2017 Recipient
Connie Claussen is a graduate of Omaha Benson High School, and received her bachelor’s degree from Omaha University and her master’s from Adams State College. Claussen began teaching physical education at UNO in 1963 and was chairing the department within two years.
In 1969, The Omaha Softball Association asked Claussen to help start the Women’s College World Series (WCWS). Since UNO was the host school, Claussen coached a softball team to compete in the WCWS. That was the beginning of women’s athletics at UNO, and the beginning of a national championship for women’s softball. During that time she began laying the groundwork for what has become one the top women’s athletic programs in NCAA II.
In 1977, Claussen was Vice Chairman of the Pan American Softball Games Committee. In 1979, she was the manager of the USA Women’s Softball team that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Claussen started the Diet Pepsi/UNO Women’s Walk in 1986, the primary fundraiser for UNO women’s athletics, which has now raised over 3 million dollars.
Claussen has served on several NCAA national committees, including the NCAA Executive Committee where in 1986 she was on the search committee for the Executive Director. She served as chairman of the NCAA II Championships Committee and the Division II Softball Committee.
Claussen was a member of the UNO Alumni Board and was given the Chancellor’s Medal in 1981. She received the UNO Alumni Association’s Citation for Alumnus Achievement in 1997.
Claussen has received numerous other awards, including: the Charles Mancuso Award, one of eight “Women of Distinction” by the YWCA, the Girl Scouts’ “Women of Distinction Award”, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the UNO College of Education, UNO’s Boss of the Year by the Educational Office Professionals Association (EOPA), Lite 96’s “Women’s Sports Leadership Award”, and the Chi Omega Alumni of the Year Award.
She is the first woman member of the UNO Athletic Hall of Fame and has also been inducted into the Omaha Benson High School Hall of Fame, Omaha Softball Association Hall of Fame, the Old Timers Baseball Hall of Fame, the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in recognition of coaching the 1975 Lady Mavs to the national softball championship. She retired as the associate athletic director of women’s athletics at UNO on June 1, 1998.