

Meiser, Pat
Honorary
Inducted
2014
In her own words, Pat Meiser “has lived Title IX” – legislation enacted in 1972 to improve opportunities for women.
Patricia Meiser currently serves as Director of Athletics and Special Assistant to the President at the University of Hartford. Pat earned her B.S. in Physical Education from West Chester, her M.Ed. in Sports’ Psychology and MBA from Penn State.
Pat was Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Penn State from 1974 to 1980 where her teams posted a 92-52 win/loss record. She served as Co-Director of the 1976 AIAW National Championship held at Penn State and she was Head Coach of the Gold Medal-winning East Team in the1979 National Sports Festival.
At the University of Connecticut, Pat Meiser was Senior Women's Administrator from 1983 to 1993. When she arrived, UConn’s women’s basketball team had not had a winning season in their previous 10 years of intercollegiate experience. She chaired the committee which hired Geno Auriemma as UConn’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach and remembers, with pride, traveling with the team to their first Final Four in 1991.
In 1993, Pat was selected as Athletic Director to lead the University of Hartford into the 21st century, and was just the 13th woman hired to run a Division I program. In 1999, Meiser was named one of Street and Smith's Top 50 Business Women Sports' Executives of the Year. She has twice been named Northeast Region I Athletic Director of the Year (2006, 2009).
Pat was instrumental in Hartford’s 1999 hiring of Hall of Famer Jen Rizzotti as Head Women's Basketball Coach. Rizzotti’s teams have advanced to the post season nine times and have also advanced in the NCAA tournament on multiple occasions.
As Pat completes her 21st year as Director of Athletics, she can view with pride her role in enhancing the University of Hartford Athletics programs. Expanded fund raising and successful marketing programs resulted in revenue enhancement that provided funding for the $10 million Home Field Advantage athletics’ capital improvement campaign.
Patricia Meiser has served as a rare female director and made an indelible mark on intercollegiate athletics. She has greatly improved the playing fields for all student-athletes.
