Hofstra Athletics Hall of Fame
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LIZ KNAUSS (IRWIN)
Liz (Irwin) Knauss, a 1982 graduate, was a four-year letterwinner on the Women’s Basketball team from 1978 through 1982 and the starting shortstop on the Softball team from 1979 through 1982. She ended her basketball career as Hofstra’s all-time leader in assists with 828, and ranks eighth on the career-scoring list with 1,455 points and fourth on the career steals list with 219. Liz was a two-time Metropolitan Basketball Conference All-Star, a four-time team Most Valuable Player and a three-year team captain. During her tenure, Hofstra posted a 92-40 record and were Eastern AIAW Division II champions in 1982, as well as New York State AIAW Division I champions and EAIAW National Tournament participants.
Liz, who was Hofstra’s CAA Legend in 2006, also held the school record for assists (since broken) in a game with 13 against Mercy College during the 1979-80 season. As a member of the softball team, Liz captained the squad for two years and helped the team to two New York State AIAW Division I championships.
In 2009 Liz had her basketball jersey (#14) retired during a haftime ceremony in Hofstra’s final home game. A standout scholastic athlete, Liz was inducted into the Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School Hall of Fame in 2003.
Following graduation, Liz coached basketball at the International School of Basketball in Sweden during the summer of 1982. Declining an offer to play professionally in Sweden, she returned to the United States and began working for The Softness Group, a New York City public relations firm. After a year in New York City she returned to her hometown of Hyde Park, New York, and began working for another PR firm called Thomas W. Wade Associates. In 1987 Liz got married and moved to Frederick, Maryland. Liz then spent 14 years working for The Fitness Company in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was assistant general manager when she left in 2001. She then began working for Books Are Fun, a division of Readers Digest that participates in corporate book fairs. Leaving that position in 2005, Liz now works full-time in the special education department of a local elementary school. She is also active in her children’s athletic endeavors as both a coach and administrator.
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