A Word from the President - Villanova University

Villanova’s Vicki Huber Rudawsky ’89 A&S (left) earned a memorable trip to the
1988 Olympics, where she competed against veterans like Mary Decker Slaney (right).
When 21-year-old Vicki Huber Rudawsky
’89 A&S toed the starting line of the
3,000 meter final in the 1988 Summer
Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea,
she was elbow-to-elbow with some of
the world’s most accomplished runners—including
Mary Decker Slaney
and the swift Soviet, Tatiana Samolenko. Yet the unheralded college
junior had a secret good-luck charm—the word “Villanova”
stitched onto her red, white and blue spikes.
With less than two laps to go—as her classmates and professors
back in the States crowded around TV sets and erupted into
cheers—Huber Rudawsky found herself leading the world-class
field. The TV commentators were bowled over by the bold move
made by the Villanova student. As for Huber Rudawsky herself,
“I thought, ‘What are you doing here? How did this happen?” she
recalled with a laugh.
Huber Rudawsky ended up just out of the medals, in an impressive
sixth place—the top finish by an American. On a muggy September
evening half a world away from the Villanova campus, she had
shattered her personal best time by nine seconds—and once again,
the name “Villanova” had resounded at the Olympic Games.
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