighborhood. The sandlot was only the first of many changes she would make throughout her life and it was a valuable lesson to push the barriers of what was allowed. Judy Sweet has broken many barriers in her quest to cultivate women’s participation onto the sporting landscape.

 

Sweet’s journey has not been without struggle and opposition. Change is hard to accept for most people, and many take a great deal of comfort in doing things the way they have always been done. She left the sandlot and went on to high school and college only to be stifled by the lack of intramural programs that should have been instituted for educational and recreational purposes. Sweet missed the proverbial boat for women’s sports when Title IX was passed in 1972, banning the unequal opportunity that Sweet had experienced in her playing career. She had graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin three years prior to its inception. Sweet had majored in physical education and mathematics, which led her to take a position at Tulane University as a physical education teacher. Her quiet start soon flourished and she moved across the country to Arizona. The Painted Desert’s majestic scene surely inspired her to create her own landscape.

 

Sweet began teaching at the University of Arizona and simultaneously pursued a master’s degree in education, eventually graduating with honors. Sweet remained at the university for one more year and began her career in athletic administration. A taste for change persuaded her to move closer to the ocean. She arrived in San Diego and taught at a local high school for one year before she began her long career at the University of California, San Diego, joining the faculty as both a teacher and a coach. Her attachment to student-athletes and her mission to safeguard their welfare began. After only a year she became an associate athletic director. As previously demonstrated, Sweet is a woman who quickly excels at any task she undertakes, so just over a year later she was promoted to the director of athletics at UC San Diego. Sweet had made her first sweeping stroke of change to the inhospitable sporting landscape on a grand scale.

 

Control of both the men’s and women’s athletic programs was nonexistent in 1975, until Judy Sweet took a brave step into a constantly changing yet rigidly resistant environment for women. She became the first female athletic director of a combined intercollegiate athletic program in the nation. At the time, athletic directors were typically former male coaches who received a promotion and an increase in responsibilities. In fact, some even served dual roles as a head coach and athletic director. Sweet broke the mold. She faced opposition and hesitation from her peers. Some were hesitant to accept her at all. The coaches whom she had befriended to shape student-athlete talents just two years prior became antagonistic when she cut their budgets so she could create a more equitable athletic environment. Every landscape has its own unique color scheme, and the sports realm is no different. Color was added to Sweet’s landscape by “the most colorful” negative language that expressed resentment and biases for her newly acquired position. Sweet soon realized “the hurdles that had to be overcome.”¹

 

Pioneers have climbed mountains to pursue their dreams, and Sweet learned on the sandlot how to overcome such barriers. During her 24 years of service at UC San Diego, she experienced unrivaled success and started establishing new landmarks in the expanding environment for women’s athletics. Her athletic department supported 23 varsity sports and brought 25 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships home to San Diego. UC San Diego teams were National Runners-up 32 times in her 24 years. In 1997–98, UC San Diego won the Division III Sears Director’s Cup for program excellence. This marked the first time that an athletic department directed by a woman had been awarded the Cup. Additionally, it was the first time an athletic department without a football program had won the award. Sweet not only kept her department in the forefront of success, but she continued to foster her education and earned a master’s of business administration with distinction from National University in San Diego.

 

Sweet committed herself to improving student-athlete welfare throughout her career without regard to gender, although she had a distinctive viewpoint to guard opportunities for future female athletes. Her perspective has been sought out by 20 different NCAA committees over the years and her contribution has broadened her impact on college sports. Being “the first” is not a new concept for Sweet, as she served as the first female secretary-treasurer of the NCAA from 1989 to 1991 and then as the first female president of the NCAA from 1991 to 1993. She was the first female president of the Association during a time when the position was voluntary and not contracted. She helped create more opportunity for her female counterparts. Sweet’s commitment to student-athletes has never been contingent on contracts of service. She truly cares about providing the best experience possible for student-athletes in any way she can. She has also served on the NCAA Council and Executive Committee as well as the Review and Planning Committee. For seven years she served as chair of the Special Advisory Committee to Review Recommendations Regarding Distribution of Revenues, a committee formed in response to the $1 billion television contract with CBS.

