Donna de Varona To Receive Theodore Roosevelt Award
December 05, 2002 | Bruin Athletics
Dec. 5, 2002
The NCAA Honors Committee has named Donna de Varona the recipient of the 2003 Theodore Roosevelt Award, which is the highest honor the NCAA bestows on an individual. De Varona is a pioneer in the field of female athletics and broadcasting.
The award, also known as the "Teddy," is presented annually to a distinguished citizen who is a former college student-athlete and who has exemplified the ideals and purposes of college athletics by demonstrating a continuing interest and concern for physical fitness and sport.
The award is named after former President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt in recognition of his role in the inception of the NCAA. During Roosevelt's term as president, there was a public outcry over the violence in college football. Roosevelt told the leaders of several renowned universities that they had to either make the sport safer or he would abolish it. This led to the formation of an association committed to protecting the interests of student-athletes, now known as the NCAA.
Past "Teddy" honorees have included former United States Presidents and leaders of education, business, government, industry and entertainment, among them Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the 2002 honoree; William S. Cohen; Bill Cosby; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Althea Gibson; Jesse Owens; Ronald Reagan; and John R. Wooden.
De Varona will become the 36th recipient of the "Teddy" at the NCAA Honors Dinner January 12, during the annual NCAA Convention in Anaheim, California.
De Varona received a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, she has received several honorary degrees from Drury College, Springfield College and the United States Sports Academy.
An Olympic gold medal swimmer, De Varona was the youngest member - at the age of 13 - to compete on the U.S. Olympic swimming team at the Rome games in 1960. In 1963, she was a two-time gold medalist swimmer at the Pan American Games, and at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, she took home two gold medals in swimming.
Between 1960 to 1964, she captured 37 national swimming championships, including 18 gold medals and three national high-point awards. Voted the Most Outstanding Female Athlete in 1964 by both the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) press wires, she is a world record-holder in the 400 IM, the 100 backstroke and relays.
She has been inducted into a number of sports halls of fame, including the International Swimming Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the Women's Sports Hall of Fame. In 2000, she received the Olympic Order, given by the International Olympic Committee - the highest distinction given for contributions to the Olympic movement worldwide.
De Varona broke records in her broadcasting career as well. She was the first female sportscaster at ABC under contract and may have been the first in the industry. Debuting at the age of 17, she first covered the 1965 men's AAU swimming championships alongside Jim McKay. Since then, she has worked with various media outlets, covering 14 Olympics as host, co-host, special reporter and analyst. Currently, she is a sports commentator for Sporting News Radio.
She has received a number of awards during her broadcasting career, including an Emmy Award in 1991 for a Special Olympics feature she produced and an Emmy nomination for co-producing, writing and hosting "Keepers of the Flame" in 1998. In 2001, she received the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television.
De Varona will be honored with the Teddy, in part, for her service to women's sports. She has held influential advisory positions for five U.S. presidents - beginning in 1966 when she served the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sport - to her current task of serving on the Secretary of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. This committee is exploring all facets of Title IX, a law providing equal rights for females for which she lobbied in Congress before it was passed in 1972.
De Varona is married to John Pinto, a lawyer and businessman, and they have two children, John David and Joanna.
The NCAA Honors Committee selected De Varona as the Teddy winner. The committee consists of eight athletics administrators at member institutions and nationally distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. The members of the NCAA Honors Committee are: Harry Carson, president, Harry Carson, Inc.; Eugene F. Corrigan, commissioner emeritus, Atlantic Coast Conference; Clyde Doughty Jr., athletics director, New York Institute of Technology; Jack Ford, ESPN news anchor/correspondent; Jo Ann Harper, athletics director, Dartmouth College; Susan Hartmann, faculty athletic representative, Ohio State University; Karen L. Johnson, director of institutional research, Alfred University; and Valerie Richardson, assistant commissioner, West Coast Conference.
Candidates are nominated by NCAA member institutions.