Constance Claussen

(1939- ) born at Omaha. Educator, coach, administrator, pioneer in college women’s athletics, she helped organize first women’s college softball world series in Omaha in 1969, chaired softball world series committee for twelve years, and initiated women’s athletics program at University of Nebraska- Omaha; as head softball coach at UNO from 1970 to 1977, her team won 1975 national softball championship under auspices of National Collegiate Athletic Association for Women, served on executive committee of National Collegiate Athletic Association that administered first NCAA women’s softball championship in 1982; was inducted into National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1996 in pioneer category. Consult UNO Alum, Spring 1992, pp. 22-23 and Omaha World Herald, April 3, 1976, pp. 13-14 and April 27, 1998, p. 21 and Mary Littlewood, Women’s Fastpitch Softball—The Path to the Gold (National Fastpitch Coaches Association, 1998) 144-152 and Ying Wushanley, Playing Nice and Losing: The Struggle for Control of Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics 1960-2000 (Syracuse University Press, 2004).

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