A pioneer in the study of sports and physical education, Doris Hinson Pieroth graduated
from Oklahoma College for Women in 1951 as a physical education major. In addition
to serving as president of the Physical Education Majors Club in 1950-51, she was
editor of the 1950 Argus and a member of Literatae. In her era, before Title IX and
inter-collegiate athletics for women, she played on all the OCW teams that regularly
participated in the statewide sports days: field hockey, basketball, volleyball, and
softball. OCW and its physical education program had prepared her well for graduate
school, she says, and she received a Smith College Trustee’s Scholarship for study
in 1951-52. After earning her masters degree, followed by three years of teaching
at Smith, she moved west in 1955, teaching for three years at the University of Colorado
in Boulder. She married John Pieroth in 1958 and moved to Seattle, Wash., where they
still make their home. She joined the faculty of the University of Washington that
fall and continued to teach while raising two daughters, Suzanne and Jeanne. She created
and introduced courses in the history of sport and physical education at both the
University of Colorado and Washington. In 1968, she returned to graduate school with
an eye to enlarging the humanities aspect of the department. Since 1980, she has been
working as an independent historian, writing, lecturing, serving as a consultant for
museum exhibits and publications, and reviewing.