Fierce, My Fight for Nothing Less

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 on an Olympic 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 has been nominated for the Naismith Basketball Hall of
Fame.
FIERCE is her story.