DONALD “DEE” ROWEUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
For the past 48 years, the University of Connecticut has been represented around the world by a one-of-a-kind ambassador -- Donald “Dee” Rowe.
Starting in March of 1969, when he was named head coach of men’s basketball, Rowe has enjoyed a remarkable three-part, professional career at UConn, distinguishing himself as the most visible, and most successful, external advocate in the history of the institution.
In the fall of 2017, Rowe will receive the ultimate honor as he receives the 2017 John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest and most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional or international game.
For eight seasons (1969-1977), Rowe directed the UConn men’s basketball program, winning 120 games, being named New England Coach of the Year twice, directing the Huskies to a pair of NIT berths and leading the 1975-76 UConn team to the ECAC New England Championship and to the NCAA Sweet 16. Rowe’s final victory at Connecticut in 1977 was his 300th as a scholastic and college head basketball coach during a 22-year career (300-132).
In 1978, Rowe launched the fund-raising arm for UConn Athletics -- the University of Connecticut Athletic Development Fund (UCADF), now known as the Husky Athletic Fund. For the next 13 years, he became a national leader in collegiate athletic fund-raising, generating millions of dollars to support the mission of UConn Athletics. Rowe personally directed the effort to raise more than seven million dollars in private donations to support the building (1987-90) of Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
In 1980, Rowe experienced what he calls “the greatest thrill of my personal basketball life” when he represented his country as Assistant Coach of the United States Men’s Basketball Olympic Team, joining head coach Dave Gavitt and fellow assistant coach Larry Brown as USA Olympic coaches.
For the past 26 years, since his official UConn retirement at the end of calendar year 1991, Rowe has remained actively involved in his emeritus role as Special Adviser for Athletics at the University of Connecticut. His duties include work on major gift fund-raising for Husky Athletics while also utilizing his unique and unmatched wit and wisdom to serve as mentor in providing wise counsel for individuals he interacts with on a daily basis.
Prior to coming to Connecticut in March of 1969, Rowe served for 14 years (1955-69) as Director of Athletics and head coach of basketball at Worcester (Mass.) Academy. Rowe built the Worcester Academy basketball program into a perennial power in New England prep school ranks. His basketball teams won nine New England Prep School Championships and he compiled a 180-44 overall record. The basketball court at Worcester Academy, the Donald E. “Dee” Rowe Basketball Court, is named in his honor.
A Worcester native and a 1947 graduate of Worcester Academy where he lettered in baseball, basketball and football, Rowe’s ongoing association and involvement with his scholastic alma mater has continued for some 70 years. He serves as trustee emeritus at the school and continues to assist Worcester Academy in major fund-raising activities. The Rowe Family Scholarship Fund at Worcester Academy annually provides thousands of dollars in scholarship assistance to Worcester Academy students.
A graduate of Middlebury College, Rowe added his master’s in education from Boston University.
In February of 2007 Dee Rowe was honored as one of the members of the elite inaugural class of inductees to the UConn Basketball “Huskies of Honor.” The Huskies of Honor program pays tribute in Gampel Pavilion to the top players and coaches in UConn basketball history.
Also in 2007, UConn awarded Dee Rowe with the “University Medal”, one of the school’s most prestigious honors established by the Board of Trustees to recognize individuals whose “life and achievements serve as examples of the University’s aspirations for its students” and who “have had a significant influence on the University.”
Rowe has received the prestigious “Gold Key” from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance, has been inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, was honored in 2014 by the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”, recognizing his decades of contributions to college athletics and the game of basketball and in June 2017 received the Saint Francis Award from the Franciscan Life Center.
