2021 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 65
BY SENATOR BERNARD
A RESOLUTION
To commend Joan Cronan upon being named the 2020 recipient of the Dave Dixon
Louisiana Sports Leadership Award presented by the Louisiana Sports Writers
Association.
WHEREAS, Joan's first coaching job was at her alma mater, Opelousas High School,
where she served as assistant coach to Anne Hollier, coaching the team to a win in the 1966
Class AA girls state basketball championship; and
WHEREAS, growing up in Opelousas in the 1950s and 1960s, Joan Cronan
anticipated that she would play youth league baseball with the boys she knew from school
and it was both a shock and a disappointment when she was told that it was a male-only
league; and
WHEREAS, adding insult to injury, the coaches of the youth league asked Joan if
she wanted to become a cheerleader or a manager for the boys baseball team, an offer she
declined; and
WHEREAS, this was Joan Cronan's first battle with gender inequality, but it was not
her last, and it helped fuel her determination to change the face of women's athletics; and
WHEREAS, with no softball program available, Joan Cronan, now the athletic
director emeritus at the University of Tennessee (UT), saw an opportunity beyond the role
of athlete and she turned her considerable talents and energy to promoting and expanding
opportunities for women in athletics; and
WHEREAS, this vision and the clarity it provided was a signature moment for Joan
Cronan, who, without the alternative of playing softball, became more committed to working
to promote women's athletics and to make athletics accessible to all women; and
WHEREAS, after graduating from Louisiana State University with a B.S. and M.S.
both in physical education, Joan married the love of her life, Tom Cronan, and the two
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moved to Natchitoches, Louisiana, where Tom enrolled in graduate school at Northwestern
State University, and Joan coached girls basketball, volleyball, and tennis at the school; and
WHEREAS, from 1968 through 1970 Joan coached UT's Lady Vols to a record of
eight wins and ten losses over two seasons; and
WHEREAS, in 1973 she accepted a position as athletic director at the College of
Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, where she coached and served as the athletic
director for ten years; and
WHEREAS, in 1980, while Joan Cronan was at the College of Charleston, the school
was selected as the number one women's athletic program in the country by the Women's
Sports Foundation; and
WHEREAS, in 1983 the University of Tennessee came seeking a women's athletic
director and Cronan, having proven herself in Charleston, was pleased to return to Knoxville
in that capacity, taking on the challenge of repeating at Tennessee what she had been able
to accomplish in South Carolina; and
WHEREAS, Cronan's achievements at the College of Charleston were further
recognized in 1990 when she was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame, and in 1995, she
was inducted into the Louisiana State University Alumni Hall of Distinction; and
WHEREAS, in 2005, Cronan was named athletic director of the year by the National
Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators, another indication of the respect
she earned from her peers; and
WHEREAS, Joan Cronan's support of the legendary Lady Vol's basketball coach, Pat
Summitt, who she championed and supported, would produce eight NCAA women's titles,
her teams advanced to the Final Four in eleven of her final eighteen seasons, and garnered
twenty-four Southeastern Conference championships from 1983-2012; and
WHEREAS, Joan Cronan's remarkable career included these national and conference
titles in womens basketball, but, perhaps, most importantly, the success of womens
basketball at the University of Tennessee spawned other successful women's sports
programs, varsity women's sports at Tennessee rose from seven to eleven, and with Cronan's
attention to academics and the whole student athlete as a person elevated the Tennessee
women's athletic program into a nationally recognized brand; and
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WHEREAS, in 2010, while women's athletic director at Tennessee, Joan Cronan
served on the NCAA Division I Leadership Council and in 2011 she served as vice
chancellor and interim athletic director at Tennessee, before retiring in 2012 and being
named athletic director emeritus; and
WHEREAS, her success at the College of Charleston, followed by significant
accomplishments as women's athletic director at the University of Tennessee from 1983-
2012, brought Cronan recognition that her tireless efforts warranted, and, in 2019 Joan
Cronan was inducted into the Women's College Basketball Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, in 2017, Joan Cronan was the inaugural recipient of the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) President's Pat Summitt Award, recognizing a
member of the association who is seen as positively influencing college athletics and the
experiences of the student athletes themselves; and
WHEREAS, in the press release announcing the award recipient as Joan Cronan, the
association's president said, [she has] "fostered opportunities for countless young women to
succeed in sport and in life"; and
WHEREAS, Joan Cronan has received the James J. Corbett Memorial Award,
presented by the National Collegiate Athletics Directors to the college administrator who
typifies Corbett's devotion to intercollegiate athletics and his or her unceasing efforts for its
betterment; and
WHEREAS, Joan Cronan has also received the Women Leaders in College Sports
Award, recognizing uncompromising leadership by women in college athletics especially
focusing on developing the leaders of tomorrow while supporting the advancement of
women in athletics and in their personal and professional lives, as well; and
WHEREAS, Joan Cronan's vision, dedication, and leadership of what has become
one of the premier women's athletics departments in the country at the University of
Tennessee, has earned her the respect and admiration of her peers and the gratitude of those
young women athletes who she has inspired in a nearly six-decades long career, none of
whom could have known that being denied the opportunity to play a sport she loved because
the team was for males-only began the journey and the commitment that has touched the
lives of thousands of young women in such profound ways; and
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WHEREAS, the Dave Dixon Award recognizes sports administrative figures who
play a decisive role as a sport leader or administrator who bring credit to Louisiana on a
national and international level.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby commend Joan Cronan on being named the 2020 recipient of the Dave Dixon
Louisiana Sports Leadership Award.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Joan Cronan.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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