Abbott, Cleveland (09 December 1892–14 April 1955), Tuskegee Institute educator, administrator, and athletic coach, was born in Yankton, South Dakota, one of seven children of Mollie Brown and Elbert B. Abbott. The family moved to Watertown, South Dakota, during Abbott’s childhood. Early on he excelled at sports, earning sixteen varsity letters at Watertown High School in football, basketball, track and field, and baseball. His family was among a small percentage of black residents of South Dakota in the early twentieth century....
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Abbott, Cleveland (1892-1955), Tuskegee Institute educator, administrator, and athletic coach
Anne M. Blaschke
Article
Catto, Octavius Valentine (22 February 1839–10 October 1871), civil rights activist, educator, and athlete
Timothy J. Potero
Catto, Octavius Valentine (22 February 1839–10 October 1871), civil rights activist, educator, and athlete, was born to William T. Catto and Sarah Isabella Cain in Charleston, South Carolina. His family soon moved to Baltimore, Maryland and ultimately settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Catto’s father, a former slave who gained his freedom early in life, became an ordained Presbyterian minister. His mother came from a mulatto family. Catto attended segregated primary classes at the Vaux Primary School and the Lombard Street School in Philadelphia and the prestigious Allentown Academy in Allentown, New Jersey. In ...
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Catto, Octavius Valentine (22 February 1839–10 October 1871)
S. Fox
In
Portrait of Octavius V. Catto, c.1871, by S. Fox
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-18480]
Article
Foster, William Hendrick (1904-1978), African-American baseball player and college dean
Larry Lester
Foster, William Hendrick (12 June 1904–16 September 1978), African-American baseball player and college dean, was born in Calvert, Texas, the son of Andrew Foster, Sr., a United Methodist minister, and Sarah Lewis. At a young age Foster, his mother, and his sister Geneva joined relatives in Rodney, Mississippi. Foster attended nearby Alcorn College’s lab school until 1917, when he developed an interest in playing baseball like his older half-brother ...
Article
Kiphuth, Robert John Herman (1890-1967), swimming coach and athletic director
Ralph Kirshner
Kiphuth, Robert John Herman (17 November 1890–07 January 1967), swimming coach and athletic director, was born in Tonawanda, New York, the son of John Kiphuth, a mill hand, and Mary Benin. After graduating from Tonawanda High School in 1909, he became physical education director at the Tonawanda Young Men’s Christian Association. He studied physical education at Harvard in the summer of 1912....
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Little, Clarence Cook (1888-1971), scientist and educator
Karen Rader
Little, Clarence Cook (06 October 1888–22 December 1971), scientist and educator, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of James Lovell Little, a Boston merchant, and Mary Robbins Revere. Little enrolled at Harvard University in 1906 to study zoology. He obtained a B.A. in 1910 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and took a masters degree (M.S., 1912) and a doctorate (Sc.D., 1914) in the same subject under ...
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Naismith, James (1861-1939)
In
James Naismith. Photograph of an oil painting by Lon Keller, 1941. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-115891).
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Naismith, James (1861-1939), inventor of basketball
William J. Baker
Naismith, James (06 November 1861–28 November 1939), inventor of basketball, was born in Almonte, Ontario, the son of John Naismith, a lumberman and carpenter, and Margaret Young. In 1870 both of Naismith’s parents died in a typhoid epidemic, leaving him to be raised by a religiously strict grandmother and then by a bachelor uncle. His schooling was interrupted by five years’ work in a logging camp, but in 1883 he entered McGill University, intending to study for the ministry. After receiving his A.B. in 1887, he studied theology for three years at a Presbyterian seminary affiliated with McGill; during his last year he directed undergraduate gymnastics classes. Having excelled athletically in school, he decided that rather than become a clergyman he could do good more effectively by combining sport and religion in the teaching and promotion of physical education. In 1890 he enrolled in a two-year course for Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) physical directors at a new training college in Springfield, Massachusetts....
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Orton, George Washington (1873-1958), athlete, coach, and educator
Adam R. Hornbuckle
Orton, George Washington (10 January 1873–26 June 1958), athlete, coach, and educator, was born in Stratbury, Ontario, Canada, the son of Oliver Henry Orton and Mary Ann Irvine. Although crippled by a childhood accident, he restored his ambulatory ability through exercise, especially running. Reminiscing about his origins as a runner, Orton said that many boys “beat me in the dashes, but as the route became long, I killed off my adherents.” Recognizing that distance running was his “forte,” he practiced regularly and developed into one of the premier athletes of the late nineteenth century....
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Pilates, Joseph Hubertus (1880-1967), physical trainer
Ann T. Keene
Pilates, Joseph Hubertus (1880–09 October 1967), physical trainer, was born near Düsseldorf, Germany. His exact date of birth and the full names of his parents are unknown. His father, a champion gymnast, was Greek; his mother, who was German, worked as a naturopath. The family name, of Greek origin, is pronounced “Puh- ...
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Ruble, Olan G. (17 February 1906–11 November 1982), professor of physical education and women's basketball coach
Janice A. Beran
Ruble, Olan G. (17 February 1906–11 November 1982), professor of physical education and women's basketball coach, professor of physical education and women’s basketball coach, was born Olan Guy Ruble near Chariton in Lucas County, Iowa, the son of Lon S. Ruble and Gertrude Curtis, farmers. Ruble attended a rural elementary school. Following graduation from Norwood High School in 1923, he earned a B.A. from Simpson College in 1928 and a master’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1937. In 1930 he married Marguerite O’Neall, with whom he would have one child....
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Von Zedtwitz, Waldemar Konrad Anton Wilhelm Ferdinand (1896-1984), bridge champion and lexicographer
Alan Truscott
Von Zedtwitz, Waldemar Konrad Anton Wilhelm Ferdinand (08 May 1896–05 October 1984), bridge champion and lexicographer, was born in Berlin. His father was Moritz Kurt Von Zedtwitz, a German baron with estates in Saxony, whose death in a yachting accident a few months after the birth gave his son the title. The baby had dual citizenship, for his mother was a member of a wealthy Kentucky family, Mary Eliza Breckinridge Caldwell, who died in 1910. Her grandfather was ...
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Walsh, David Henry (1889-1975), educator, coach, and basketball official
Jerry Jaye Wright
Walsh, David Henry (05 October 1889–02 June 1975), educator, coach, and basketball official, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of Samuel Walsh, a city laborer, and Catharine (maiden name unknown). As a youngster Walsh played basketball and baseball with neighborhood playmates. He took sport seriously and developed a strong competitiveness. At Hoboken High School, from which he graduated in 1907, the 5′ 8″, 180-pound Welsh lettered four years in both sports....
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White, Solomon (12 June 1868– August 1955), Negro League baseball player and manager and chronicler of early "blackball" years,
David Bernstein
White, Solomon (12 June 1868– August 1955), Negro League baseball player and manager and chronicler of early "blackball" years, , Negro League baseball player and manager and chronicler of early “blackball” years, also known as “Sol,” was born in Bellaire, Ohio, an industrial town across the Ohio river from Wheeling, West Virginia. Nothing is known of his parentage or early life. In 1883 White began his baseball career with a three-year stint with his hometown Bellaire Globes, an amateur white team barnstorming the Ohio Valley. In 1886 White moved to the Wheeling Green Stockings of the Ohio State League and, after an abortive seven-game 1887 season with the Pittsburgh Keystones of the National Colored League, he returned to the integrated Wheeling club, reportedly batting .370 for the remaining 52 games, including 84 hits and 54 runs. Meanwhile, segregationist practices solidified in major league baseball, represented by Chicago star ...
