SOUTH RIVER, NJ – Steve Senko, the Rutgers-Newark director of athletics for 25 years (1960-1985), passed away on Wednesday, June 16, at Saint Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick.
Senko enjoyed a coaching and athletic administration career which spanned four decades with all but three years spent on the Rutgers-Newark campus.
Under his stewardship, the Rutgers-Newark enjoyed unprecedented growth and development which included the building of The Golden Dome Athletic Center and beginning of the plans for Alumni Field. With intercollegiate athletics going through a series of growing pains, Senko helped the “Bombers” of the 1950s segway into the “Scarlet Raiders” of today.
“Steve was determined to get Rutgers-Newark into the New Jersey State College Athletic Conference,” remembered Larry Schiner, the long-time New Jersey State University director of athletics, from his home in South Carolina. Senko's abilities heavily influenced the public schools' acceptance of Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden in to the league according to Schiner, then the president of the NJSAC.
“After Rutgers-Newark's application was approved, Steve brought years of experience and ideas to the conference that helped continue its growth and development.
“He was a very good basketball coach and administrator,” Schiner stated, adding, “And a fun person to be around.”
In his final year at the helm, he was instrumental in the merger of the men's New Jersey State Athletic Conference and the women's Jersey Athletic Conference to form the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC). The 10-school league has developed into one of the best NCAA Division III groups, featuring nationally-recognized programs in both men's and women's sports over the past 25 years.
He was appointed the president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 1976, becoming the first athletic director from an Eastern college to hold the post. He appointed Flo Labenski as the first full-time coordinator of women's athletics in 1977, helping foster development of the women's sports programs long before the advent of Title IX legislation.
Senko came to the Rutgers-Newark campus in 1950 as the varsity baseball coach, assistant basketball coach and physical education instructor under department chairman and head men's basketball coach Hank Bodner. After a three-year stint as the head basketball coach and assistant football coach at Piscataway High School, Senko returned to Rutgers-Newark to replace Bodner who retired following an R-N Athletic Hall of Fame career.
In 2005, Senko received the Loyal Sons and Daughters of Rutgers Award which recognizes “individuals who have rendered extraordinary service to his/her class, the Rutgers Alumni Association or the University community.”
He received the Ernest T. Gardner Memorial Award in 1969. Given annually to a Rutgers College alumnus who participated in intercollegiate athletics, the award recognizes civic contributions. Senko served two terms as an elected member of the South River Board of Education and one term as a borough councilman.
A 1949 graduate of Rutgers College, he lettered four times each in football, basketball and baseball. He received his master's degree in physical education and health from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education in 1950.
A 1940 graduate of South River High School, Senko earned three letters in basketball, two in baseball and one in football at the school to spark his athletic career.
He was a member of the Rutgers Scarlet “R” Club, the William C. Denny Chapter of the National Football Hall of Fame and the South River Office on Aging.
