The Seattle University athletics department will honor original Seattle U Athletics Hall of Famers Janet Hopps Adkisson and Pat Lesser Harbottle at the 2011 Tribute Dinner and Silent Auction Fundraiser this Sunday, May 1, in the Lower Level Banquet Room of The Space Needle.
The event will begin with the silent auction and reception at 5 p.m., followed by the dinner program at 6:30 p.m. Suggested dress is business casual, and the cost of $100 per person includes dinner and a complimentary drink.
This is the second annual Tribute Dinner, an event established to honor Seattle U athletics legends of the past and to raise money for the athletics department. Last year's ceremony honored Ed and John O'Brien and included the retirement of their numbers by the Seattle U baseball program.
Adkisson and Harbottle were chosen as this year's honorees to keep with the department's theme of "Year of the Woman." This academic year began with the dedication of the Nancy Gerou Women's Basketball Locker Room in October, and The Spectator, Seattle University's student newspaper, has run several features on Seattle University female student-athletes of the past.
Hopps Adkisson was the first woman to land a berth on the all-male varsity tennis team at Seattle University in the mid-1950s. She won the Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Championship as well as the state titles in both Washington and Oregon. The number one player on the tennis team throughout her Seattle U career, she would graduate magna cum laude and was second in her overall graduating class. She returned to Seattle University as head coach of the tennis teams for ten years, earning five NAIA Coach of the Year honors during that span.
Lesser Harbottle came to Seattle U as a two-time champion of the Seattle Women's Golf Association Championship. In 1953 she won the National Collegiate Women's Championship and was chosen as a member of the 1954 Curtis Cup squad. One of the few women in the country to play on the varsity men's golf team, she was named "Man of the Year" by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1955 and twice served as the Northwest nominee for the prestigious Sullivan Award. She has been inducted into both the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame and the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame.
Registration for this event will close at the end of business this Thursday, April 28, so contact Greg Sempadian at sempadig@seattleu.edu or 206-398-4420. Online registration is also available by going to the Special Events tab on www.GoSeattleU.com.