Hall of Fame
Betty Feeley was hired by then-athletic director Bob Shields in 1963 to start women’s varsity teams in tennis, field hockey, and swimming and to start a physical education program.
She retired from coaching in the early 1980s to become the Director of Academic Advising and continued to teach. Later that decade she retired from teaching and was promoted to Associate Dean for Student Services. She retired as a full-time employee in the 1990s and was immediately hired back to serve as a part-time Associate Dean of Student Services, a position she still holds today.
In her time at FDU, she has been named Teacher of the Year by the EOF program and has been inducted into Omnicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society.
A 1948 graduate of Panzer College, Feeley finished her degree in three years. She was later inducted into Panzer’s athletic Hall of Fame in 1977, the first year of its existence. She lettered three times in field hockey and basketball and also played one year on the men’s tennis team. However, she was not allowed to continue on the men’s tennis team after the college president learned she was competing against men and not in a mixed doubles event.
After graduating from Panzer, she taught at Rahway High School from 1948 to 1953. During that time, she became a basketball official with a national ranking.
Feeley married in 1950. After her high school teaching career at Rahway, she became a stay-at-home mom for her two daughters.
