Feb. 12, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Missy Conboy, now in her 21st year with the University of Notre Dame athletics administration, was honored Tuesday by the BIG EAST Conference and the University in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Conboy, deputy athletics director at Notre Dame, received an engraved plaque in a surprise afternoon ceremony at the Joyce Center, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the achievement of girls and women in sports on the Notre Dame campus.

Since coming to Notre Dame in 1987, Conboy has worked with more than 1,500 female Notre Dame student-athletes. There were only six women’s varsity programs when she joined the Irish staff — and that number has more than doubled to 13 during her tenure at Notre Dame.

Conboy was promoted in October 2004 to deputy director of athletics. She was appointed senior associate athletics director in August 2002 following 11 years as associate athletic director and five years as assistant athletic director.

A 1982 graduate of the University, she oversees the legal affairs of the athletic department and has responsibility for the master plan for facilities, human resources, legal contracts and is the liaison to the Athletic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Conboy is the sport administrator for the volleyball, women’s tennis, men’s and women’s swimming and rowing programs. During her tenure at Notre Dame, she also has overseen business affairs, NCAA compliance and event management for the athletic department.

She was a member of the NCAA’s Legislative Review Committee, serving as chair for her final two years. Conboy also served as a four-year member of the NCAA Interpretations Committee. She was a six-year member of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Committee and was instrumental in bringing both the 1994 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships and 1998 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships to the Notre Dame campus.

She has served as a member of the BIG EAST Academic Honors Committee and the BIG EAST Finance Committee, and currently serves on both the BIG EAST Volleyball Committee and on the BIG EAST Executive Committee. Conboy is also the former chair of the BIG EAST Senior Women Administrators’ Committee.

Conboy joined the NCAA staff in 1985 as an enforcement representative. In that capacity, she spent two years investigating infraction reports and helped process cases for the NCAA’s committee on infractions. She joined the Notre Dame staff in August 1987.

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Conboy was a four-year member of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team from 1978-82. A forward, Conboy captained the Irish in her senior year.

Conboy graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in English and received her juris doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1985.

— ND —