Joanne Washburn (b. 1937) received a Bachelor of Science in 1959 from the University of Connecticut, followed by a Master of Science from Washington State University in 1963. Both degrees were in Physical Education. She worked at Washington State University for 38 years. She began her career at WSU in 1966 as an instructor in the Physical Education (PE) department. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1970, and later to Associate Professor. She served as Assistant Women's Athletic Director and Director of Women's Athletics. She was a faculty member at WSU when Title IX was passed in 1972, and in 1979 she was one of 13 coaches who, along with 39 student athletes, filed a lawsuit against WSU for failing to comply with Title IX (Blair v. Washington State University). She retired in 2004.
This collection consists of papers of Washington State University faculty member Joanne Washburn. It includes a Title IX report, women's physical education program information and event documentation, women's intercollegiate athletics materials, news articles and court reports, meeting notes and minutes, correspondence, sports photographs, and a small quantity of collected materials.
Preliminary inventory:
Box 1: Title IX report; women's intercollegiate athletics handbooks; women's athletic directories (1974-1982); health and PE resources; controversies in sports (in binder); memos and meeting information (in binder).
Box 2: Virginia Shaw material including certificates, notebooks and photographs; Women's Recreation Association budget; Department of Physical Education items; American Physiotherapy Association members list (1940).
Box 3: Individual sports schedules, costs and memos; Northern California Athletic Conference and NorPac affiliation handbook, budgets, evaluations, newsletters and meeting documents.
Box 4: Women's Day 1920s-1940s; Sports photographs; history of PE; Chinook photographs; buildings and grounds; Athletic Federation of College Women (1928-1954); miscellaneous correspondence and brochures.
Box 5: Budgets, budget reduction plan, and budget requests (1963-1985); business correspondence on merger considerations and "potpourri"; student services and activities fee applications.
Box 6: Gymnasium blueprints; newspaper clippings; PE program; health education; recreation; Physical education class materials along with some "teaching and report" documents--mainly arranged alphabetically by class.
Box 7: Questionnaires; Washburn correspondence with Attorney General and others; surveys; lawsuits and agreements; settlements; campaigns; OCR material; minor capital improvement abilities (MCI); major and minor capital project requests (CAPS); Title IX comments (1978-1979); budget material.
Box 8: Sport management; Title IX; "potpourri"; propaganda; catalog changes; time schedule; coordinator.
Box 9: Miscellaneous: women's PE newsletters; some Title IX documents; budget information; clubs; notes; Intercollegiate Committee (I.C.) minutes; controversies in sports.
Box 10: Some Title IX material; articles; urban development; housing and dining; coaching documents; Women's athletics documents; NCAA material; sports information; general correspondence.
Box 11: News articles; court and general reports; scholarships; historical documents, clippings, and brochures; athletics and sport management, some Title IX (Blair lawsuit and clippings); scholarly and professional activities correspondence.
This is an unprocessed collection. Any arrangement reflects either a pre-existing order from the records' creators or previous custodians, or preliminary sorting performed by staff.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Preliminary Guide to the Joanne Washburn Papers, 1921-2001 (MS.2005.06)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Joanne Washburn donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2005 (MS-2005-06).
Sue M. Durrant Papers, 1956-2006
Northwest College Women's Sports Association Records, 1940-2013
Washington State University Gender Equity Lawsuit Papers, 1969-2007
Centennial Oral History Project Oral Histories, 1982-1988
Washington State University History 398 (History of Women in the American West) Student Projects, 1996-2005
Washington State University Womens Physical Education Department Records, 1973-1981
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.