... pursue something that makes you happy.
Christine Grant
Despite everything she has accomplished, former University of Iowa women's athletics director Christine Grant will tell you that she's never worked a day in her life.
"I read some place that if you have a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life," Grant said. "And I have loved the jobs I've had."
Grant said too often young people are driven by the desire to make money. She said it's better to pursue something that makes you happy.
"I can't imagine having done that, no way," Grant said. "You may have money, but you're not rich."
Grant was born and raised in Scotland and started playing competitive sports when she was 11. She knew almost immediately that sports would be her calling in life.
She eventually moved from Scotland in the early 1960s to Canada, where she got involved with field hockey. Grant had been living in Canada for just a year when she was asked to coach the Canadian National Field Hockey team.
"We knew we needed to start a national organization, the Canadian National Field Hockey Association, because Canada had pockets of field hockey all over, but there was no organization," she said.
"And I helped organize a national organization, and I thought, 'Boy, isn't this terrific?'"
Grant then was named Canada's promotions director for field hockey. It was the start of a career in sports administration that ultimately led to Grant being hired as the first women's athletics director at UI.
"I had no intention of becoming an athletic director," Grant said. "It just worked out that way."
Grant attended summer school at UI in 1968 and then became a full-time student in 1969.
She was finishing her Ph.D. when she was hired as the women's athletics director in 1973. She then spent nearly three decades building the Iowa women's athletics program into a Big Ten power, while also leading the push for gender equity and being a spokeswoman for Title IX.
Grant has received numerous awards and honors in throughout her career. In 2007, she was named as one of the top 100 Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute of International Sport and received the NCAA President's Gerald R. Ford Award, which honors an individual who has provided significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics.
"I think I've made a little bit of a difference with regard to educating people about the fairness of equal opportunity," Grant said.
— Pat Harty
