In Memoriam: Kathleen Saunders Nordeen, 1940-2021

Kit Saunders Nordeen, who pioneered women’s athletics at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s and 1970s, and as a top national administrator fought for equal opportunities for women athletes in the tumultuous years following the passage of Title IX, died on New Year’s Day at Oakwood Village University Woods in Madison, Wisconsin. She was 80 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.

A native of Teaneck, New Jersey, she graduated from Trenton State College, now known as the College of New Jersey. She went on to earn a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at the Univerity of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Saunders Nordeen was named the Univerity Wisconsin-Madison’s first director of intercollegiate athletics for women in 1974. Five years later, while continuing her duties at the University of Wisconsin, she was elected Division I vice president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, then the preeminent governing body of women’s intercollegiate athletics.

Saunders Nordeen retired from the University of Wisconsin in 1990 as associate athletic director.