124 Years Later, Louise Pound Earns a Men's Tennis N-Club Letter

On Wednesday, the Nebraska Athletic Department will honor one of UNL’s most distinguished literary scholars, who became a renowned student-athlete, an accomplished musician and a devoted women’s sports advocate.

Extensive researcher Debra White worked diligently to verify that Louise Pound, an iconic figure who was born and lived in Lincoln her entire life, earned a Husker varsity letter in men’s tennis in 1894 to complement her women’s varsity letter in basketball.

Since the proof behind that problematic fact required 124 years to become official, Nebraska will correct the honor in a simple but classy way when the Husker men’s tennis team hosts Drake University in Wednesday’s 4 p.m. match at Lincoln’s Sid and Hazel Tennis Center.

I think Louise Pound would be proud to be honored 124 years after she should have been.

Better late than never. Pound is now officially both a men’s and a women’s Nebraska varsity letter-winner in the same timeframe, even though there is a 124-year gap between the men’s tennis letter she will add Wednesday to  her women's letter in basketball.

Keith Zimmer and Chris Andersondeserve kudos for helping an unimaginable longshot become something that has never happened in Nebraska Athletics and probably never will again, anywhere.

Zimmer is Nebraska’s senior associate athletic director for Life Skills, and Anderson is NU’s associate A.D. for community, governmental and charitable communications.  

Zimmer has worked at Nebraska more than 30 years. Anderson has worked at UNL for nearly 30 years.

Both were pivotal in digging deep to confirm a longtime thought and make it a 2018 reality.

124 Years an Eternity for Honoring a True Trailblazer

Stop for a moment and think about the latest proof-point for There Is No Place like Nebraska. Let’s be honest – 124 years seem like an eternity, especially when you’re righting a wrong and giving credit where credit is due.

Louise Pound was indeed a perfectionist. When American universities refused to admit her young age for graduate study, she studied at Heidelberg, Germany, earning a Ph.D. before returning to Lincoln to teach in UNL’s English department for the next 45 years.

Pound was both the women and the men champion in tennis in 1891. She competed by invitation in many men’s tournaments and finished second in the men’s intercollegiate tennis tournament in 1894 – the crown that enabled her to become a Nebraska N-Club letter-winner for both men and women.

Louise Pound was, is and probably always will be the only combined letter-winner for both women and men in Nebraska history.

Think about what else in the world was happening 124 years ago when Pound was studying and competing.

Grover Cleveland was the 24th President of the United States after serving the country as the 22nd president as well.

We are talking about a time gap so broad it connects with Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Clara Barton.

In those days, it was amazing what you could accomplish if you did not care who got the credit.

Louise Pound was a pioneer as much as she was a scholar-athlete. She was a superstar who had talent and determination. She had fire. She was brave, bold, confident and aggressive. Reputation was more important to her than recognition.

Pound Has a Place in Nebraska’s 100 Greatest Athletes

Yes, she had sterling character, and there were solid reasons why Louise Pound was 86th among Nebraska's 100 Greatest Athletes, The Omaha World-Herald’s choices to recognize the state’s greatest-ever athletes.

“Louise Pound, in so many fields, was the trailblazer for women's athletics in the state,” The World-Herald wrote, adding how it all happened while becoming a preeminent educator in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department over a half-century.

"In my book, she (Pound) was the state's greatest woman athlete ever," The World-Herald's Gregg McBride wrote in 1966. “Pound parlayed state and Western tennis and golf titles during the era when the gals were hobbled by long skirts. Louise would have starred in any sport,” according to The World-Herald.

In 1890, Pound won the Lincoln city tennis championship. “She captured the university's men's singles and doubles titles in 1891 and 1892, becoming the only female in school history to now receive a men's varsity letter.”

In 1897, Pound won the Women's Western Championship after beating the Canadian and U.S. champion in the finals. She was rated the top player in the country. "It was men's tennis and a high quality of that,” the Chicago Tribune wrote.

According to The World-Herald, Pound had a tie match with the Olympic men's singles champion while working on her doctorate at Heidelberg. “She was tennis champion in 1900. She was also a cyclist and a figure skater and introduced skiing to Lincoln,” The World-Herald pointed out.

“As a graduate student, Pound was captain and played center in NU’s first women’s basketball game in 1898 and later managed the team until the university abolished women's athletics in 1908. At 43, she and Carrie Neely won the 1915 Central Western and Western doubles championships.

The next year, “Pound won the first women's state golf championship and never entered again. She was, however, the Lincoln city champion in 1926 at age 54. "Most of that time, I held the championship," Pound said in a 1945 newspaper account. "But I didn’t always enter. I never cared so much for golf."

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