Fern 'Peachy' Kellmeyer (born February 19, 1944 in West Virginia, United States) is a retired tennis player and current tennis administrator who helped change the face of women's tennis. Kellmeyer is an alumnus of Florida Atlantic University.
A junior champion in the 1950s, Kellmeyer played No. 1 on the University of Miami women's tennis team and became the first woman to compete on a Division 1 men's squad. Hired as physical education director and coach at Florida's Marymount College in 1966, Kellmeyer successfully sued to overturn an AIAW rule barring women's athletic scholarships, leading to
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
legislation.
In 1973, Kellmeyer was tapped by founder Gladys Heldman as the first tour director of the fledgling
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'' ...
. She continuously pushed to secure additional venues and increased prize money for players. In 1977, she brought the first women's tennis tournament to Madison Square Garden.
She is the tour operations executive consultant for the
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kellmeyer, Peachy
American female tennis players
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Florida Atlantic University alumni
Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia
Tennis people from West Virginia
1944 births
Living people
21st-century American women