Pat Meiser

Pat Meiser is a college women's basketball coach. She is best known for her 6-year run as head coach of Penn State, in which she compiled a 92-52 record. Following that, she became the athletics director at the University of Hartford. She was named one of the nation's top 50 women's sports executives by Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal. She has also worked as the associate athletic director at the University of Connecticut.

Patricia H. Meiser
Biographical details
BornLancaster, Pennsylvania
Alma materWest Chester University
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1974–1980Penn State
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1983–1993UConn (assoc. AD)
1993–2014Hartford
Head coaching record
Overall92–52 (.639)

Early years

Meiser grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The rowhouse where she lived was adjacent to the athletic field of Stevens Trade School, which gave her the opportunity to play a lot of sports. She played baseball, basketball, and tennis. She partnered with her sister to play doubles tennis for her high school.[1]

Meiser attended West Chester University where she graduated, in 1969, with a bachelor's degree in health and physical education. She then went on to Penn State, where she completed a master's degree in education in 1971 and an MBA in 1986.[2]

Penn State

Meiser was hired to be a basketball coach at Penn State. She was the coach of the Nittany Lions junior varsity basketball team, then became the head coach of the varsity team in 1974.. She served as head coach for six seasons, with a 92–52 overall record. The team competed in the AIAW post-season tournament each year.[3] In 1974, Meiser offered a scholarship to Mag Strittmatter, the first women's basketball scholarship offered at Penn State. Strittmatter would go on to lead the team in rebounds in each of her four-year, and averaged 10.3 rebounds per game, a school record that still stands. Strittmatter went on to become the executive director of an organization that assists disadvantaged people in Denver.[4]

University of Connecticut

Meiser joined the athletic department at UConn in 1983, where she would remain for ten years, serving as an associate athletics director for administration and senior women’s administrator.[1] At the time, the women's basketball team wasn't well-respected, having recently transitioned from a club sport to a varsity sport, but the team had single digit wins in the last four seasons under coach Jean Balthaser, going 9–18, 9–20, 9–18, and 9–18 between 1981 and 1983, with only a single win in Big East play in 1982–83.[5][6] According to Meiser, the school administration wanted to make a change, and believed the women's basketball team could be the "vanguard women's sports program at UConn, the kind of program that could move the whole movement for equality forward".[6] Meiser chaired the search committee to find a new women's basketball coach, and ended up hiring Geno Auriemma, who has gone on to the lead the team to nine national championships, as of 2014.[7] She would later describe Auriemma as the type of coach who could call on a recruit at her home, and "walk out the door with the family's dog in his arms".[8] The basketball team did not charge for admission in the early years. Meiser proposed to the Athletic Director Lew Perkins, in 1990 that the team should charge for admission. Although initially skeptical, they tried it, and earned 53 thousand in revenue. It didn't hurt that they chose a year in which the team would be good enough to make it to the Final Four.[9]

University of Hartford

In 1993, Meiser was named the athletic director at Hartford. At the time, she was one of only twelve female athletic directors of Division I schools.[10]

Year by year results

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Penn State Lady Lions (Independent) (1974–1980)
1974-1975 Penn State 7-7AIAW
1975-1976 Penn State 10-10AIAW
1976-1977 Penn State 13-8AIAW
1977-1978 Penn State 21-5AIAW
1978-1979 Penn State 21-8AIAW
1979-1980 Penn State 20-14AIAW
Penn State: 92–52 (.639)
Total:95–52 (.646)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Notes

  1. RILEY, LORI (June 22, 2012). "Pat Meiser's Career Path Intertwined With Title IX". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  2. "Patricia H. Meiser". University of Hartford. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  3. "2012-13 Penn State Lady Lion Basketball Yearbook". Penn State. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  4. Mastovich, Mike (June 23, 2012). "For basketball player, law 'changed my life'". The Tribune Democrat. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  5. "2012-13 UConn Women's Basketball Media Guide". University of Connecticut. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  6. SALZMAN, AVI (April 18, 2004). "UConn Basketball, Then and Now". New York Times. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  7. Karmel, p. 21
  8. Grundy, p. 239
  9. Walters, p. 171
  10. SMITH, GEORGE (May 4, 1993). "U Of H Picks Meiser-mcknett". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 28 May 2013.

References

  • Grundy, Pamela (2005). Shattering the glass. New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-822-1.
  • Karmel, Terese (2005). Hoop Tales:UConn Huskies Women's Basketball (First ed.). Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 0-7627-3501-5.
  • Walters, John (2002). The Same River Twice : a season with Geno Auriemma and the Connecticut Huskies. S.l: Gunkerhalter Press. ISBN 9780971699908.
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