"She did the cake walk for Buffalo Bill. . . she square-danced with Henry Ford. . . Alonzo Stagg called her "Miss Nebraska” . . . she fought to let women be seen on the campus in bloomers and tangled with a sheriff when women danced in flowing chiffon around a May Pole. She is Mabel Lee,” said Roby Kesler in 1978.
Mabel Lee graduated from Coe in 1908. She returned to Coe in 1910 to spend eight years as the Director of Physical Education for Women. She startied two (now defunct) Coe traditions her first year: The May Fete, and The Colonial Ball.
Mabel would go on to be the first elected female president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation and the first female president of the American Academy of Physical Education. In 1932 she presided over the women's sessions of the Los Angeles Olympics in place of Lady Lou Hoover. In 1982 Lee was honored by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports as one of the five women in the nation who meant the most to the women of the country in the area of fitness. This athletic diva refused to slow down and at the age of 85 began a career as an author. She published four books before her death at the ripe age of 99. There is much more to know about her story. You can read the full article on Mabel Lee on "Coe College: the First Hundred Years" along with many other tales of athletics at Coe.
~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant
Very cool that women like Mabel have been part of the Coe community for so long! She's an inspiring woman.
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