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ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

MARY WASHBURN CONKLIN '28

Inducted: 1986

The only woman in the charter group of Hall of Famers, Mary Washburn Conklin may also be the only one to have earned an Olympic medal. Competing in the Olympics in Amsterdam the year of her graduation, she ran on the U.S. 400-meter relay team that won a silver medal. Later, in an international meet in Belgium, she won first in the 80-meter hurdles. Meanwhile, back in the States she had won the National AAU indoor 50-yard championship. She was one of the founders of the Long Island Field Hockey Association and for seven years played on the U.S. women's lacrosse team. She has spent most of her professional career as a teacher and coach, including 11 years at Beaver (PA) College where she introduced lacrosse. She managed British-American lacrosse touring teams in an around the world tour in 1969. In recognition of her monumental contributions to coaching and teaching in New York State, she was awarded that state's "Woman of the Year in Sports" honor by Governor Mario Cuomo. She retired from fulltime teaching in 1974 and now conducts, as a volunteer, a physical education program for youngsters in her hometown of Stoddard, NH. Most of the medals she won during her lifetime she presented to DePauw University for display in the Old Gold Room in Lilly Center.