 

Exhibiting leadership is second nature to Sweet. She has made ethical choices and implemented policy that benefited student-athletes. More important, she motivates others to join her cause. She has been recognized for her exemplary leadership with a variety of awards throughout her career, including being named Outstanding Young Woman of America in 1984 and receiving the honor as the Los Angeles Times’s selection for Top Southern California College Sports Executive of the 1980s. Southern California is an arena historically filled with fierce sports competitors in the administration as well as on the playing fields. The Times’s selection speaks volumes about her extraordinary leadership at UC San Diego.

 

Her commitment to excellence transcended decades and the 1990s were no exception. Just like wines have very good years, 1992 was Judy Sweet’s year. She was named the Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Administrators, and the Women’s Sports Advocates of Wisconsin, Sweet’s native state, inducted her into their Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame. She has convincingly demonstrated her abilities.

 

One year later she was named Woman of the Year in District 38 by the California State Senate. She then lent her service and experience to the United States Olympic Committee Task Force on Minorities for two years. Her wealth of knowledge and firsthand experience on the front lines of the gender equity fight was invaluable to the minority task force. In 1998, Judy Sweet was the recipient of The Honda Award for Outstanding Achievement in Women’s Collegiate Athletics. Sweet served on the board of directors for the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA). Sweet stepped down from her longtime position of director of athletics at UC San Diego in 1999 but remained on the faculty.

 

Sweet’s expertise was requested by the NCAA once more in 2001 to serve in the prestigious role of vice president for championships. Sweet would oversee planning and organization for all of the 88 NCAA Championships except Division I men’s and women’s basketball, football, and baseball. Cedric Dempsey, the NCAA president at that time, said, “Her depth of knowledge of college sports and administrative experience in running a broad range of events will ensure that NCAA Championships continue to be great experiences for student-athletes.”² Sweet understood how valuable the experience of a championship is for student-athletes and wanted to ensure that the event would also be unforgettable.

 

Sweet joined the NCAA national office team and quickly took on additional responsibilities as the senior women’s administrator. The position was initially established at universities in 1981 as a way to monitor and grow women’s roles in athletic departments. This position grew in importance through increased responsibilities by 1990, but lacked reflection in the national office. Sweet was once again the first woman to take the job and has left a lasting impression on sports that will benefit her successors. The position may have originated with the idea of guaranteed female involvement at the top of the NCAA governance, but it has evolved into a position with appropriate responsibility and accountability in all facets of the organization that has the added benefit of a female perspective. Sweet never made the fact that she was a woman an issue but instead used it as a competitive advantage. She has been described as “a quiet, effective fighter for opportunities” by Dale Neuberger, the former president of the Indiana Sports Corp.³ Her focus on gender equity encompasses suggestions that come from both men and women.

 

Sweet constantly seeks out new challenges and thus she accepted the promotion to senior vice president for championships and education services in 2003, in addition to maintaining her role as the senior women’s administrator. Her last role in education was to implement leadership programs. Leadership is a concept that Sweet knows inside and out. Myles Brand, the current NCAA president, has described Sweet as the “conscience of college sports” and regularly consulted with Sweet for her indispensable knowledge.⁴ She was one of the four senior vice presidents who reported directly to Brand, and the only woman. Sweet gained so much status and prestige with the NCAA that she was the only active college sports icon to have a meeting room named after her at the NCAA Headquarters.

 

Sweet is widely respected for creating an equitable environment that provides a positive experience for both young men and women. Her hope is for them to become the leaders of tomorrow when the sun sets on her majestic landscape. Sweet retired in 2006 from the NCAA but still serves as a consultant. The awards have already accumulated congratulating her on a distinguished career. The National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) presented her with their first NACWAA Legacy Award and established the Judith M. Sweet Commitment Award to honor those that follow in her awe-inspiring footsteps. Furthermore, in 2007, the Institute for International Sports proclaimed that she was one of the Top 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America. Judy Sweet’s leadership is impressive and resilient, and she worked every day to instill the same drive and values in student-athletes. There are thousands of student-athletes, coaches, and women applauding her and the difference she has made.

 

Notes

1. Mark Montieth, “Clearing the Path,” The Indianapolis Star, October 30, 2005.

2. Wallace I. Renfroe, “Judy Sweet, Long-time Athletics Leader and Administrator, Joins NCAA Staff as Vice-President for Championships,” The NCAA News, November1, 2000.

3. Montieth, “Clearing the Path.”

4. Ibid.

 

The above excerpt was written by Stacy Martin-Tenney.