In honor of Women’s History Month, The Hawk highlighted some of the most prolific female athletes and administrators on Hawk Hill.
Through their legendary collegiate or professional careers, these women have laid the foundation for St. Joe’s women’s sports:
Cass Jefferson – Women’s Basketball
Cass Jefferson, the first Black female student athlete at St. Joe’s, was a member of the wo
men’s basketball team for two seasons, starting in 1978. As a sophomore forward/center, Jefferson would help the Hawks to an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Eastern Regional Final.
Jefferson was also a member of the Hawks team that went 3-1 in the inaugural season
of the Philadelphia Big 5 for women’s basketball, leading St. Joe’s in blocked shots throughout the 1979-80 season.
Listed at five-feet-10-inches, Jefferson was a key defensive player for the Hawks during her time with the women’s basketball team.
Anne Gallagher ’78 – Women’s Rowing
In 1975, Anne Gallagher ’78 founded the St. Joe’s women’s rowing team. This was the first women’s rowing team to have a university affiliation in the Philadelphia area. As a three-year captain of the team, rower Gallagher helped lead St. Joe’s to the 1976 Dad Vail Finals.
After graduation, Gallagher joined the board of directors of the USRowing association and remained active in promoting the sport of rowing as well as SJU Athletics.
Gallagher also served as co-chair of St. Joe’s and St. Joseph’s Prep’s boathouse project, which helped acquire land for the two institutions to build a rowing facility on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia. This is where the Robert M. Gillin Jr. Boathouse remains today.
From 1986-95, Gallagher served on the St. Joe’s Board of Trustees. After serving as vice president of St. Joe’s alumni association from 1996-98, she was briefly promoted to president of the association.
Kathleen McEnroe Del Monte ’80 – Women’s Tennis
Kathleen McEnroe Del Monte ’80, one of the most successful women’s tennis players in St. Joe’s history, currently ranks as third all-time at St. Joe’s for career singles wins with 31. Only slowed by missing her junior year due to a knee injury, McEnroe managed just one singles loss throughout her entire career on Hawk Hill.
While McEnroe went undefeated in singles matches across her freshman and sophomore seasons, an even more impressive feat was that when women’s tennis wasn’t in session, McEnroe was the number two player on the men’s doubles team.
McEnroe was elected to the St. Joe’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 1999 for her impressive tennis career and breaking down gender barriers in SJU Athletics.
Ellen Ryan – Administrator and Coach
Ellen Ryan was instrumental in developing St. Joe’s women’s athletics. During her 37 years as a Hawk, Ryan served as the head coach for multiple women’s athletics teams, including basketball, tennis and club field hockey.
In 1975, Ryan moved to the administrative side of SJU Athletics as coordinator of women’s athletics. After six years, Ryan was promoted to assistant athletic director in 1981. She held that position for 21 years before another promotion as the associate athletic director for varsity sports.
During Ryan’s tenure on Hawk Hill she managed to expand the number of women’s athletics teams on campus from a mere three to the full slate of nine varsity teams seen today. In 2011, Ryan retired from the university and, to honor the groundwork she accomplished for women’s athletics, the field hockey field was renamed in her honor as the Ellen Ryan Field.
Ryan was elected as a member of St. Joe’s Athletics Hall of Fame with the class of 1999 and was later inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 2003 for her work with St. Joe’s women’s basketball.
