ATHLETICS
PHOTO BY KRIS DREESSEN
Marilyn Moore, center, retired after more than 30 years of leadership. Friends and alumni created an endowment in her honor. She is pictured with student-athletes Jimmy Powers ’12, hockey, back left, Michelle Rodriguez ’11, swimming, Katie Crawford ’11, equestrian, and Michael Baker ’11, basketball.
A sports legacy An endowment honors Marilyn Moore’s 31-year career and enhances the Blue Knights program by Anthony T. Hoppa mong the dozens of photographs, awards and Knight-themed items that adorned Marilyn Moore’s office, the poster always stood out. The artwork showed a road forking left and right and the words of Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” The sentiment always held special significance for Moore, who was the college’s first female athletic trainer. She became assistant director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation, then director in 1999. She retired in December after 31 years of service. Moore says there were very few women in athletic training when she pursued her career in the 1970s, and equally few in athletic administration when she changed gears: “So I took the road less traveled, and it wasn’t always a paved road!” Moore’s determination and vision changed the Blue Knights landscape — and
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advanced female leadership in sports. As director, Moore oversaw 20 varsity teams, 55 employees, a multi-million budget and an array of athletic facilities. In 2000, the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators named her National Administrator of the Year. During her leadership, the Blue Knights captured 69 SUNY Athletic Conference titles plus the
2005 NCAA National Championship in women’s cross-country. The college also added equestrian to women’s sports opportunities at Geneseo. “Marilyn Moore’s legacy will not merely be defined by the competitive successes of our teams and student-athletes,” said Robert Bonfiglio, vice president for student and campus life. “Under her leadership, the college’s core values were woven into the work of our coaches and athletic administrators and the experiences of our student-athletes.” That’s no easy feat for athletic directors according to Jim Leary ’75, Geneseo Foundation vice chair, Roundtable Athletic Association (RAA) member and commissioner of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. “There are ADs that talk the talk but don’t walk the walk,” he says. “Marilyn always put the student-athletes first, and that is a rare commodity.” At the Hall of Fame dinner last fall, RAA Chair Dan Loughran ’86 announced that alumni and friends of the college generously made gifts and pledges of more than $100,000 to endow the Marilyn M. Moore Endowment for the Roundtable Athletic Association, which will enhance the experience of all student-athletes. “For once in my life, I was totally speechless,” remembers Moore. “I feel honored that our alumni would contribute such a significant amount in my name to support our student-athletes.” It’s a fitting legacy for Moore, says Loughran. “She was part educator, coach, sports psychologist, cheerleader and life counselor. Her athletes always knew this and wanted her contribution to be recognized in the form of a perpetual benefit to Geneseo athletics. Her actions are a model for all.”
More on Moore … • go.geneseo.edu/moorecareer — Highlights from Marilyn Moore’s career • Make a difference — Contribute to the Moore endowment at giveto.geneseo.edu (Designate your gift for RAA-Moore endowment)
Moore, as a trainer, early in her career.
More on Geneseo athletics … • www.geneseo.edu/athletics — Geneseo’s complete sports round-up