Central Washington University Athletics Department, Dorothy Purser Collection, 1958-2002

The Athletics Department at Central Washington University dates back to 1893 with the introduction of a Physical Culture class at the Washington State Normal School and with the first women’s basketball game played in 1895. Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, the men’s and women’s basketball teams played local and regional high schools. In 1909 the Normal School hired a part-time athletics coach to manage the growing number of sports teams. Later that same year, the men’s basketball team played Bellingham Normal School (Western Washington University), making it the first inter-collegiate sporting event in the school’s history. The athletics program served as part of the Department of Health and Physical Education until 1983 when it became its own independent department. Dorothy Purser was a member of Central’s P.E. faculty from 1957 until her death in 2002. She also coached field hockey, fast pitch softball, and basketball. Purser was a strong advocate of Title IX and worked to ensure women’s equal participation in statewide athletics events. She also served as the director of the EMT-Paramedic Program at Central, which she helped to design.