Distinguished University of Florida professor and Gator sports pioneer, the late Dr. Ruth Alexander, was recently honored in a statewide coordinated effort to increase the visibility of women in Florida’s history.
On May 26, the Florida Historical Marker Council approved 12 historical markers recognizing women “whose contributions helped shape Florida’s civic, educational, athletic, environmental, architectural, aviation, and cultural history” across 12 counties, including Alexander in Alachua County.
Known as the founder of women’s sports at UF, Alexander joined the faculty in 1969 as chairwoman of the Department of Physical Education for Women. Three years later, three months before Title IX was passed, she approached then UF President Stephen C. O’Connell about the need for female athletes to have intercollegiate sports.
With O’Connell backing Alexander’s initial requests, Florida became the first SEC school to fund women’s sports in 1972, allocating a $16,000 budget to launch the program with five teams: golf, gymnastics, swimming, tennis and track.
As Florida’s first women’s athletics director from 1972 to 1981, Alexander was the driving force behind efforts to secure equal opportunities for female athletes to compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, elevating intramural and club sports to varsity status.
Throughout her 36-year career at UF, Alexander was one of the national leaders of the Title IX movement in women’s sports, while earning the title of Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science.
At one point, Alexander received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Recognized for her years of service on the council and as a clinician from 1974–78, she also served four three-year terms on the Governor’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports, serving as chairwoman in her final year.
President Richard Nixon appointed Alexander to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, and she was later reappointed by Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
“She never made it a ‘men’s sports vs. women’s sports’ issue, but she also never backed down when it came time to help women students have an opportunity to compete in intercollegiate athletics,” UF sports historian Norm Carlson said.
When Alexander retired as women’s athletic director in 1981, the program had grown to eight sports, and the swimming team had won a national championship.
After Alexander’s 36 years of service, she retired with the rank of Professor Emeritus. Her career honors include induction into the UF Athletics Hall of Fame, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame and the National Association of Sport and Physical Education Hall of Fame.
During her retirement, Alexander was a board member of the Boys & Girls Club of Alachua County, attended many academic and sporting events at UF, and was a member of First United Methodist Church in Gainesville.
She also received the 2020 Women Leaders Nike Lifetime Achievement Award.
Alexander died April 20, 2021, in Gainesville at age 83.
12 Florida women are being honored with markers
“The twelve approved markers honor women from across Florida whose achievements transformed their communities and, in many cases, the nation itself,” the Florida Women’s Historical Marker Initiative said.
The markers are 42” wide and 30” tall, on a 6-foot pole, Long said in an email, and are approved by Florida and local jurisdictions. The honorees are:
— Information in this story was previously reported in The Sun.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF pioneer Ruth Alexander among women honored with state markers
Reporting by Elliot Tritto and C. A. Bridges, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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