Bio

For portions of eight decades prior to her death in May 2006 at age 101, Josephine E. Fiske taught physical education classes and coached women's athletics at Goucher College.

Jo Fiske joined Goucher's staff in 1929 as an assistant in the physical education department and eventually worked her way up to chair of the department before retiring in 1970. She returned to teach part-time in 1976 and continued to do so beyond her 90th birthday.

The two sports at Goucher to which Jo Fiske is most often linked as a coach are field hockey and basketball. Although records from that era are spotty, they show her achieving a .755 winning percentage and five of her teams going undefeated in her 21 seasons as the field hockey coach.

For some of the same sports she coached, Jo Fiske also worked as a referee. She officiated high school and college basketball games until 1970, lacrosse until 1986 and field hockey until 1988, plus she pioneered the establishment of referee associations such as the Baltimore Basketball Board of Officials in 1931.

Recognized as a longtime advocate for women in sports, Jo Fiske developed a national reputation for her professional knowledge and experience in athletics and physical education. For a time the 1926 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, who later earned a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Columbia University's Teachers College, served as president of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports and as vice president of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

In 1996, Goucher presented Jo Fiske with its highest tribute for contributions to the college, the John Franklin Goucher Medal of Service, and in 1998, honored her by naming its field hockey facility after her.

The Josephine E. Fiske Gopher Pride Award, initiated in February 1986 by the Baltimore Field Hockey Association, is presented annually to as many as two student-athletes to recognize sportsmanship, citizenship, positive attitude, leadership and service to young adults or children.