May 13, 2020 2 min read

University of Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke unveiled the 13-member Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame 2020 induction class Tuesday night during “Panthers at Home,” a virtual gathering on Facebook Live.

Among the induction class is Donna DeMarino Sanft, a Monessen native who is being inducted as a gymnastics student-athlete and coach.

Joining Sanft in the class are Jennifer Bruce (basketball); Chantee Earl (women’s track and field); Craig “Ironhead” Heyward (football; posthumous); Brandin Knight (basketball); Ann Marie Lucanie (volleyball); Ken Macha (baseball); Curtis Martin (football); Bob Peck (football; posthumous); Pat Santoro (wrestling); Jackie Sherrill (football coach); Arnie Sowell (track and field) and Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner (football coach; posthumous).

Nominations for the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame were solicited from the general public. Candidates had to be five years removed from their final year of collegiate competition and not currently be playing professional sports.

A 17-member selection committee then evaluated the candidate pool and provided a recommendation on the class to the director of athletics.

Sanft, a three-time state champion and Monessen High School graduate, made an indelible impact at Pitt, first as a gymnast, then as the program’s head coach, and later as a longtime athletics administrator.

As a Pitt gymnast (1970-74), Sanft was a three-time Most Valuable Performer and three-time captain. She was selected Pitt’s 1974 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year (now the Blue-Gold Award), a year prior to women’s recipients joining their male counterparts in having their names inscribed on the famed Varsity Walk.

In 1974, women’s gymnastics was launched as an intercollegiate sport at Pitt. Reflective of her impact as a student-athlete, Sanft was hired as the first women’s varsity gymnastics coach in Pitt history at the age of 22. Leading that program for the next 12 years (1974-86), Sanft posted an 86-57-1 record and was twice selected as Eastern Collegiate Coach of the Year. She directed the Panthers to a Top 10 national ranking in 1979 and Top 20 rankings in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1986. Sanft also coached Pitt’s only NCAA champion in women’s gymnastics, Lisa Shirk (in 1982.

Sanft then went on to a highly successful and wide-ranging career as an administrator for Pitt Athletics from 1986-2014.