The athletic contributions of Eastern Connecticut State University’s Robin R. Gaby Leclerc to two distinctly different sports helped maintain the success of one intercollegiate program while providing the groundwork for the rapid rise of a second. Leclerc becomes the second Eastern student-athlete to gain LEC Hall of Fame induction, following charter inductee Allison Coleman in 2012. Leclerc is also a member of the Eastern E-Club Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
In her 81-game basketball career, the six-foot-one inch Hebron, Conn. native scored 1,114 points (currently sixth all-time), grabbed 933 rebounds and blocked 101 shots as the centerpiece of three post-season tournament qualifiers (including the 1989 ECAC tournament champion) from 1987 through 1990. As a senior, Leclerc was voted the program’s first WBCA Division III All-America. In addition to All-America laurels, she was named ECAC New England Division III and Little East Conference Rookie of the Year in 1988 and was twice named First Team All-New England by both the ECAC and New England Women’s Basketball Association. As both a junior and senior, Leclerc was voted First Team All-LEC in basketball.
The third player in program history to score as many as 1,000 points, she remains the only individual to reach that plateau in less four seasons. Leclerc joined the Eastern women’s basketball program as a sophomore, competing in the second season of Little East competition. She helped the Warriors to a three-year LEC regular-season record of 22-8 and to the conference tournament title game each year. She was named to the LEC Tournament All-Tournament team as a junior in 1989 and the tournament’s MVP as a senior.
A letterwinner on the first Eastern women’s soccer team in 1986, Leclerc went on to amass program-record 30 assists in a 55-match career as a four-year letterwinner and three-time team captain, playing her final season one year before the LEC began sponsoring the sport in 1990. Leclerc’s contributions played no small role in the women’s soccer program, qualifying for a post-season tournament (ECAC) in only its third intercollegiate season in 1988, and for its first NCAA tournament on year later.