[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E589-E590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO MS. DEBORAH A. YOW

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 26, 2003

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on March 26, 2003, Ms. Deborah A. Yow, who is 
currently serving in her ninth year as director of athletics at the 
University of Maryland, will be inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall 
of Fame.
  The Maryland Women's Hall of Fame was established to honor Maryland 
women who

[[Page E590]]

have made unique and lasting contributions to the economic, political, 
cultural and social life of the State and to provide visible models of 
achievement for tomorrow's female leaders. Ms. Yow's contribution to 
Maryland and her role as a prominent female leader in an area 
traditionally dominated by males more than qualifies her for this 
honor.
  Throughout her distinguished career in collegiate athletics, Ms. Yow 
has been known for her unrivalled energy and dedication. She has 
demonstrated a long-standing commitment not only to athletic success 
but also to the academic excellence of the students. A focused manager, 
fund-raiser, and promoter, she is known as a ``coach's AD'' with an 
impressive sense of management and knowledge of fiscal operations. Over 
the course of her career she has emerged as a leader in all facets of 
collegiate athletics.
  After playing basketball herself at Elon College in North Carolina, 
Ms. Yow excelled for nearly a decade in coaching women's basketball. 
She began coaching at the University of Kentucky in 1976, and in 1980, 
Ms. Yow moved to Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, posting an 
impressive 26-1 record in 1983. She then served as the women's 
basketball coach at the University of Florida from 1983 to 1987. Ms. 
Yow retired from coaching after her tenure at the University of Florida 
with a winning percentage of .700 and a career average of 20 victories 
per season.
  Ms. Yow moved her career into the administrative field by serving as 
an associate athletic director at the University of North Carolina-
Greensboro from 1987 to 1990, where she increased alumni support by 
more than 128 percent. In 1990, Ms. Yow assumed the position of 
athletic director at St. Louis University, becoming the fourth female 
athletic director of an NCAA Division I program and the only one active 
at the time. She was credited with revitalizing the men's basketball 
program and achieved an impressive 92 percent graduate rate for its 
athletes, ranking I0th among the 300 Division I schools.
  In 1994, Ms. Yow began her new role as athletic director at the 
University of Maryland, the first woman to hold such a position in 
Atlantic Coast Conference history. She was faced with the challenge of 
a program ranked last competitively and last in fund-raising in the 
ACC, and a staggering operating deficit of $6.7 million. She took this 
position with a pledge to pay off the debt and improve both the 
athletic and academic standards in the Maryland athletic program. Under 
her leadership, every budget in the department has been balanced, and 
the debts she inherited from past administrations have been paid off. 
The Maryland Terrapins have streaked up the all-sports ranking to be in 
the top 15 percent of all NCAA Division I institutions. The graduation 
rate of athletes has risen to an impressive 85 percent, and 
improvements have been made in a variety of areas such as management, 
facilities and customer care.
  Last year, 2002, demonstrated unprecedented successes for Ms. Yow's 
efforts in Maryland athletics. U.S. News and World Report selected the 
University of Maryland as one of the top 20 athletic programs in the 
Nation for overall quality and competitive excellence. The football 
team won the ACC championship and played in the Orange Bowl. The men's 
basketball team won the ACC regular season and topped that off with the 
NCAA national championship. These successes made Maryland one of a 
handful of schools to have achieved such high-level successes in both 
football and men's basketball in the same year. And success was not 
limited to just these two sports; the women's lacrosse team won their 
7th consecutive national championship, the field hockey team played for 
the national championship, and a total of 10 teams competed in post-
season play.
  Ms. Yow's success has been honored by a variety of awards and 
leadership positions in college athletics. In 1998, she was elected the 
second vice president of the National Association of Collegiate 
Directors of Athletics, the second woman to serve as an officer of the 
NACDA. By 2000, she was the president of that organization. Also in 
2000, Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal, a leading industry 
publication, named her female sport executive of the year. More 
recently, she has been an important voice on the Commission on 
Opportunity in Athletics, a group assembled by U.S. Education Secretary 
Rod Paige to review Title IX.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to extend congratulations to Ms. Yow for her 
well-deserved inauguration into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Mr. 
Speaker, I know the Members of the House join me in thanking Ms. Yow 
for her contribution to the University of Maryland, its fans and the 
citizens of the great State of Maryland, as well as for her wider 
contribution to collegiate athletics.

                          ____________________