Former Women's Athletic Director Frances Hogan Passes Away
April 8, 2009 | General
April 8, 2009
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Frances Burns Hogan, the long-time women's tennis coach and associate athletic director for the women's athletic program at the University of North Carolina, passed away April 6, 2009 at the age of 86 at her home in Chapel Hill.
Mrs. Hogan came to Chapel Hill in 1946 as an instructor in the University's Physical Education Department. She was employed by UNC for 38 years and retired from her duties in the Department of Athletics following the 1984-85 school year.
"Frances Hogan spent her professional life developing opportunities in athletics for young women. She will be remembered for that as well as her love for the University of North Carolina," said UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour. "I had the honor of working with her on several projects and I treasure our work together and her efforts on behalf of so many people. She had a wonderful sense of humor and a terrific way of connecting with people." Mrs. Hogan was a member of University United Methodist Church. She was married to George Pickard Hogan for over 59 years. Along with her husband, she is survived by her children, Alwin B. Hogan and Frances B. Hogan. She will long be remembered by the countless female student-athletes who competed at UNC during her tenure as a coach and administrator from 1946-85.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 9 at the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the Hogan family home following the service. Funeral arrangements are being coordinated by Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill, 120 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
After arriving at the University in 1946, Mrs. Hogan guided the fortunes of the varsity women's tennis team, which then was under the aegis of the Department of Physical Education at UNC. She coached that team until 1976, seeing its incorporation under the banner of the Department of Athletics in 1974. In the fall of '74, she recruited Camey Timberlake to Chapel Hill as the first women's student-athlete to be awarded an athletic scholarship.
During her tenure she also coached field hockey and softball in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1974, when women's sports became varsity programs in the Department of Athletics, then Athletic Director Homer Rice named Mrs. Hogan the associate A.D. for women's athletics and she held that role until her retirement in June of 1985. When she retired from coaching, she was replaced by Kitty Harrison who led Tar Heel tennis program to continued great heights from 1977 to 1998.
"She left shoes that were hard to fill for me because she had been there such a long time," said Kitty Harrison. "She symbolized women's tennis at the and was certainly a good friend of mine. She was very helpful to me as I took over the job.
"Mrs Hogan knew the ropes and was always there to help. She was generous of spirit, fun to be around and had a wonderful sense of humor. Frances was an amazing athlete in her own right. She loved all sports. That made her a very good athletic director. He was compassionate about players and understood student-athletes and the challenges they faced in the collegiate atmosphere."
Mrs. Hogan spurred the growth of tennis in the Tar Heel State during her time at UNC and instituted North Carolina Women's Tennis Day in 1958, a yearly fixture for collegiate and prep fans of the sport around the state. Despite limitations on match play, Hogan was instrumental in making sure the team played a full schedule. Her tennis team was the first women's sports team at the University to travel out of state in order to compete. Women's sports gained varsity status in 1971 in the P.E. department and her teams then competed in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletic for Women (AIAW) national and regional tournaments from then on. When the Department of Athletics took over supervision of the sports programs in 1974, Mrs. Hogan oversaw an eight-sport program which quickly expanded to 13 sports by 1979. She supervised those sports until her retirement in 1985. She helped lead those 13 varsity teams in NCAA competition in the 1981-82 school year.
The shining moment of Mrs. Hogan coaching career was when her pupil Laura Dupont won the 1970 United States Lawn Tennis Association collegiate singles title, just one year before the AIAW sponsored its first championship.