For Mabel Lee, Class of 1908 magna cum laude, life has been a series of significant firsts. She chose physical education teaching as a career while she was a Coe freshman, a choice called outlandish by most ladies of that day. As a sophomore she won her coveted gold "C" in Swedish gymnastics and proudly wore it on a bulky crimson sweater.
After graduate study, she was director of physical education for women at Coe, where she started the May Fete and Colonial Ball traditions, at Oregon Agricultural College, at Beloit College, and at University of Nebraska, where she served from 1924 until retirement in 1952. As a teacher Mabel Lee became caught up in a lifetime crusade to educate the general public as to what physical education for women really was and to make the academic world accept physical education as a legitimate discipline.
The power of her personality was rewarded by election in 1931 as the first woman president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. She was the first member elected to the American Academy of Physical Education and later became its first woman president.
Her academic status as teacher and author of textbooks was recognized when George Williams College gave her its first Doctor of Physical Education degree. Coe and Beloit have also granted her honorary doctorates.
Perhaps the outstanding gesture recognizing her professional contributions was made last year as the University of Nebraska named its physical education building Mabel Lee Hall.
How far has physical education for women come since Mabel Lee entered the field seven decades ago? Once Mabel Lee had to challenge the Coe faculty to allow her girls to wear gym bloomers in public. Now, in an era when women's sports have a respected place at this and other colleges, Mabel Lee becomes the first woman to be inducted into the Coe Athletic Hall of Fame.
It's exciting to honor this young lady of 91 who has helped move women's physical education from bloomers to bikinis, from suspected activity to respected discipline.
