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women's varsity sports at Penn State were combined into one athletic department in 1973, Durant was named an assistant athletic director. Durant carried Penn State's name to regional and national prominence. She was president of the Eastern Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and treasurer of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Both organizations sponsored postseason events for women. When the NCAA absorbed women's competition into its structure in 1982, Durant was selected to its council. A National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors Hall of Fame inductee, Durant received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of APPRECIATION | Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators. She retired from Penn State in 1989 as an associate athletic director after 34 years of service. "Della was a pioneer in the whole realm of intercollegiate sports for women – and not just Penn State. She certainly helped make the transition from the coaches of women's teams being teachers and taking on a dual role of being a coach, which of course needed to have special administrative processing at that time in the university," said Ellen Perry, former Penn State associate athletic director and senior women's administrator. "She was instrumental in making sure that the teams had what they needed and that the coaches were equally treated well. She will be missed. " I MARY JO HAVERBECK Durant made a lasting impression I was a graduate student in journalism at Penn State when Title IX led to the creation of a position covering and promoting the women's sports teams at the university. John Morris was sports information director at the time, and he knew me because we had shared office space at the University of Delaware. He hired me to fill the new position, and I was assigned to work with Della Durant. Della made an immediate impression. She made sure I had a place to work, insisting that I use her office and sit at her desk in the White Building, where the coaches also had offices. I used sport-by-sport season win-loss records compiled by Della and her staff assistant Marty Stover to document the historic base for the program. One night in November 1981, the doorbell rang in the home I shared with the Penn State field hockey coach. It was Della, bringing good news. She and coach Gillian Rattray had been petitioning for a spot in the AIAW national field hockey championships, based on criteria for advancement. Only one at-large bid was available from the East, and it had been awarded to the University of Delaware. But Penn State had won its appeal, and Della was eager to share the news. She arrived at our front door in her pajamas and slippers with a raincoat over them and carrying a bottle of Champagne to announce the victory. The field hockey team, which had won the AIAW championship in 1980, justified the decision by repeating as national champion. FENCING Team rallies in support of former coach Members of the Penn State fencing team came to the defense of ousted coach Emmanuil Kaidanov at a news conference Sept. 18. "I came to this school almost 100 percent for Coach K," said junior Michael Brand, one of 10 fencers who attended the news KAIDANOV conference at the Ramada Inn in State College. "I want to see him come back. I think what the school did is not right." Kaidanov, who coached the Lions to 12 national championships in his 31year tenure, was fired Aug. 20 over a confrontation with a staff assistant. The assistant had used an anonymous tip line to report a fencer whom she suspected of drug possession. Kaidanov later had a conversation with the assistant in which he allegedly told her that she should have reported the incident to him. The fencer, junior Kane Gladnick, said at the news conference that the suspected marijuana joint was actually a piece of rolled-up athletic tape. She passed a drug test and was cleared by university police. Kaidanov, she said, "was standing up for me, as he would any of my teammates. " University officials have declined comment on Kaidanov's dismissal. His attorney, Alvin de Levie, said the coach was fired for violating a university policy aimed at protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. De Levie said Penn State has offered a grievance hearing, adding that Kaidanov hopes to be reinstated. Following his dismissal, assistant Wieslaw Glon was named interim coach. I

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