Performance in Motion, Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2003
Professional Achievement Award
Frances B. Koenig
Frances B. Koenig received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in
1969. She received her A.B. from Brown University in 1950 and her M.S.
from Smith College in 1952. She unexpectedly passed away on October 13,
2000.
Throughout her professional career, Frances was a consummate advocate of
physical education and women’s sports. Her teaching and coaching career
spanned 37 years starting at Morrisville
Central
School in Morrisville, New York (1952-1959) where she taught and coached
all the girls’ sports. She was an Assistant Professor and coach at
Concordia Teachers College
in River Forest, Illinois (1959-1964). While completing her doctoral
studies at Michigan State
University in East Lansing, Michigan (1964-1968) she also coached field
hockey at MSU. At Central
Michigan
University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan (1969-1989) she was an associate
professor in physical education and the women’s basketball coach
(1969-1974). She later became an Associate Athletic Director and Director
of Women’s Athletics at CMU (1974-1989).
A few items from
her extensive list of professional accolades include being one of the
first women to officiate at a national women’s basketball championship
(1964), recipient of the MAHPER Distinguished Service Award (1973),
received the Woman Professor of the Year Award at Central Michigan
University (1973), named in the list of Who’s Who of American Women
(1979-1980), and recipient of the National Association for Girls and Women
in Sport Honor Fellow Award (1980). She had also served on numerous
national and international committees on officiating, women’s basketball,
softball, ethics and eligibility, and competitive standards and medical
aspects of sports. She was inducted into the Brown University Athletic
Hall of Fame (1982), Central Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame
(1995), the Concordia University Athletic Hall of Fame (2002), and today
she is receiving the Michigan State University, Department of Kinesiology,
Alumni Professional Achievement Award.
