Jan Hathorn, a long-time athletics administrator and coach at Washington and Lee University, was one of 50 individuals selected for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s inaugural hall of fame class commemorating the league’s 50th year of operation.
Former athletes, coaches and administrators from 13 current and former ODAC member schools, as well as the ODAC itself, were among the honorees inducted in the initial class. From W&L, Hathorn was joined by former director of athletics and head football coach Bill McHenry ’54, former assistant director of athletics and head women’s tennis coach Cinda Rankin and former director of athletics Mike Walsh.
Hathorn is the Michael F. Wash Director of Athletics at W&L, a position she has held for 19 years. She has led the W&L athletics program to the Dan Wooldridge Champions Cup as the top overall athletic program in the ODAC every year.
Under her leadership, the Generals have won more than 60 percent of their contests, captured 151 conference team championships and consistently ranked among the top athletic departments in Division III. During the 2024-25 school year, W&L placed 13th in the Division III LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup, which measures the top colleges and universities in the nation based on their finishes in NCAA Championship competition.
Hathorn first arrived at W&L in 1987 to serve as the school’s first head coach for both the women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse programs. She coached the women’s soccer team for 14 seasons, producing 10 winning seasons and a 128-89-9 (.586) overall record. In women’s lacrosse, she coached the Generals for 19 seasons and tallied a 222-93 (.705) record with nine ODAC Championships.
Hathorn was selected as the 2019 NCAA Division III Administrator of the Year by Women Leaders in College Sports, and, in 2010, she received the Diane Geppi-Aikens Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in lacrosse. In addition to the ODAC Hall of Fame, Hathorn is a member of the Marcus Whitman High School Hall of Fame, the SUNY Cortland CClub Hall of Fame, the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association Hall of Fame and the Denison University Varsity D Association Hall of Fame.
Hathorn holds a bachelor of science degree in physical education from the State University of New York at Cortland and a master of arts degree in physical education from Ohio State University.
