Fierce

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 16s.

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.