Category: History

Source: The Players’ Tribune

In honor of National Girls & Women In Sports Day as well as Black History Month, here is a short list that is inclusive of all women who paved the way for those women who are still paving the way for our future.

1875 – Wellesley College opened with a gymnasium for exercising and a lake for ice skating and the first rowing program for women.

1876 – Nell Saunders defeated Rose Harland in the first United States women’s boxing match, receiving a silver butter dish as her prize.

1882 – At the YWCA in Boston, the first athletic games for women were held.

1887 – Ellen Hansell was crowned the first Women’s Singles tennis champion at the U.S. Open.

1898 – Lizzie Arlington became the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract, appearing in her first professional game pitching for the Philadelphia Reserves.

1941 – The first women’s intercollegiate lacrosse game was held between Sweet Briar College and The College of William and Mary in 1941.

1953 – Toni Stone, also known by her married name Marcenia Lyle Alberga, was the first of three women to play Negro Baseball League, and thus the first woman to play as a regular on an American big-league professional baseball team.

1971 – Cheryl White, an American, became the first black female jockey.

1996 – The WNBA was founded.

1999 – The WPFL was formed.

2007 – The CWHL was founded with the NWHL formed 8 years later in 2015.