Joie Stapleton

Joie Stapleton was a member of the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) while a student at KU. She graduated in 1928 and returned to KU in 1939 as a member of the Women's Physical Education Department.  Stapleton was part of the Jayhawk School of Air radio program, and through her “Playtime” episodes that consisted of games, stunts, rhymes, and dances, she brought physical education to students and teachers in elementary schools across Kansas.  A great believer in the benefits of playing volleyball, Stapleton patented a complex, Rube Goldberg-like device for raising nets in 1953. She became the director of the Women’s Physical Education Department in 1952 when Ruth Hoover retired.  Stapleton retired in 1972 after 33 years at KU.