Hall of Fame
During her nearly 30 years at Findlay, Sharon Milligan was a pioneer for women’s sports. She started the women’s tennis and field hockey teams. Additionally, she coached and elevated the status of the volleyball, basketball, and softball teams. She even coached the women’s track team for one season.
Milligan received her bachelor’s degree from Otterbein College in 1965. She also has a master’s degree from Ohio University. She spent 44 years as the associate professor of health, physical education and recreation and director of the health and physical education program at The University of Findlay. After her retirement she spent two and a half years in the Peace Corps teaching English to fifth-graders in South Africa. She also volunteeted three summers in Yosemite National Park.
She received the Founders’ Academic Excellence Award for Faculty in 1992. In 1980, Milligan completed a hike of the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. In 1982, she completed bicycling the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail from Oregon to Virginia. In addition, she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in 1987.
Milligan’s advice to others is simple: “Enjoy today. That is all we have. To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau… live deliberately, so that when you come to die, (you’ll not) discover that you have not lived.”
Milligan resides in Fostoria.
