Mimi Ryan
| Sport(s) | Women's golf |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
April 1, 1936 Troy, New York |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1973–1994 | University of Florida |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
|
NCAA (1985, 1986) SEC (1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1991) |
|
| Awards | |
|
SEC Coach of the Year (1985, 1986) NGCA National Coach of the Year (1986) NGCA National Coaches Hall of Fame University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame |
|
Mimi Ryan (born April 1, 1936) is a former American college golf coach. Ryan was the founder and long-time head coach of the Florida Gators women's golf program at the University of Florida. She is best known for leading the Florida Gators women's golfers to two back-to-back National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national tournament championships.
Ryan was born in Troy, New York in 1936. She was the daughter of John Ryan, an electrician, and his wife Mildred Pratt Ryan, a telephone operator who worked in the New York governor's office.
Ryan graduated from Bouve College in Boston Massachusetts with a bachelor's degree in physical education, then earned a second degree in education from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and a master's degree in education from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Ryan started her coaching career as the first head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions women's golf team at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, from 1964 to 1969. In 1969, she was hired to be a physical education instructor by dean Dennis K. Stanley of the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Shortly thereafter, Ryan was also hired to be one of the first generation of Florida Gators women's sports head coaches at the University of Florida.
University of Florida athletic director Ray Graves and associate athletic director Ruth Alexander had made the strategic decision to embrace Title IX, the new federal law requiring equal opportunities for women in U.S. college sports. Among the very first programs started was the new Lady Gators women's golf program, and Ryan was recruited to start it from scratch—first as an intercollegiate club team in 1969, and then to elevate it as a varsity team in Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) competition in 1973. In the Lady Gators' first year as a varsity sports team, Ryan's Gators finished seventh at the AIAW national championship tournament, beginning a streak of nineteen consecutive top-ten finishes in the AIAW and NCAA national championship tournaments.
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