Read from the first chapter of Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer by Robert Cochran:

"And here is a place, less arbitrary than most, to begin the story of Louise Pound. She was by any measure an extraordinary woman. In the academic world she was a pioneering scholar who made important contributions to at least three disciplines. In the world of sports she was an outstanding athlete who would have been at one point the nation’s top-ranked woman tennis player had such listings been compiled at the time. She excelled at every sport she attempted, and she attempted them all. She was a passionate supporter, both as a player and as a coach, of high-level athletic competition for women; Title IX legislation, had she lived to see it, would have seemed to her the restoration on a national scale of a golden age for women’s athletics at the University of Nebraska in which she played a central role. She fought (and lost, in the short term) her life’s bitterest battle in support of women’s athletics at the University of Nebraska. But such gender-based commitments extended far beyond the playing fields—Louise Pound was throughout her long career as a teacher and scholar a dedicated advocate of opportunities for women in general and more especially for their educational and professional advancement. No cause—and she was active in many—gained her greater loyalty.

Last, but far from least, she was for all her long life a Nebraskan at home in Lincoln, casting her lot with her community and state every bit as wholeheartedly as her parents had before her. Like her elder brother, she could have gone elsewhere, to more prestigious academic posts (she did accept such appointments, but only for summer terms). Her choice, wholly conscious and fiercely affirmative, was for Nebraska. Nebraska had raised her and bestowed upon her the best it had to offer in the way of material advantages and educational opportunities. She remained grateful to the end of her days, and she worked diligently over a long professional lifetime to return the gift, to chronicle the state’s history and more especially its traditional culture in scores of written studies and hundreds of lectures."

Robert Cochran is a professor of English and director of the Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies at the University of Arkansas. He has written many books, including A Photographer of Note: Arkansas Artist Geleve Grice and Singing in Zion: Music and Song in the Life of an Arkansas Family.

To read a longer excerpt or to purchase Louise Pound, visit http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Louise-Pound,674032.aspx.