By John Fanta
Villanova Director of Athletics Mark Jackson had always heard the name Denise Dillon. If it wasn’t for her playing days as one of the great Wildcats from 1993-96, it was for her rich coaching pedigree established at Drexel over the course of 17 years.
It was in 2018, though, that Jackson wasn’t just hearing the name. He started to say it himself.
“For our 50th anniversary of women’s athletics, we brought back influential leaders to our campus to speak to our student-athletes,” Jackson said. “We had Denise present and I came away with such a strong feeling about her leadership, philosophy, who she was as a woman and what Villanova meant to her.