Ora Mae Washington
From Hoopedia
Ora Mae Washington (January 23, 1898 in Caroline County, Virginia - May 28, 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an African American woman considered by many to be the finest female athlete of her times. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s she won numerous national tennis championships. She also played basketball for the Germantown Hornets and the Philadelphia Tribune Girls. The Tribune Girls were acknowledged to be the best African American women's basketball team in the country.
Washington played for the the Chicago Romas, from 1928 to 1929. She then played for the Germantown Hornets back in her hometown of Philadelphia, from 1929-32. Washington captained the Hornets to a 22-1 record and the 1930-31 Colored Women’s National Championship title.
In 1932 Washington joined "the Newsgirls," the team sponsored by the Philadelphia Tribune, an influential black newspaper. In December 1932 Washington was called "the best Colored player in the world." Throughout the 1930s, until the team disbanded in 1942, the Tribune Girls rarely lost a game, whether playing black teams or white teams.
Washington was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1976.
