Longtime Charlotte 49ers AD awarded the highest honor an athletic director can earn
Former UNC-Charlotte athletic director Judy Rose was named the 55th recipient of the Corbett award, the National Association of College Directors of Athletics announced Wednesday.
The award, named after James J. Corbett, is the highest honor given to a college athletic administrator. It is given annually to a college administrator who “through the years has most typified Corbett’s devotion to intercollegiate athletics and worked unceasingly for its betterment.”
Corbett was a former athletic director at LSU and was the NACDA’s first president in 1965.
N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow was named a recipient in 2019, and former ACC Commissioner John Swofford won in 2011.
Rose served as the 49ers’ athletic director for nearly 30 years, announcing her retirement in 2018. When she was appointed as the athletic director in July 1990, she was just the third woman to lead a Division I program. In 1999, she became the first woman to serve on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
“Judy Rose is a pioneer in women’s athletics and a trailblazer in NACDA’s history,” Bob Vecchione, the NACDA’s chief executive officer said in a press release. “Throughout her career, the impact she has had on student-athletes, aspiring administrators and even veterans in the industry is remarkable and inspiring.”
One of Rose’s biggest accomplishments is the growth of UNC-Charlotte’s athletics programs. That growth allowed them to successfully start a football program in 2013. Rose, who was hired as the 49ers’ women’s basketball coach in 1975, also helped attract the 1994 men’s basketball Final Four to Charlotte, as well as the 1996 Women’s Final Four.
“It is difficult to adequately express how deeply humbled I am to be the recipient of the 2021 James J. Corbett Memorial Award,” Rose said in a press release. “It is a great honor to be listed beside so many distinguished administrators, many of whom I’ve been fortunate to work alongside and others whose reputations speak for themselves. I am truly in awe that my peers chose to include me in such prestigious company.”
