Field Hockey Career Panel (l-r): Renee Clarke ’88, Jayne Gandy ’99, Devon Freshnock ’17, Mary Panko ‘05
Celebration Leads to Renewed Connections
Nov 21 | Scarlet Knights for Life™
The Scarlet Knights For Life office leads athletic alumni relations, nearly doubling letterwinner events during the 2022-23 school year.
Born before the passage of Title IX, Renee Clarke was a driving force behind some of the early triumphs in Rutgers women's sports.
She guided one team to its first conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance. She reached two Elite Eights with another.
Four decades later, all of those memories came rushing back.
"It reawakened something very deep inside that made you proud to be a Scarlet Knight" Clarke said.
The Rutgers Athletics Hall of Famer was one of more than 1,400 former student-athletes to return to the Banks as part of the athletic department's year-long initiative to reconnect with letterwinners and commemorate 50 years of Title IX.
The Scarlet Knights For Life office – which leads athletic alumni relations – played a key role in this effort, seeing the typical number of alumni gatherings nearly doubled with 45 letterwinner events during the 2022-23 school year.
Clarke attended five of them, including celebrations hosted by the two teams she led in the mid-1980s – field hockey and softball. The events provided a pregame meal with the vibe of a family reunion, a postgame gathering with today's student-athletes, and – perhaps most memorable for the nine-time Rutgers record-breaker – a few more minutes on the field.
At field hockey's Title IX game, that meant the three-year starting goalkeeper was one of 60 alumnae to join the current team's pregame huddle for a raucous "R-U! Rah! Rah!" chant.
"It took us all back to our playing days," Clarke said. "The energy was off the charts. I could see in my teammates' eyes how important it was to them, to feel as though they had been recognized and legitimized and could give back to this year's team. For us to be able to take part in something like this, I think for all of us it's left an indelible mark that will stay with us."
But producing that moment – and celebrating the history of an athletic department that spans three centuries – took a full-team effort.
One of the people involved in the day-to-day operations was Brett Miller. He was hired in March of 2022 to bolster the alumni engagement efforts of assistant athletic director Carissa Liverpool – a Rutgers softball letterwinner herself and the founder of the Rutgers Varsity R Letterwinners Association – and the rest of the Scarlet Knights For Life office. They both sat on the Title IX committee that spearheaded the campaign.
Miller says the group started from square one, asking basic questions like, "How do we define the word 'letterwinner', and who are our letterwinners?"
The first part was easy. While the exact meaning has varied over the years, Rutgers considers all of its former student-athletes to be letterwinners, as long as they spent at least one season on a program's roster.
But answering the second part forced the committee to hit the books. Inspired by an impressive timeline created by associate athletic director for communications, Kim Zivkovich, Miller and his colleagues dug through the sports archives at Alexander Library to reassemble rosters from the last 50 years. They reviewed the notes of pioneer Rita Kay Thomas – Rutgers' first director of women's athletics – and read decades-old editions of the Daily Targum student newspaper.
In the end, the Scarlet Knights For Life staff made roughly 700 additions to its already robust letterwinner database.
"We wanted to look through every record because we didn't want to miss anyone," Miller said. "We wanted to make sure that everyone who was a part of Rutgers history could also be a part of the celebration."
As the school year drew closer, it was time to spread the word about the athletic department's vision for a year-long bash. What ensued was an all-out blitz: mass emails, paper mailings, social media posts, even personal phone calls from some of Rutgers' current head coaches.
"We had a special recognition for the first three teams in the women's swimming program because they were all undefeated," Miller said. "We were trying to contact them. I think there were about 20 letterwinners. And Jon [Maccoll, the women's swimming and diving head coach] actually ended up calling each of them one day to reach them."
While the news circulated through Rutgers' alumni groups, plans of all kinds were hatched. Chief among them: a Title IX Celebration Weekend, which included the recognition of 300 female letterwinners at halftime of a sold-out football game. As a half-century of Scarlet Knights marched across the turf, Clarke says it was clear the moment impacted her teammates.
"We were amazed at the progress, at the fan interaction, at the commitment of the university to recognize women's sports and bring women's athletics to the level it's at right now," said Clarke. "It was breathtaking. If you looked at my peers' faces that day, you would've seen sheer amazement – and maybe a little bit of disbelief – at just how far we've come."
Having recently retired from a three-decade career as a college softball and field hockey coach, that year of celebration was the spark that has led Clarke to return to Rutgers more regularly. She returned to campus in the spring to sit on an alumni panel at the field hockey team's Career Night, an event organized by Scarlet Knights For Life, which also provides letterwinners with professional development opportunities so they can give back to the current generation of student-athletes.
"[My teammates and I] gathered to watch games and visited practice together this past season," Clarke said. "We want to make our own celebrations. And this is all building on the feelings we experienced a year ago." She was one of 110 letterwinners in attendance for the 2023 Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in September when Rita Kay Thomas was among those inducted.
Head coach Meredith Civico credits Clarke and her fellow alumnae for giving the team a spark.
"Spending even just 10 minutes in a room with all of those alums just ignites your energy," said Civico. "It has been really special to have everyone back to campus."
