Category: Athletics
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Althea Gibson
1927-2003 Althea Gibson was a world-championship tennis player from East Orange. A statue of Althea stands in Branch Brook Park, Newark and the tennis courts were named after her in 2002. Althea was very involved in the Newark community. In 1998, she founded the Althea Gibson Foundation which partnered with the City of Newark, Newark…
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Carla Dunlap
1954- Carla Dunlap was born and raised in Newark where she competed in swimming and gymnastics and attended Maple Avenue School and the Arts High, graduating in 1971, when she was voted Most Athletic, along with Larry Hamm, now a Newark activist. She lived at 63 Scheerer Ave. In 1973, she won the AAU solo…
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Bernice Schneiderman Edelcreek
1927-2015 Bernice Edelcreek was a lifelong Newark teacher who said “Newark was the only place I ever really wanted to teach.” Bernice was a physical education teacher and was named Newark’s Teacher of the Year in 1994. She said, “I am particular concerned…with youngsters who are having difficulty accomplishing the skills which are required in…
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Margaret (Peggy) Officer Lista
1913-2013 Margaret (Peggy) was inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 for being a basketball and track standout at Central High in the late 1920s. She also was a cheerleader and dancer. She was president of the Girls Athletic Association. As of 1930, she was the only girl at Central ever to…
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Anna Lois Russ Jones
1911-1987 Anna Jones was the mother of Amiri Baraka who was active in the community in education and civic activism, and a champion sprinter in her youth. She was also administrator of Community Hospital, Newark’s Black hospital, for many years. Born in Alabama, Anna lived in Newark from around 1926. She attended Tuskegee, Fisk, and…
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Elizabeth Hardin Goss
1895-1953 Elizabeth Hardin Goss graduated Miss Townsend’s School in Newark and then went to Vassar where she broke the world record in shot put, as well as the basketball and baseball throw. Her shot put record would have won the gold medal at the Amateur Athletic Union championships in 1923-1925 and the 1932 Olympics! After…
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Rose Baldasare Maker
1913-1997 Rose Maker was the 1939 Women’s Singles NJ Tennis Champion and the Newark Open Champion 4 years in succession, sometimes playing against her sister Marie. She lived at 258 Van Buren St and Elm Street. She was a graduate of East Side High, born to Italian immigrants. She also played for the Ironbound women’s…
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Loraine White
c. 1947 In 1980, Loraine White became a football coach at Weequahic High. She was New Jersey’s first female coach and was said to be the first Black woman to become a high school football coach in the United States. She has been inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame. Loraine (often misspelled Lorraine)…