Been doing a little research on a woman named Elizabeth Cartwright (1863-1948), who may be the first female athletic director of a state school in the country, but am not sure. Born in New York, she moved to Washington in 1895 to teach "rhetoric and physical culture" at the Washington State Normal School in Ellensburg.

The Normal School did not have an athletic department before her arrival, but in less than a year had a football, basketball, and baseball team for men, and women's basketball team. She coached women's and men's basketball from 1895-1897. April 18, 1896 her Normal School squad went up against the University of Washington in a game of 9-on-9. This, only one week after the first intercollegiate women's basketball game in history (Stanford v. Cal), certainly the first in Washington State history. Her squad lost 2-1, or 6-3 depending on the source.

In 1898 she moved to Hawaii to teach at Honolulu high school. Sound familiar? A Cartwright born in New York, who moves to Hawaii who is a fan of team sports. Been looking and looking through Ancestry.com but can't find if her and Alexander Cartwright were related.

She later married Lincoln Loy McCandless, US representative of the Hawaiian Territory. Here she is at the National Women's Convention in Philadelphia in 1937. Interested in hearing more about women in sports, please share....