The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- January 4, 1999

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Silver Anniversary Award recipient DeFrantz will address Association delegatesAnita L. DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles and a practicing attorney, will deliver the keynote address to Association members at the 1999 Convention.

DeFrantz's address will be delivered at 8:15 a.m. (Central time) January 11 to begin a day of forums, presentations and discussions for Divisions I, II and III members.

After DeFrantz's speech, Division I will conduct a forum that will focus on topics that include the restricted-earnings coaches litigation, performance standards for baseball bats, and preliminary reports from groups studying the governance structure and Division I basketball issues.

Divisions II and III, meanwhile, will conduct their business sessions at that time.

DeFrantz, a 1974 graduate of Connecticut College, also will be recognized at the NCAA honors dinner January 10 as one of six Silver Anniversary Award recipients (see information on the other five honorees below).

DeFrantz was a three-year member of the rowing team and a two-year member of the basketball team while at the school and was inducted to the college's hall of fame in 1978. Active in campus politics, she authored the school's student bill of rights in 1973, chaired its judiciary board and founded the school's Black Students for Quality Education organization.

DeFrantz also was an 1976 Olympic bronze medalist in rowing and a silver medalist in the 1978 World Championships. She became the first female vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1997, after having served as a member of the United States Olympic Committee's Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

She served as vice-president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and has held various leadership positions with the Women's World Cup, the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee, Southern California Olympians, International Rowing Federation, Women's Sports Federation, IOC Women and Sport working group, and IOC Executive Board.

The recipient of the 1997 Olympic Torch Award, the highest recognition for service to the USOC, DeFrantz is a member of the board of directors for the Martin Luther King Legacy Association, the Jackie Joyner Kersee Community Foundation and the Community Television of Southern California (KCET) board of trustees.