She was originally appointed assistant athletics director and senior women’s administrator in August 1995, before being elevated to the associate athletics director role on August 26, 2003. In that role she was NJCU’s eligibility and compliance officer. Other administrative responsibilities included assessment and department reports and purchasing, in addition to serving as the liaison for all head coaches and chairing committees.
On March 5, 2007, she received the
Outstanding Associate Athletic Director/SWA Award from the All-American Football Foundation.
De Fazio has been involved for years in the furthering of women’s athletics. A long-time member of the New Jersey Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (NJAIAW), she served as President for two years from 2004-06. With the NJAIAW, she is involved with nominating a deserving NJCU athlete for the organization’s Woman of the Year awards program. She was on the executive board of the Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), serving as secretary from 1999-2003, and was the basketball liaison for the WIAC.
De Fazio completed her final year as NJCU’s women’s basketball coach in 2004-05, guiding the Gothic Knights to a 14-13 record and an appearance in the Association of Division III Independents Northeast II championship game.
Overall,
De Fazio is a member of three athletic Halls of Fame. On September 28, 2006, she was inducted into the Jersey City Sports Hall of Fame in honor of her outstanding high school and collegiate basketball career. She was inducted into the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame in January 1998 and the Montclair State University Athletic Hall of Fame on April 17, 1994.
De Fazio originally came to then-Jersey City State College in 1982 as highly successful collegiate star Alice Schmidt, and proceeded to guide the Gothics to a record of 35-39, including a pair of 13-victory, back-to-back winning seasons during the three-year stretch from 1982 through 1985.
Following the 1985 season, she left to take an assistant coaching position at Division I Seton Hall University from 1985-87.
De Fazio returned to Montclair State College, her alma mater, where she guided the Red Hawks to a two-year record of 27-16 from 1990 through 1992. She also served for two seasons as head coach at Jersey City’s St. Dominic Academy (1988-90), posting a 36-22 ledger.
De Fazio returned to NJCU in 1994 and served as interim women’s basketball coach for the 1994-95 season, before being elevated to Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Women’s Basketball Coach that summer.
As a collegiate women’s basketball player,
De Fazio finished her career as Montclair State’s all-time leader in both assists and steals. She still is the all-time leader in assists with 630 from 1976-80, nearly 100 more than the second-place player (Wykemia Kelley, 537). Her 5.6 per game assists average in 112 career games also stands to this day. Her record of 345 steals was broken in 1997 by
Lisa Villalta (482/4.6 per game), as was her record of 3.1 picks per game.
But what she will be most remembered for as a player is her role as a sophomore starting point guard in 1978, on a team that featured all-time great Carol Blazejowski. That year, she helped the Indians to the first Final Four in the history of women’s college basketball. Montclair State fell to eventual champion UCLA by just eight points at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on March 23, 1978 before claiming a 90-88 overtime victory over Wayland Baptist the next day in the consolation game for third place in the nation. The silver anniversary of that Montclair team was celebrated before an NJCU/MSU game on February 5, 2003.
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ALL-TIME NJCU ATHLETIC DIRECTORS
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ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
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YEARS SERVED
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TOTAL YEARS
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Les Fries
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1934-59
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25
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Thomas M. Gerrity
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1958-77
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19
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Lawrence R. Schiner
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1977-2007
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30
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Alice De Fazio
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July 1, 2007—present
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11th (as of 2017-18)
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In 1980 she was nominated for the Wade Trophy as the top player in women’s college basketball, finishing as a finalist to Nancy Lieberman of Old Dominion, the only two-time winner in history. That same year, she participated in the New Jersey College North-South All-Star game.
De Fazio still possesses the records for first, second, and ninth most assists in a single-season in MSU history. In 1979, she established the school record with 208 dishes, and attempted to break it as a senior in 1980, before finishing with 176. The third-highest total is 163. As a sophomore in 1978 she distributed 145 assists. Her average of 8.3 assists per game in 25 games in 1979 is also a school record and led the nation that year; the 6.3 per game in 28 games in 1980 is fourth.
When she graduated, she also set the single-season mark with 98 steals in 1980, a record that stood until
Villalta surpassed it in 1993 and again in 1994 with 140 picks. Her 98 steals is now fourth on the single-season chart. The 3.5 steals per game in 1980 is tied for sixth in a season.
In June 1980, she was selected in the second round of the Women’s Professional Basketball League draft by the New York Stars. When the Stars folded, the talented playmaker was signed as a free agent by the San Francisco Pioneers, and was subsequently traded to St. Louis, where she finished the 1980-81 season.
DeFazio is a 1980 graduate of Montclair State with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She owns a 2010 Masters in Sports Management from American Public University.
At St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, she earned All-Hudson County honors three times and to the Prep All-America team as a senior. She was twice a team captain, and earned All-State distinction in her senior season when she became a 1,000-point scorer (1,096 total).
De Fazio was married to the late Bill De Fazio, the winningest girls’ basketball coach in Hudson County history at Marist High School and St. Anthony’s, together forming the “first couple” of Hudson County basketball.
