Physical Education Teacher/Leader

was born in the province of Chincha, Peru, on 26 June 1946. Even as an adolescent, he stood out in the sprint competitions held by his high school in his home province, La Gran Unidad Escolar “José Pardo,” especially in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. When he was 17 years old he began to train with Luis Derteano and excelled in regional track events. In 1969, in the city of Quito, Ecuador, he set the Peruvian national record for the 100-meter dash at 10.2 seconds, and he achieved the same time at the Bolivarian Games of 1970 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. However, both results were measured manually, and were thus not official. Acevedo’s official 100-meter record is 10.43 seconds, which was recorded electronically in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1977. During the Sixth Pan American Games, held in Cali, Colombia, in 1971 Acevedo won the bronze medal in ...

professional basketball player, was born Charles Theodore Cooper in Newark, Delaware, the son of Theodore Cooper and Evelyn (whose maiden name is unknown). He was a standout for the Central High School basketball team in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1925. Cooper immediately began a twenty-year career in professional basketball, playing initially with the Philadelphia Panther Pros in 1925, then going on to star for the all-black Philadelphia Giants from 1926 to 1929. Robert Douglas, owner of the famed all-black professional team the New York Renaissance, spotted Cooper in a game at Philadelphia and signed him the next day to play for his team. Cooper then began an eleven-year stint with the Rens, named for their home court, the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem. Over these eleven years the Rens earned a record of 1,303 wins and 203 losses.

At six feet four inches Cooper was ...

athlete and physical director, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, one of eight children of Allen Dorsey, a shipping clerk, and Mary C. Sparksman. Allegheny City was later incorporated as part of Pittsburgh's north side. The five Dorsey brothers would all earn reputations as accomplished athletes in Pittsburgh's sporting community in the early twentieth century.

As a child Dorsey showed an interest in sports while watching students play basketball in the basement gym of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. After the death of his father in 1905, he went to work to help support his family. The following year, while working as a janitor on a north side estate, he secretly opened the estate gymnasium for pickup basketball games and soon organized a team with practices held on Sundays. Two of the players who attended were the future Homestead Grays baseball legends Cum Posey and Sellers ...

educator and playwright, was born Myrtle Athleen Smith in Holly Grove, Arkansas, to Lula C. (Hall) and Isaac Samuel Smith. Myrtle attended Manual High School from 1916 to 1920, and studied pharmacy at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1920 to 1922. She began attending Colorado Teacher's College in 1923, earning a teaching certificate in 1924 before marrying the physician William McKinley Livingston on 25 June 1925. She left Colorado Teacher's College in 1926 and was hired in 1929 as a physical education instructor by Lincoln University, a historically black college in Jefferson City, Missouri. While at Lincoln, she taught every level of physical education and health and established a formal athletic program for female students, enabling young Lincoln women to participate in organized, competitive sports for the first time. Livingston was a well-respected teacher at Lincoln University for forty-four years, retiring in 1972 ...

was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the youngest of three children of Claude and Victoria Jordan McDaniel. Born Mildred Louise McDaniel, she played basketball and competed in track and field as a student at the segregated David T. Howard High School, which since 1948 had been a five year high school with a reputation for strong sports teams McDaniel joined the basketball team after winning a challenge from a gym teacher who offered any girl who could make ten free throws in a row a position on the team and a pair of new shoes The team s highest scorer she led the basketball team to two high school state championships After the conclusion of the basketball season many of the players participated in track and field Initially uninterested in track and field McDaniel commented that she could probably jump higher than most of the other girls The track coach ...

basketball coach, was born Charlaine Vivian Stoner in Edenborn, Pennsylvania, the oldest of six children of Charles “Buddy” Stoner, a coal miner by day and a talented jazz musician on weekends, and Thelma “Bird” Stoner. Siblings included Verna, Tim, Madeline, Richelle “Ricky,” and Jack.

Stringer was named Charlaine after her father; she states in her memoir, “it's so much of a boy's name, which is why I never use it. Not that it matters—these days; pretty much everyone assumes that the C stands for Coach” (Stringer, p. 36). As a young girl in Edenborn, Stringer spent a lot of time playing football and basketball with the boys and playing softball. “I always just wanted to play,” Stringer said. “Playing for the sake of playing was enough for me” (Stringer, p. 29).

Since there were no girls teams in her high school Stringer decided to ...

Stringer is the most significant black basketball coach in the history of the women’s game. In 2001, she became one of the first black women inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Equally as impressive, Sports Illustrated recognized her in 2003 as one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.” From the 1980s into the early twenty-first century, Stringer was committed to breaking gender and race-related barriers. Her leadership and the respect she commanded as an exceptionally talented coach enabled her to become the first black woman head coach of a United States national women’s basketball team. Her squad won a bronze medal in the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba. She successfully coached the 1989 U S World Championship zone qualification team Leading three different programs from obscurity to national prominence in her three decades as a head coach she is the only coach ...

track coach, teacher, and administrator, was born Stanley Van Dorne Wright in Englewood, New Jersey, the son of Spencer Wright, a sanitation worker and truck driver, and Mildred (Prime) Wright, a seamstress and cook. Growing up in a northern city proved no shield from racism. In junior high and high school, Wright had little option but to follow a curriculum for black students that de-emphasized academics. His parents, however, taught him to value education.

Unfortunately, America's involvement in World War II interrupted his schooling. Soon after Pearl Harbor, Wright joined the Army Air Corps. However, he failed to complete pilot training, and his responsibilities at an airbase in Kansas consisted primarily of office tasks. While in the Air Corps, in late 1944, he married Hazel Mathes and they would have four children. In 1945 Wright was reassigned to an airbase in Massachusetts He ...