Judy Sweet, NCAA senior vice president for championships and education services, will receive the 40th James J. Corbett Memorial Award, presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Sweet, who also serves as the senior woman administrator for the NCAA national office, will be honored at the NACDA convention June 20-23 in New Orleans.

The Corbett Award, NACDA’s highest honor, is named after the Louisiana State University athletics director who served as the organization’s first president in 1965. It is presented annually to the collegiate administrator who “through the years has most typified Corbett’s devotion to intercollegiate athletics and worked unceasingly for its betterment.”

Winners of the award receive an honorary degree from the Sports Management Institute, an educational institute sponsored by NACDA and the University of Michigan; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the University of Notre Dame; the University of South Carolina, Columbia; the University of Southern California; and the University of Texas at Austin.

“I have had the good fortune to work with many of the previous award winners, whom I greatly respect,” Sweet said. “I have benefited from the lessons they taught me and the leadership examples they set. To be in their company and to be recognized in such a special way by my peers is an overwhelming honor.

“This recognition speaks to the many quality people I have had the privilege to meet during my career, especially those who opened doors for me and encouraged me to take the risk of passing through those doors that previously had not been open to women.”

Sweet’s 35 years in intercollegiate athletics administration include 24 as the athletics director at the University of California, San Diego, a position she accepted in 1975. She was one of the first women in the nation to direct a combined men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics program.

Sweet joined the NCAA in December 2000 as vice president for championships. She was promoted in 2003 to the new position of senior vice president for championships and education services. In that role, she has overseen most NCAA championships, the education services staff (including the NCAA Hall of Champions), statistics and playing rules administration. She was designated senior woman administrator for the national office in 2001.

Sweet announced in April that she will leave the NCAA staff in August and return to her home in San Diego.

She will leave behind an indelible impact on NCAA governance. She was elected to a two-year term as president of the NCAA in January 1991 after serving as secretary-treasurer from 1989 to 1991. She was the first woman to serve in each of those positions. She also was the Division III vice president from 1986 to 1988.

Her tenure as NCAA membership president included the rise of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee structure and the growing involvement of college and university presidents and chancellors in intercollegiate athletics.

In all, Sweet served on 20 NCAA committees during her tenure, including the Executive Committee, Council and Budget Committee. She also served on the Gender-Equity Task Force and chaired the Special Advisory Committee to Review Recommendations Regarding Distribution of Revenues.

As a NACDA member, Sweet served on the organization’s executive committee from 1987 to 1991 and has served on the Directors’ Cup Committee since 1996. NACDA recognized her as the Division III athletics director of the year in 1998-99.

In addition, Sweet is a board member and former president for the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, a group that named her its administrator of the year in 1992.

Sweet graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969 with a degree in physical education and mathematics. She received her master’s degree in education in 1972 from the University of Arizona and an MBA from National University in 1981.

She began her career as a teacher and coach at Newcomb College/Tulane University, before moving to the University of Arizona and Kearny (California) High School.

Sweet said she is fortunate to have traveled the path she did.

“I worked with such outstanding professionals and student-athletes at every stop, and I am grateful for the professional development that took place through my attendance at AIAW and NCAA meetings, involvement with NCAA governance positions and board service with NACDA and NACWAA,” Sweet said. “My current assignments with the NCAA have allowed me to incorporate all that I have learned previously and give back in a way that I hope has helped others.”

The Corbett Award, Sweet said, represents “the true value of teamwork, learning from and supporting one another, the importance of being inclusive, opening doors for others and maximizing opportunities for all to contribute to a great profession.”

Past Corbett Award recipients

Past winners of the James J. Corbett Memorial Award and their affiliation at the time:

2005 Bob Bronzan, retired, director of athletics,  San Jose State University

2004 Vince Dooley, director of athletics University of Georgia

2003 Gary Cunningham, director of athletics,  University of California, Santa Barbara

2002 Roy Kramer, commissioner Southeastern Conference

2001 Jack Lengyel, director of athletics,  U.S. Naval Academy

2000 Cedric Dempsey, president, NCAA

1999 Chuck Neinas, former executive director College Football Association

1998 James Frank, commissioner, Southwestern Athletic Conference

1997 Gene Corrigan, commissioner,  Atlantic Coast Conference

1996 Carl James, commissioner, Big Eight Conference

1995 Elizabeth (Betty) Kruczek, director of athletics Fitchburg State University

1994 Richard Schultz, former executive director, NCAA

1993 LeRoy Walker, president, U.S. Olympic Committee

1992 Homer Rice, director of athletics Georgia Institute of Technology

1991 Joe Kearney, commissioner Western Athletic Conference

1990 George King, director of athletics Purdue University

1989 Scotty Whitelaw, commissioner, Eastern College Athletic Conference

1988 Mike Lude, director of athletics University of Washington

1987 John Toner, director of athletics, University of Connecticut

1986 Carl Maddox, director of athletics, Mississippi State University

1985 Cecil Coleman, commissioner, Midwestern City Conference

1984 Bud Jack, director of athletics, University of Utah

1983 Wiles Hallock, executive director, Pacific-10 Conference

1982 Edgar Sherman, director of athletics, Muskingum College

1981 Bill Flynn, director of athletics, Boston College

1980 Stan Bates, commissioner, Western Athletic Conference

1979 Harry Fouke, director of athletics, University of Houston

1978 Bill Orwig, director of athletics, Indiana University, Bloomington

1977 Bob Kane, president, U.S. Olympic Committee

1976 Walter Byers, executive director, NCAA

1975 Jesse Hill, executive director, Pacific Coast Athletic Association

1974 Al Twitchell, director of athletics, University of Miami (Florida)

1973 Ernie McCoy, director of athletics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick

1972 Bill Reed, commissioner, Big Ten Conference

1971 Tom Hamilton, commissioner, Pacific-8 Conference

1970 Dick Larkins, director of athletics, Ohio State University

1969 Asa Bushnell, commissioner, Eastern College Athletic Conference

1968 Fritz Crisler, director of athletics, University of Michigan

1967    Bernie Moore, commissioner, Southeastern Conference