Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
When Bill Hybl had a difficult assignment to hand out during his terms as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Evie Dennis got the call.
Dennis had come up through the ranks of the amateur sports communities, first with the Amateur Athletic Union, and went on to become the first woman to reach the rank of vice president of the USOC.
She had learned the ropes of dealing with the tricky politics of the widespread amateur sports hierarchy, honing her skills during the days of the notorious feud between the AAU and NCAA that for years crippled the effort to put competitive teams together for Olympic and international competition. The organizations fought tooth and nail to control the involvement of athletes in international competition before the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 gave coordinating responsibilities to the USOC.
“I truly gave her the tough assignments,” Hybl said. “If I had to have someone to deal with a national governing sports body that was having problems, that was Evie Dennis. She always did a great job.”
Hybl’s terms as president were 1991-92 and 1996-2000, but Dennis’ service to the USOC began before his first presidency and has continued since his last term.
The Turin Winter Games begin Friday, and Dennis is there. She has missed only the Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994 and Albertville in 1992 since 1976, when she went to her first Olympics in Innsbruck and Montreal.
“They called me and asked if they could put me on the list again,” Dennis said. “I said no, but they knew I was teasing. I do it because I enjoy it. I fill in wherever I’m needed.”
Dennis once played a more prominent role. She was Chef de Mission for the U.S. team at the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988.
“I represented all the athletes, the coaches and the staff,” Dennis said. “If they had problems, they came to me. It’s my nature to help people and to build camaraderie.”
Dennis also was a special assistant for Hybl and former USOC president Bob Helmick. Dennis remembered that when she became the first woman vice president, Helmick jokingly said that it changed the rooming list requirements for all meetings. It had been an all-male group before.
But with all of her accomplishments in the Olympic area, one of her finest hours came in 1977 at a USOC meeting. The floor was open for discussion on a proposal to move the USOC headquarters from New York to Colorado Springs. The discussion was intense.
“There was a long line of people waiting to speak against the move,” Dennis remembered. “I waited until the line was down and then I went to the microphone and made the motion to move the headquarters.”
The motion carried and the USOC opened its headquarters as well as a training center on the grounds of the old Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs the following year.
“There’s still a lot of talk that the headquarters should move back to one coast or the other,” Dennis said. “They have a beautiful campus down there now.”
Dennis didn’t only excel in the Olympic movement. She had a job with Denver Public Schools that began in 1966. She moved into administration in 1971, and in 1990 she became the first woman and minority to be superintendent for the school district.
“I was getting ready to retire, but they couldn’t agree on a new superintendent,” Dennis said. “They came to me and I agreed to do it for two years.”
The two years turned into four. While in the administration, Dennis was a key figure in working to implement the court order for student busing to desegregate the schools.
Dennis became a fixture in the state’s amateur sports area in 1962 when helping to form the Mile High Denver Track Club. Her daughter, Pia Dennis, was a talented sprinter, but that was before girls competition came to the state’s high schools.
“It was mainly a summer competition-type thing,” Dennis said. “It was the only track and field team of its kind at the time.
“I think I brought a presence into both my Olympic work and my work in the field of education. You labor and toil and hope you did some good things for young people in both areas. My work in the Olympic movement may have been easier, but I also am proud of what I did as superintendent of schools.”
During her term, the Denver School of the Arts was added to the curriculum.
Now she’s in Italy for another Olympic Games.
At 81, she still isn’t ready to sit back and watch.
“I’m looking at China,” Dennis said of attending the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. “I don’t know after that. I might be on my cane after that.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
