1990s
Marian Washington: 1996
Marian Washington served as the KU women’s basketball coach from 1973-2004. She posted a 560-363 ledger in her 31 seasons as the women’s basketball coach. She also served at the first and only athletics director for women’s athletics at KU from 1974-1979. Washington reached many achievements and earned numerous awards throughout her career including becoming the first African American woman to coach a US team in an international competition when she coached at the R. William Jones Cup in Taiwan in 1982. In 1996 Washington was an assistant coach for the US National Team and the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia. The team brought home a gold medal. The 1996 Olympics were the fourth Olympic games to be held in the US and marked the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Olympics held in Athens, Greece. The 1996 Olympics were also the first Summer Olympics to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympics.