Rutgers Athletics and the Scarlet Knights For Life are eager to connect with all former student-athletes. Letterwinners are encouraged to update their contact information and pass along this link to teammates to ensure no one misses an opportunity to come back to campus for future celebrations.
She guided one team to its first conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance. She reached two Elite Eights with another.
Four decades later, all of those memories came rushing back.
"It reawakened something very deep inside that made you proud to be a Scarlet Knight" Clarke said.
The Rutgers Athletics Hall of Famer was one of more than 1,400 former student-athletes to return to the Banks as part of the athletic department's year-long initiative to reconnect with letterwinners and commemorate 50 years of Title IX.
The Scarlet Knights For Life office – which leads athletic alumni relations – played a key role in this effort, seeing the typical number of alumni gatherings nearly doubled with 45 letterwinner events during the 2022-23 school year.
Clarke attended five of them, including celebrations hosted by the two teams she led in the mid-1980s – field hockey and softball. The events provided a pregame meal with the vibe of a family reunion, a postgame gathering with today's student-athletes, and – perhaps most memorable for the nine-time Rutgers record-breaker – a few more minutes on the field.
At field hockey's Title IX game, that meant the three-year starting goalkeeper was one of 60 alumnae to join the current team's pregame huddle for a raucous "R-U! Rah! Rah!" chant.
"It took us all back to our playing days," Clarke said. "The energy was off the charts. I could see in my teammates' eyes how important it was to them, to feel as though they had been recognized and legitimized and could give back to this year's team. For us to be able to take part in something like this, I think for all of us it's left an indelible mark that will stay with us."
But producing that moment – and celebrating the history of an athletic department that spans three centuries – took a full-team effort.
One of the people involved in the day-to-day operations was Brett Miller. He was hired in March of 2022 to bolster the alumni engagement efforts of assistant athletic director Carissa Liverpool – a Rutgers softball letterwinner herself and the founder of the Rutgers Varsity R Letterwinners Association – and the rest of the Scarlet Knights For Life office. They both sat on the Title IX committee that spearheaded the campaign.
Miller says the group started from square one, asking basic questions like, "How do we define the word 'letterwinner', and who are our letterwinners?"
The first part was easy. While the exact meaning has varied over the years, Rutgers considers all of its former student-athletes to be letterwinners, as long as they spent at least one season on a program's roster.
But answering the second part forced the committee to hit the books. Inspired by an impressive timeline created by associate athletic director for communications, Kim Zivkovich, Miller and his colleagues dug through the sports archives at Alexander Library to reassemble rosters from the last 50 years. They reviewed the notes of pioneer Rita Kay Thomas – Rutgers' first director of women's athletics – and read decades-old editions of the Daily Targum student newspaper.
In the end, the Scarlet Knights For Life staff made roughly 700 additions to its already robust letterwinner database.
"We wanted to look through every record because we didn't want to miss anyone," Miller said. "We wanted to make sure that everyone who was a part of Rutgers history could also be a part of the celebration."
As the school year drew closer, it was time to spread the word about the athletic department's vision for a year-long bash. What ensued was an all-out blitz: mass emails, paper mailings, social media posts, even personal phone calls from some of Rutgers' current head coaches.
"We had a special recognition for the first three teams in the women's swimming program because they were all undefeated," Miller said. "We were trying to contact them. I think there were about 20 letterwinners. And Jon [Maccoll, the women's swimming and diving head coach] actually ended up calling each of them one day to reach them."
While the news circulated through Rutgers' alumni groups, plans of all kinds were hatched. Chief among them: a Title IX Celebration Weekend, which included the recognition of 300 female letterwinners at halftime of a sold-out football game. As a half-century of Scarlet Knights marched across the turf, Clarke says it was clear the moment impacted her teammates.
"We were amazed at the progress, at the fan interaction, at the commitment of the university to recognize women's sports and bring women's athletics to the level it's at right now," said Clarke. "It was breathtaking. If you looked at my peers' faces that day, you would've seen sheer amazement – and maybe a little bit of disbelief – at just how far we've come."
Having recently retired from a three-decade career as a college softball and field hockey coach, that year of celebration was the spark that has led Clarke to return to Rutgers more regularly. She returned to campus in the spring to sit on an alumni panel at the field hockey team's Career Night, an event organized by Scarlet Knights For Life, which also provides letterwinners with professional development opportunities so they can give back to the current generation of student-athletes.
"[My teammates and I] gathered to watch games and visited practice together this past season," Clarke said. "We want to make our own celebrations. And this is all building on the feelings we experienced a year ago." She was one of 110 letterwinners in attendance for the 2023 Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in September when Rita Kay Thomas was among those inducted.
Head coach Meredith Civico credits Clarke and her fellow alumnae for giving the team a spark.
"Spending even just 10 minutes in a room with all of those alums just ignites your energy," said Civico. "It has been really special to have everyone back to campus."
Rutgers Athletics and the Scarlet Knights For Life are eager to connect with all former student-athletes. Letterwinners are encouraged to update their contact information and pass along this link to teammates to ensure no one misses an opportunity to come back to campus for future celebrations.
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