Skidmore College Athletics

As a Skidmore sophomore, the physical education major was a nationally ranked tennis player and a member of the Junior Whiteman Cup Team. She went on to earn a master's and Ph.D. Appointed Women's Athletic Director at Auburn University in 1976 during the first wave of Title IX mandated change in collegiate athletics programs, she personally shaped the evolution of the institution's commitment to gender equity in athletics and documented the emergence of the female athlete on the world stage.  

She was the first visiting professor, male or female, to teach at West Point Military Academy. Passionate about sports history, particularly tennis, the modern Olympic Games, and the role of women in sports, her courses on these subjects were among the most popular at Auburn. She retired as Professor Emerita of Health and Human Performance in 1998, as well as a nationally and internationally recognized pioneer in the arena of women's athletics.  

Davenport's achievements ranged far beyond campus. In 1981 she was selected U.S. Chief of Mission for a session of the National Olympic Committee and served as U.S. delegate to the Republic of China Olympics Academy in Taiwan in 1983. In 1986, she was a special lecturer at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece. Most of all, Davenport is remembered as a teacher, scholar, and athlete.