Janice (Branch) Ruggiero was in Hawaii for one enlightening year back in the late 1980s. She has spent the rest of her life enlightening others.

Not coincidentally, her memories of Title IX reach back to middle school. Since there was no girls basketball team she tried out for the boys team, and made it.

“I was the only girl in the league playing at the time,” Ruggiero recalls. “At that age I was unhappy that I could not play with my friends that were girls and didn’t understand that me making the boys team was a sign to Title IX that girls could play just as well as boys.”

Fast forward more than 40 years. Ruggiero retired as Deputy Athletic Director for Internal Affairs at the University of New Mexico this January. She is the UNM Athletics Department’s longest-tenured employee, spending every year there since 1984 — with one rainbow-tinged exception.

That school year was 1987-88, when the Lobos’ women’s basketball team was cut. Ruggiero — then Janice Branch — was on pace to score 1,000 career points heading into her senior season.

Her final season was spent in Hawaii, after she expressed interest in Vince Goo’s Rainbow Wahine program. Goo consulted coaching friends and was adamantly assured she could meet his “A,B,Cs” (Academics, Basketball and Citizenship in the community).

“Janice was by far the best one-year student athlete we ever had,” Goo says. “She set the bar by which we evaluated incoming student-athletes. There was no doubt that she would succeed in any career she chose.”

Her year here was the only time she lived outside New Mexico, where she grew up playing basketball — father Dennis remains among the state’s Top 10 high school scorers — and softball. Ruggiero remembers her big, nerve-wracking move here “opening up a whole new world for me.”

It was a much more diverse place, but with the same sense of family. She hung out with teammates like Dana Takahara, Fran Villarmia, Lisa Mann and Da Houl, who would all go on to coach here.

Takahara never forgot Ruggiero’s mother cooking her own local food for players when she came to Hawaii — “ I had never eaten sopaipillas, but they are my favorite” — and providing precise pronunciations for each item.

“The people of Hawaii were so inviting and kind to me…,” Ruggiero says. “It changed my life as I was exposed to so many different people from all over the world. I realized I had lived a very sheltered life in New Mexico, but moving to Hawaii taught me to try new things and experience many different cultures.”

That year remains vivid, for Ruggiero and everyone she grew close to. She “never forgot the opportunity that UH gave her,” Goo says. Whenever his team played New Mexico State, Ruggiero and her dad drove 7 hours roundtrip to watch their game.

“New Mexico was her home state,” Goo says, “but it would have been great had she continued in athletic administration here.”

The Lobos are ecstatic she did not. Ruggiero’s impact on their athletic program has been prolific, and Title IX’s fingerprints are all over it.

When she played there, along with all the good memories are those of missing equipment and sharing hotel rooms with three other players on road trips. The women also had to raise money for their team — by cleaning UNM’s iconic gym “The Pit.”

“At that time, I realized that the programs were not equal in any way other than we practiced and played at The Pit,” Ruggiero said. “I was upset that the women’s team had to work so hard to get what the men had, and it always fell short. This taught me to work harder and not be afraid to tell any administrator that it was not fair, and the women should be treated like the men.”

She spent the last 30-plus years doing exactly that at UNM, as assistant coach initially, then moving into athletic administration before she got her master’s in 1997. Three years later, she was an associate athletic director and spent the next 22 years as Senior Woman Administrator, taking over from her mentor, Linda Estes.

“As the SWA I always strived to provide the same opportunities to the women that the men had,” Ruggiero says. “Early in my career this was not a popular idea, as many women in my position across the country were fighting for equal rights.

“As the years went on, it began to change for women, especially in basketball. I feel this sport is most on par with the men, but some of the other female Olympic sports were not, so I kept asking for more for the women.”

Now, as sons Leonard Jordan (LJ) and Alex graduate with their master’s degrees from UNM, she has taken on the challenge of Development Director for the UNM Foundation.

“I felt I had done all I could do (in athletics), but more importantly it was time for a new set of eyes to continue taking care of all the student-athletes,” Ruggiero says. “However, I was not ready to completely stop working.

“UNM gave me an education, a career and a lifetime of memories and I hope by fundraising I can help someone create the great memories and experiences I had at UNM.”

There are now stories of many former student-athletes returning to campus asking “Where’s Janice?” If they find her, they will know she is extremely happy about what they have accomplished and their part in a career that “provided me with a lifetime of memories and friendships.”

She is also happy with what she has seen and accomplished in the time of Title IX, not that she believes life is fair yet.

“Title IX has helped women become equal to men in many different areas; however, there is still a long way to go,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, women have come a long way from when Title IX first began. People today want men and women to be equal, however those same people must apply the money to ensure this will happen.

“When people think of Title IX, they think of sports, but we need to look at it as a much higher level. We need to look at equal pay in the workplace, equal hiring practices for executive positions, equal number of CEO’s in Fortune 500 companies and so many other areas where men still dominate.”

She calls her time in athletics a “dream job” for a girl who grew up watching Michael Cooper play in The Pit and wanting to do the same.

She got a shot at it, and helped many more women get theirs.

She also got one memorable year in paradise. She has a lot to look back on.

“I would have wished that we as a society would have looked at Title IX as an opportunity to better the world for our children regardless of their gender,” Ruggiero says. “Many times, people thought that if you were for Title IX, you were against football or male sports. Instead, it was a tool to correct what was wrong for so long for their daughters that worked just as hard as their male counterparts. It was tool to teach women they could do anything they wanted without being told they were taking away opportunities from males.”

JANICE (BRANCH) RUGGIERO

1984-87: Played three years for University of New Mexico women’s basketball. Program was disbanded before her senior season.

1987: Transferred to Hawaii for senior season

1989: Graduated from UNM with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and General Management

1991: Returned to reinstated basketball program as assistant coach

1993: Begins career in athletic administration

1997: Completed master’s degree in Sports Administration

2000: Became associate athletic director and served as Senior Woman Administrator for next 22 years

2015: Promoted to Deputy AD for Internal Operations. Named one of “Top 10 Senior Woman Administrators” by College AD.

2017: Interim AD from June to September

2022: Retires from UNM Athletic Department and becomes Development Director for Anderson School of Management, UNM Foundation. Recipient of the Mountain West Conference Dr. Albert C. Yates Distinguished Service Award. Sons Leonard Jordan (LJ) and Alex graduate with masters degrees from UNM.

Also: NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee 2002-04, member of Legislative Council 2008-2014, member Women’s Basketball Rules Committee 2011-2014 and member Women’s Basketball Oversite Committee 2015 -2018.