Judy Devine, former Kent State coach and associate athletic director, recently donated $1.2 million to the Kent State athletic department.

The gift, the third-largest in the department’s history, will fund the Athletic Equity Endowment, which will “provide funding to ensure that all future generations of Kent State female student-athletes will receive equity in access, provision and opportunity in all facets of their intercollegiate athletic experience,” Devine said in an athletic department press release.

Beginning her coaching career at Kent State in 1975 as the first coach of the women’s basketball team, Devine also led the field hockey team in its first years.

Devine’s bequest came as a part of the university’s Centennial Campaign.

– Josh Johnston