Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Media Guides 2013-14 MVC Women's Basketball Media Guide | Page 8

The Valley
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Missouri Valley Conference Staff
Doug elgin

Commissioner
Doug Elgin enters his 26th
year with the Missouri Valley
Conference in 2013-14, leading
an experienced staff that has
blazed a trail of excellence over
the past two decades. Since
being named the Valley’s ninth
commissioner on May 17, 1988,
Elgin and the Valley staff have
been catalysts in helping the St.
Louis-based conference regain
a position of prominence in college athletics.
Elgin and his veteran staff can reflect upon a remarkable list
of accomplishments and contributions they have made over the
past two decades that have added to the long, rich athletic tradition of the conference. During the decade of the 1990s, he and
his colleagues oversaw the realignment and the stabilization
of the Missouri Valley membership as the league expanded by
admitting Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Evansville as new
members and also brought women’s sports programs under the
conference’s administrative umbrella in July of 1992. This past
year, Elgin orchestrated league membership change yet again,
as Loyola joined the league for the start of the 2013-14 campaign.
The league staff also paved the way to establish St. Louis as
a long-term neutral site for the men’s basketball tournament
known nationally as ‘Arch Madness’ beginning in 1991, one of
the most significant developments in the modern era of the Valley. In 2014, the Missouri Valley will celebrate its 24th consecutive year hosting the championship in St. Louis, making it the
second longest-tenured neutral site college basketball tournament in the country. In 2008, the Valley followed suit with its
women’s basketball tournament, moving it to the Family Arena
in St. Charles, Missouri, where it will be played for the seventh
consecutive season next March.
The conference office has also served to make the City of St.
Louis a frequent stop on the NCAA basketball tournament trail,
beginning in 1993 when the Missouri Valley hosted the NCAA
Men’s Midwest Regional. That first step as an NCAA tournament
host began an incredible run that would bring nine more NCAA
basketball events to sporting venues in St. Louis from 1998
through 2010, including the 2001 and 2009 Women’s Final
Fours, the 2005 Men’s Final Four, and six more men’s Midwest
Regional tournaments.
Elgin completed a four-year term on the NCAA Division I Men’s
Basketball Committee in 2002 and was the first and only Valley
representative ever to serve as a member of that prestigious
group. He has also served on the CCA Executive Committee and
is currently a member of the NCAA Administration Cabinet.
In more than 35 years in college athletic administration, Elgin
has served in a variety of capacities at four schools and in two
conference offices. His career path has included stints as sports
information director at Frostburg State University (1975-76),
Miami-Dade Community College South (1976-77), Lafayette College (1977-80) and the University of Virginia (1980-83). In 1983,
he left Virginia, moving to the Tampa-based Sun Belt Conference

where he worked for five years as assistant commissioner under
commissioner Vic Bubas, the former Duke basketball coach and
a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 62-year-old Elgin is a native of Hagerstown, Md., and is
a 1973 graduate of Lafayette College. He earned a master’s
degree in sports administration from Ohio University in 1975.
Doug and his wife Melaine have six daughters: Lisa, Jessica, Julie, Anna, Emma and Mary.

Patty Viverito

Senior Associate Commissioner
Patty Viverito is in her 22nd season
as senior associate commissioner at the
Missouri Valley Conference and is in her
29th year directing the Missouri Valley
Football Conference as its commissioner.
A Chicago native, Viverito was named
the Missouri Valley Football’s first commissioner in September of 1982. She
led the conference (then known as the Gateway Conference) to
national prominence in the 1980s. The league, which sponsored
nine women’s sports and FCS football, saw its women’s programs
merge with their MVC men’s counterparts in 1992.
At The Valley, Viverito’s responsibilities include championship
administration and compliance, serving as the primary coaches
liaison for most sports, and she served as the Tournament Director of the 2001 and 2009 NCAA Women’s Final Four.
A nationally respected administrator, Viverito has served on
the prestigious NCAA Executive Committee, the NCAA Council,
the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and was chair of
the NCAA Committee for Women’s Athletics and Olympic Sports
Liaison Committee. Viverito has also served as a member of the
CCA Executive Committee and Chair of the FCS Subcommittee of
CCA, the NCAA Recruiting Task Force, the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball and Issues Committees, the NACWAA Board (two
terms), the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board, the
NACDA Board, the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO)
Board (two terms), multiple terms on NCAA Basketball Officiating
Improvement Committees, the NCAA Football Academic Working
Group, and the NCAA Work/Life Balance Task Force. She currently serves on the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards Executive
Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Honda Cup winner annually.
In 1996, Viverito was recognized for her contributions to collegiate athletics, when she was selected as the NACWAA (National
Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators) Administrator of the Year. In