Hall of Fame Inductees
A founding member of both the women's track and field team and women's ice hockey teams at Wesleyan, Fran Rivkin '78 competed on a varsity team in 11 of the 12 possible seasons in her four years as a Cardinal.
Rivkin lettered in track and field all four years (serving as team captain the last two), field hockey three years (captained the last two), ice hockey three years (first women's goalie), basketball (first-year season), and lacrosse at the same time as track one year. She was the recipient of the 1978 Ahrens Award, handed to the most outstanding senior athlete at Wesleyan and has the distinction of being the only woman in school history to receive the honor. In her senior year, she was also named the Maynard Award winner, given out to the most outstanding scholar-athlete on campus.
As written in The Argus back in 1978 by Maureen Walsh and Libby Toakum, “Francine was absolutely incredible. Take an accomplished athlete (twice captain of field hockey and track), lace on some blades, pads, stick in hand, and tell her to keep the puck out of the net. Fran kept us in more games than we can count, and against those tough teams like Brown and Yale, Fran was awesome. And Fran was our sage, our mentor, unquestionably the leader of the team.”
In the track and field season, Rivkin redefined the school record book in her throwing disciplines, tossing well over 34 feet in the shot put, 115+ feet in the discus, and 116+ feet in the javelin.
Fran grew up in a suburb of Chicago called Highland Park and starred at her local high school in field hockey, badminton, softball, and other sports for her four years prior to choosing Wesleyan for her undergraduate years.
