University of Texas Athletics

Joan Pennington

Induction:
2001

Joan Pennington, from Franklin, Tennessee, competed for Texas from 1978-80 and 1982-84 and was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2001. UT’s first great varsity women’s swimmer, she won FINA World Championship titles in the 100 individual medley and 400 freestyle in 1978 and earned the Broderick Award as the nation’s outstanding collegiate swimmer for 1978-79. Pennington was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, which did not compete in the Moscow Games due to the U.S. boycott. After a two-year hiatus, she returned to the program in 1983 and helped lead Texas to its first NCAA crown in 1984. She won eight NCAA and AIAW event titles and earned 28 All-America honors. Pennington completed her master’s degree in health promotion and exercise science at Vanderbilt University, followed by postgraduate studies toward her doctorate in preventive health care at the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University in California.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

Hall of Honor