Mary Jo Haverbeck portrait

1996 Atlanta Olympics and Paralympics

  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS COMPETING: 11
  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS IN ALL ROLES: 21
  • NUMBER OF OLYMPIC ALTERNATES: 2

 

Twelve years after Los Angeles hosted the Olympics for the second time, the games came to the United States again. The 1996 Olympics came to Atlanta, and three Penn Staters snagged medals for their efforts. John L. Hargis, who began coaching the Penn State swim team in 2008, was part of the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Mary Ellen Clark took a diving bronze on the 10-meter platform, while Kevin Szott medaled in his fourth sport 12 years after competing at his first Paralympics.

Francis DoDoo represented Ghana for his fourth and final Olympics in Atlanta, while Sanshiro Abe became the first Penn State wrestler to compete for Japan since Katsutoshi Naito in 1924. In addition to athletes competing for the United States and other nations, ten Penn Staters also converged on Atlanta to serve as coaches, research analysts, physicians, nutritionists, fireworks specialists, team managers, lecturers, and press managers.

 

Profile: Mary Jo Haverbeck

Mary Jo Haverbeck
Mary Jo Haverbeck (Pennsylvania State University, Intercollegiate Athletics, Athlete and Athletics personnel files)

When Mary Jo Haverbeck arrived in State College in 1974 as Penn State’s assistant sports information director, she embarked on a 25-year career as a trailblazer in sports communications. In her role, she became the first Penn State official to publicize women’s sports at the university. She worked to improve uniforms and equipment for women’s programs on campus, and advocated for women’s uniforms to be branded with the Penn State name — a move that paid off in June 1978 when Time magazine ran a story on women’s sports that featured a Nittany Lions field hockey player on the cover, further branding Penn State women’s teams and the university as a whole to a nationwide audience.

Haverbeck’s support for women’s sport extended beyond campus. Haverbeck served on a range of NCAA committees, including as a long-time member of the NCAA Women’s Final Four media coordination committee. She launched the first newsletter on Division I women’s basketball and developed the first computerized statistical rankings for women’s basketball in 1978, co-invented box score systems for field hockey, and helped organize the first Associated Press women’s basketball poll. As a member of the Haverbeck became the first woman inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame in 1995 for her long history of service in the organization. Haverbeck also championed other women in sports journalism and sports communications, serving in high-profile roles in the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and Female Athletic Media Relations Executives (FAME).

On the global stage, Haverbeck served as the press officer for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in Caracas, Venezuela in 1981 and Syracuse, New York in 1983. Three years before her retirement in 1999, Haverbeck’s work culminated in serving as the press operations manager for the USOC at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. “Mary Jo truly was a pioneer in the athletic communications field, not only at Penn State, but nationwide,” former Penn State athletic director said about Haverbeck upon her passing in 2014.

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Over 25 years at Penn State and service to the USOC, Haverbeck collected 15 linear feet of materials related to the Olympics, women’s sports, and Penn State athletics. Read more about the Mary Jo Haverbeck papers at the Special Collections Library.

More is also available in the Debra Ellis Olympics Collection. Ellis assisted Haverbeck at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was stationed at Morehouse College for the women’s basketball preliminaries.

 

SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING