Peggy Taylor Davis has had success as a player, coach, and administrator and has made a change for the good in every area she has served.

As a student-athlete at Howard Payne, Peggy was named first-team All-Lone Star Conference in 1983 and 1984 also garnering the Conference MVP award in 1984 for the Lady Jacket basketball team. She would also play volleyball for the Lady Jackets earning all-conference honors.

Involved on the HPU campus and loved by her classmates, she was named HPU’s Homecoming Queen in 1985.

After graduation, she would go on to serve as HPU’s head women’s basketball coach for two seasons (1988-1990) leading them to a Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) Championship in 1990 with a 9-1 league record.

From 1990-1997, she served as the head women’s basketball coach at Angelo State University leading them to a Lone Star Conference Championship in 1994. She was named the LSC Coach of the Year that season.

From 1997 to 2003, she served as the head women’s basketball coach and senior women administrator at Virginia State University.

Now with eighteen years at the helm of the Virginia State University Athletics Department, Associate Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Peggy Davis has guided the Trojans to over twenty NCAA Division II tournament appearances as well as nineteen CIAA Championships Titles, eighteen CIAA Divisional Titles, and forty-three Coach of the Year honors.

During her time, Virginia State has won the C.H. Williams All-Sports Award (men) nine times and the Loretta Taylor All-Sports Award (women) six times. The awards are given to the top male and female athletic programs within the conference, based on championship finishes.

Virginia State has not only had success on the field or court of competition but has established all-time marks academically under Davis’ leadership. VSU posted its highest Graduation Rate and Academic Success Rate in school history and has been recognized by the NCAA and honored as part of the Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence program, and in 2020 the athletic department was recognized by the NCAA as the recipient of the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence.

Peggy has been named Athletic Director of the Year by the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) seven times. She is also a two-time honoree of the Jeannette A. Lee Administration Achievement Award. Davis has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Outstanding Women in Higher Education & Beyond on two separate occasions, by Diverse Magazine, as well as being named the Under Armour Southeast Region for Division II Athletics Director of the Year.

Davis also served as the Interim Commissioner of the CIAA during the search for a Commissioner.  She was the first female to ever lead the 12-member historic athletic conference.

Her career at VSU is marked by many other improvements including the largest facility improvement to date an $84 million Multipurpose Center which opened in February 2016 and now this year the addition of three sports: women’s soccer, and women’s and men’s lacrosse.

She has and continues to serve on numerous NCAA and CIAA Committees to include the Division II Atlantic Regional Advisory Committee for Baseball.  Davis served as President of the Executive Board with the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA) and a committee member on the NCAA Division II Legislation Committee. She is also a current member of the Women Leaders in College Sports (WLS) as well as the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

Davis received her undergraduate degree from Howard Payne University in 1984 and later received her Master’s Degree from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX. Davis and her husband, Thomas, have two daughters.