Sports: First Woman To ...

Charlotte Reinagle Cooper (22 September 1870 - 10 October 1966) was a tennis player born in Ealing, Middlesex, England where, as a young lady, she was a member of the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club. She won her first of five Wimbledon championships singles titles in 1895, wearing an ankle-length dress in accordance with proper Victorian attire. She won again the following year and for the third time in 1898.

Nicknamed "Chattie" she was a tall, slender, and elegant woman in appearance but a deceptively powerful athlete who became the first woman to win an Olympic champion title, medals were not awarded until the 1904 Summer Olympics. She won the tennis singles at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France where women were allowed to participate for the first time. She followed this up with a second gold medal, winning the mixed doubles with partner, Reginald Doherty.

Still unmarried at age 30 she was what in her day was referred to as a "spinster" but on 12 January 1901 she married a tennis compatriot, Alfred Sterry. That year she captured the Wimbledon championship for the fourth time. After time off for family, she returned to active tennis, winning her fifth Wimbledon singles title in 1908 at the age of 37 years 282 days, an age record that still stands. In 1912, at age 41 she was still one of the best players in the game and that year made it to the Wimbledon finals.

Mrs. Cooper Sterry remained active in competitive tennis and continued to play in championship events well into her 50s. Her husband became President of the Lawn Tennis Association and their daughter, Gwen, played on Britain's Wightman Cup tennis team.

In 1966, Charlotte Cooper Sterry died at the age of 96, in Helensburgh, Scotland.

Julie Krone (born Julieann Louise Krone, July 24, 1963, Benton Harbor, Michigan), is a retired American jockey. In 1993, she became the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she captured the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair. In 2000 she became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Julie Krone appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the issue of May 22, 1989. She is one of only eight jockeys so recognized (the others are Willie Shoemaker, Bill Hartack, Eddie Arcaro, John Longden, John Sellers, Robyn Smith and Steve Cauthen). Krone also was the only women to win riding championships at Belmont Park, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands and Atlantic City Race Course.

Krone retired for the first time on April 18, 1999, with a three-winner day at Lone Star Park, near Dallas. She embarked upon a broadcasting career in horse racing, from 1999-2000 she worked as an analyst for TVG Network. Then worked as a paddock analyst for Hollywood Park from 1999-2002. But then came out of retirement at Santa Anita Park in November 2002. After a good start to the 2003 season, she fractured two bones in her lower back and spent the next four months recovering. She returned to lead the 2003 Del Mar jockeys in purse earnings, then went on to become the first woman jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race when she rode Halfbridled to victory in the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. On December 12, 2003, just weeks after her Breeders' Cup win, she broke several ribs and suffered severe muscle tears in a fall at Hollywood Park Racetrack. Though not fully recovered from her injuries, Krone attempted to come back on February 14, 2004, at Santa Anita Park, but failed to win in three races. She did not ride again; on July 8 of that year, she made a statement in which she did not officially retire, but strongly hinted that she would never race again.

Krone is married to Jay Hovdey, an executive columnist for the Daily Racing Form. She gave birth to their daughter Lorelei Judith Krone on September 27, 2005. (Hovdey also has a son, Ed, from his previous marriage.) Some other relatives which Krone stays close with are her brother Donnie Krone, father Don Krone, and nephew Danny Kauffman.. Her mother, Judi Krone, was an accomplished equestrian who died a few days before Christmas of 1999.

Apart from motherhood, Krone's second retirement from riding has been occupied as a racing broadcaster, a motivational speaker, and an instructor in the discipline of natural horsemanship. Krone made a brief "comeback" of sorts in a sanctioned betting race at Santa Anita Park on Oct. 18, 2008, while competing against seven other retired Hall of Fame jockeys: Gary Stevens, Pat Day, Chris McCarron, Jerry Bailey, Angel Cordero, Jacinto Vasquez and Sandy Hawley. Krone planned to participate in more "old-timer" style races during 2009.

Krone has an autobiography entitled Riding for My Life, which also serves as the basis for the upcoming feature film on Julie's life, The Boys Club.

Effa Manley(March 27, 1897-April 16, 1981) was an American sports executive and the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro Leagues with her husband Abe from 1935 to 1946 and was sole owner through 1948 after his death. Throughout that time she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League.

Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her biological parents were white, but she was raised by her Black stepfather and white mother, leading most to assume her stepfather was her biological father and therefore to classify her as black.

She married Abe Manley in 1935 after meeting him at a New Yo...