Mid-1900s
A Pioneer in Sports
Long before women were widely welcomed in competitive athletics, Ina Gittings (Nu-Nebraska) was already in motion. The youngest of five and the only girl, Ina grew up keeping pace with her brothers. She ran, swam, skated and played whatever game was in front of her. “Mother tried to make a lady of me, but I was usually drafted into a baseball game,” she once recalled. Her early exposure to sports shaped not just her confidence, but her purpose. As a college student, Ina turned that energy toward sport. She competed in track and field and became the first woman ever photographed pole vaulting. At a time when women’s athletic participation was limited, even discouraged, the image captured something larger than a single jump. It showed possibility.
She began her career teaching physical education at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska, before becoming director of women’s physical education at the University of Arizona, where she served for decades. There, she established Beta Epsilon Chapter-Arizona and introduced women to horseback riding, swimming, archery, track and team sports, broadening opportunities for generations of women. Her lasting influence on the university and Tucson community is reflected in a campus building and major roadway that bear her name. Her legacy is not just in the programs she built, but in the doors she opened. For Ina, sport was never just play. It was proof that women belonged everywhere strength, skill and determination were required.
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Vol. 139 No. 4 Summer 2026
Alpha Phi Quarterly Staff Elizabeth Liberatore, editor-in-chief, quarterly@alphaphi.org Alpha Phi Quarterly Design Maddy Chapman, maddychapman.com Contributing Writers Katie Glunt Gates (Beta Upsilon-Oregon State) Hayden Wiggs (Iota Omega-Ole Miss)
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