Posted: Sep 26, 2022

Wellesley Athletics Mourns Passing of Louise O'Neal

Louise O'Neal was Director of Wellesley Athletics and Department Chair from 1990-2006.

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley College Athletics mourns the passing of former Athletic Director and Wellesley Athletics Hall of Famer, Louise O'Neal. O'Neal passed away on September 17, 2022 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She was 83 years old.

As Director of Athletics and Department Chair from 1990-2006, O'Neal was instrumental in building and turning Wellesley Athletics into what it is today. She oversaw enormous growth and success of the athletics programs and was responsible for the construction of a state of the art outdoor fields complex and the addition of the sports of golf and softball. Wellesley made 16 NCAA Championship appearances during her tenure, with both the field hockey and volleyball teams advancing to the NCAA Division III Final Four.

Wellesley benefitted from over a decade of O'Neal's visionary leadership but her influence extended far beyond Wellesley's campus. A pioneer in the sport of women's basketball, O'Neal coached nationally successful basketball teams at Southern Connecticut State (SCSU) and Yale University. As a head coach at SCSU she led her teams to a 144-37 record, with 8 straight national championship appearances. At Yale, she served three years as the Assistant Director of Athletics and head women's basketball coach. Her teams qualified for postseason play in each of her three seasons leading the program.

Her last coaching role was as coach of the U.S. National Team, which won the gold medal at the 1979 International Tournament. In 1979, O'Neal moved to an administrative role as Senior Associate Director of Athletics at Dartmouth College. She continued at Dartmouth until she arrived at Wellesley in 1990. O'Neal was the leader of the Wellesley Athletic Department until she retired in 2006.

In 1988, she became the first person to be inducted into the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1994, O'Neal was named National Administrator of the Year by the National Association for Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA), now Women Leaders in College Sports. A member of the the SCSU Athletic Hall of Fame, O'Neal was also a recipient of the Women Leaders in College Sports Lifetime Achievement Award and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Jostens-Berenson Service Award for lifelong commitment and service to the game of women's basketball.

In 2006, she was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame and in 2017 she was inducted into the national Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. O'Neal was inducted into the Wellesley Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

Wellesley Athletics strives for excellence at the conference, regional, and national levels, while providing opportunities for students to achieve their potential and learn the values of discipline, leadership, critical thinking, and responsibility to oneself and others.