In 2022 The Washington Post called her the Jackie Robinson of collegiate women's basketball coaching. Now Marian E. Washington shares her compelling life story, tracing her humble roots in rural Pennsylvania to the unprecedented legacy she left for the advancement of women's athletics and African American women.
Washington became the first female African American head coach at a predominantly White institution at the Division I level when the University of Kansas hired her in 1973. A year later she was named KU's first women's athletics director. Over 31 years she coached Kansas women's basketball to 560 wins, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and two Sweet Sixteens.
But her legacy is the battle she waged for equity inside the walls of her own institution and nationally, becoming a trailblazer for a host of successful Division I Black female coaches. In 1996 she became the first Black woman to coach on a U.S. Olympic women's basketball team staff, serving as an assistant coach on the USA's gold medal-winning team.
Washington was the first female President of the Black Coaches Association. She is enshrined in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and is a finalist on the Ballot for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
"FIERCE" is her story.
Before Marian E. Washington stepped into Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse, only one room was dedicated to women: the public restroom. Today the Marian E. Washington Women's Basketball Suite is among the finest facilities in the nation.
Marian's compelling life story begins with her growing up in a bus in rural West Chester, Pennsylvania, and traces the unprecedented legacy she left to advance women's athletics and African American women. Washington achieved excellence as an athlete, administrator, and coach at the University of Kansas. In 1996 she became the first Black woman to coach at the Olympic level. She is enshrined in multiple halls of fame, including the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, the University of Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the West Chester University Athletics Hall of Fame twice, as an individual and as part of the West Chester State College team that won the inaugural women's basketball national championship in 1969.
Washington was fierce in her fight to achieve opportunity and equity for women at a time of firm resistance to newly passed Title IX legislation. She currently lives in St. Augustine, Florida. The first freelance writer to earn the Mel Greenberg Media Award in 2013, Vicki L. Friedman's sports writing career spans more than 30 years and includes extensive coverage of collegiate women's basketball. Among her previous honors is a third-place finish nationally in the 2008 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for feature writing. Friedman holds a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri and was the inaugural recipient of the Association for Women in Sports Media scholarship in 1990. The Washington, D.C. native resides in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is the proud mother of sons Harry and Ben Holtzclaw and four dogs, including her most beloved sidekick, a Japanese chin named Romeo. I felt really fortunate that Marian wanted to be part of my Olympic staff in 1996. We wanted to win. And I wanted to hire the person who would help us win. Marian is a very humble woman. She went about how she did things in a humble way. She was very capable and had a great rapport with everyone on the team. She had the ultimate respect of all the coaches. It was a wonderful time we spent, and Marian did a fabulous job. Whether the world calls your name, if you've got belief inside, nobody can stop you. That's the inner strength Coach Washington gave her players. She's walked it, lived it and earned a legacy that will never be matched. I think we've done a good job in women's basketball of telling Pat Summitt's story. But I
