Former NIU tennis coach, AD Cary Groth to be inducted into MAC Hall of Fame

Cary Groth, a Northern Illinois University alumna who served her alma mater for 23 years as women’s tennis head coach (1982-84), administrator (1984-94), and athletics director (1994-2004), will be inducted into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame as part of its 2022 class, the league announced Friday.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, this year’s class features individuals from each member institution that have contributed to the advancement of women’s athletics.

“To get honored through your school and by the MAC, a league I have so much love and respect for, is special,” Groth said. “The best part is it’s an acknowledgment of a time at Northern with some very special people at a place that’s home. When Sean [Frazier] called to tell me [about this honor], it made me think about that time and our team, what we were able to accomplish and how lucky I was.

“It’s an honor to be inducted with this group, many of whom I admired during my time as a tennis coach [at NIU] and learned from as I was moving into athletic administration.”

Groth’s career in intercollegiate athletics began as a two-sport letterwinner for NIU in tennis (1974-77) and basketball (1976-77) and culminated as athletic director, as she became one of only three women athletic directors at an NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) institution when named to the post in 1994.

“Congratulations to Cary on this well-deserved honor,” said NIU Vice President/Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier. “She was an obvious choice as NIU’s nominee for the MAC Hall of Fame in this anniversary year as a trailblazer and an iconic leader for Huskie Athletics. From her days as a two-sport student-athlete here, to her return as a coach, through her rise to the athletic director’s chair, to her continuing work today as an educator, she has been a role model and a champion for women and for all leaders in intercollegiate athletics throughout her career. We are so proud she is a Huskie!”

As athletic director, Groth’s major achievements included engineering the Huskies’ move back to the Mid-American Conference in 1997-98. She also hired head football coach Joe Novak, credited for laying the groundwork for most of the program’s current successes.

She also helped develop such capital facilities projects as the Huskie Stadium East Grandstand (1995) and the installation of FieldTurf (2001), the Convocation Center (2002), and improvements to Ralph McKinzie (baseball) and Mary M. Bell (softball) field. Huskie teams won eight MAC titles during her tenure as AD.

Groth said being a part of the administration that returned NIU to the MAC after the school had left the league to become an independent in football was one of her proudest achievements as athletic director.

“I remember during my time as [the Huskies’] tennis coach, I was in the car and heard an announcement on the radio that NIU was leaving the MAC and none of us, as coaches, had any idea,” she said. “When I had the opportunity to get into administration and to become the athletic director, it was always in the forefront of my mind to get us back in the MAC, because that was where we belonged. Getting us back into the MAC and being part of making that happen was probably one of my favorite moments.”

The Park Forest, Illinois native served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics (2002-03), plus earned the ATALANTA Award (1997), Gen. Robert Neyland Achievement Award (2002), WBCA Administrator of the Year (2003) and NACWAA Division 1-A Administrator of the Year (2003). She served as president of NACWAA (now Women Leaders in College Sports) in 1994-95.

In 1998, Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal included Groth in its “Super 50: Women’s Sports Executives”. During her time as an administrator at NIU prior to becoming athletic director, she assisted in the merger of the Huskie men’s and women’s athletic departments.

Although she spent just two seasons as NIU’s women’s tennis coach, she engineered a turnaround, taking a team that was 8-15 the year prior to her arrival, to an 18-15 record in 1984 and was named the MAC women’s tennis Co-Coach of the Year.

From NIU, she went on to the University of Nevada, where she was athletic director for 10 years (2004-14), leaving a legacy of success on and off the field of play. She continues her association with the Reno, Nevada university today as she became director of the sports management program in the College of Business in December 2020.

Groth joins Kay Piper (Akron), Andrea Seger (Ball State), Dorothy Luedtke (Bowling Green), Nan Harvey (Buffalo), Linda (Pagett) Young (Central Michigan), Lucy Parker (Eastern Michigan), Laing Kennedy (Kent State), Karen Womack (Miami), Peggy Pruitt (Ohio), Cheryl Sprangel (Toledo) and Kathy Beauregard (Western Michigan) in the 2022 MAC Hall of Fame Class.