Visit Quad Cities is accepting nominations for a new female athletic scholarship it created earlier this year to honor the Missouri Valley Conference’s leader Patty Viverito.
The Patty Viverito Emerging Leader Scholarship recognizes the leadership of Ms. Viverito, who was past senior associate commissioner at the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and Missouri Valley Football Conference commissioner.
Visit Quad Cities said the scholarship will be presented to two Quad Cities female student athletes from Illinois/Iowa. The new award recognizes and supports local outstanding female student athletes in the Quad Cities region who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership characteristics, and community engagement.
The scholarship was announced in March at a tip-off reception to the Missouri Valley Women’s 2022 tournament held at what then was the TaxSlayer Center in downtown Moline.
“Patty Viverito has been a strong female leader with a multitude of accomplishments in her years in athletics,” said Joan Kranovich, Visit QC’s vice president, business growth, and director of Sports QC. “She has been an inspiration and a mentor to me, as she has been for countless other women throughout her career. Patty was the driving force from The Valley to bring Hoops in the Heartland to the Quad Cities in 2016. She will continue her affiliation with the Quad Cities for years to come with this scholarship and be an influence for the next generation of female student-athletes.”
Scholarship applicants must be high school juniors or seniors and have plans to pursue an undergraduate education at any accredited university or community college. The deadline for applications is Jan. 15, 2023.
Visit Quad Cities and Sports QC will serve as the program’s administrator. A committee of local female community leaders will serve in an advisory role to determine the recipients. For more information or to apply, visit www.SportsQCScholarship.com.
Ms. Viverito, a Chicago native, was named Missouri Valley Football’s first commissioner in September of 1985. She led the conference (then Gateway Conference) to national prominence in the 1980s. The league, which sponsored nine women’s sports and FCS football, saw its women’s programs merge with their MVC men’s counterparts in 1992.
She also currently serves as the FCS commissioners’ representative on the NCAA Division I Council and vice chair of the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee. A nationally respected administrator, Ms. Viverito recently completed a term on the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) Executive Committee and Chair of the FCS Subcommittee of the CCA.
Previously, she served on the prestigious NCAA Executive Committee, the NCAA Council, the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and was chair of the NCAA Committee for Women’s Athletics and Olympic Sports Liaison Committees. She currently serves on the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards Executive Committee, responsible for selecting the winner of the Honda Cup annually.
She is credited with helping bring the MVC Women’s Basketball postseason championship to the Quad Cities, where it has been played since 2016. This year marks the 16th-consecutive season in its 41-year history that the event will take place at a neutral site.
The Valley becomes the only Division I stand-alone women’s basketball event to be held in the same city for eight or more consecutive years. For more information on the 2023 event, which will be March 9-12, go to www.mvcquadcities.com.
