SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame
A gifted four-sport athlete at Cortland, Sue Lauder ’75 has distinguished herself throughout her professional career as a highly successful coach, athletics director, football conference commissioner and member of influential NCAA Div. III national committees.
Since 1996, Lauder has directed and greatly enhanced both the intercollegiate athletics and recreation programs and opportunities at Fitchburg (Mass.) State College. She was a catalyst behind the construction of new facilities and secured one of only nine NCAA/Strategic Alliance grants to help fund Fitchburg athletic initiatives.
Her emphasis on Fitchburg’s coaches and student-athletes becoming involved in the community has established a standard of service that has helped Special Olympics, nursing homes, Habitat for Humanity, blood drives and care packages for the troops. The Fitchburg athletics program received an NCAA Div. III Sportsmanship Award at the national convention in 2010.
Lauder has been the commissioner of the 16-member New England Football Conference — the largest in NCAA Div. III — since 2005. The only female to head a collegiate football-only league, she received the All-American Football Foundation’s Asa S. Bushnell Outstanding Commissioner Award in 2009.
A past president of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC), Lauder currently serves as vice president and on its Executive Committee.
On a national scale, Lauder chaired the NCAA Div. III Women’s Basketball Committee from 2000-02 and served on the NCAA Nominating Committee from 2005-09. She assisted with the NCAA Future of Div. III Focus Group in 2003-04 and, from 1993-96, served on NCAA Div. II Women’s Basketball Legislative Committee.
A graduate of Fairport (N.Y.) High School, Lauder excelled as a Cortland student-athlete. She competed all four years as a halfback in field hockey and a guard in basketball, serving as team captain in both sports as a senior. She was a softball catcher for a season and sprinted and threw javelin on the track and field squad.
Lauder, a member of Theta Phi sorority, studied in Cologne, Germany, at the Deutsche Sporthochschule as a senior. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education from Cortland in 1975 and a master’s degree from Syracuse University in 1978. She taught and coached at Romulus (N.Y.) High School from 1975-77.
Lauder was director of women’s athletics and the women’s basketball and tennis coach at Hartwick College from 1978-85. She posted a 103-52 overall record in basketball. She won the New York State AIAW Coach of the Year in 1982-83, when her team was undefeated in the regular season and participated in the first-ever NCAA Div. III Tournament.
She was a consultant in adaptive physical education for The Education Cooperative in 1985-86 and assistant director of athletics and director of intramurals and wellness at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Mass., for a year. Lauder worked at Assumption College in Worcester from 1987-96 as the assistant director of athletics, head women’s basketball coach and the senior women’s administrator.
