Ann Koger (born 1950) is an American former

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player and coach. An African-American tennis pioneer, she was the coach of

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...

's women's tennis team from 1981 to 2016.

Life and career

Born in Baltimore in 1950, Koger took up tennis at age seven or eight. As a young player, she faced

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

on the courts of Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. She was the first African American to win the Maryland State Tennis Championships. In 1968, she won the American Tennis Association (ATA)'s National Women's Doubles Championship. In college, she was a multi-sport athlete, including a member of

Morgan State Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer ...

's men's tennis team from 1969 to 1972. She was one of the first African Americans to play on the

Virginia Slims Circuit The Virginia Slims Circuit was a tennis tour consisting of a group of originally nine female professional players. Formed in 1970, the Virginia Slims Circuit eventually became the basis for the later WTA Tour. The players, dubbed the ''Original 9'' ...

(the precursor of the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

), where she played from 1973 to 1977. Koger was hired to coach Haverford's women's tennis team in 1981. The program won multiple conference championships during her tenure. In 2016, she retired after 35 years in the position.

Life and career

References

Further reading