Generations of AU field hockey players rallied behind Steve Jennings—one of the winningest Division I coaches—to establish an endowment in his name as part of the university’s Change Can’t Wait campaign.

The Steve Jennings Field Hockey Endowment, announced in March, will help offset programmatic costs. It’s the first sport-specific endowment in the history of AU Athletics.

“To have my name associated with an endowment created for the field hockey program is humbling beyond words,” says Jennings, a former midfielder who played for the US Men’s National Team for eight years and served as vice captain in the 1996 Summer Olympics. 

The Eagles’ 2023 campaign marked Jennings’s 25th season at AU. The native Marylander, who holds a 302–164 overall record—and is 110–20 in conference play—celebrated the milestone by notching the program’s 11th undefeated Patriot League season and bringing the regular-season and tournament titles home to the Jacobs Recreational Complex for the 13th time. He also earned Patriot League Coach of the Year honors for the 11th time in October. 

“Steve has done a tremendous job building a tradition of field hockey players who feel a real warmth toward the program and university,” says Barbara Reimann, AU’s inaugural head coach, who led the team for 30 years and was among those who made a gift to establish the endowment. 

“Barb [Reimann] started the program,” adds retired senior associate director of athletics Athena Argyropoulos, SPA/BA ’78, who worked alongside Jennings for 20 years. “Steve put the program on the map.”