West Virginia University women's sports visionary Martha Thorn, 83, coach of the WVU women's tennis team from 1973 to 2000, passed away in April 2021.
She was responsible for starting the WVU women's tennis program one year after the Title IX legislation was enacted in 1972.
Thorn, along with Dr. Wincie Ann Carruth, chair of the women's Physical Educational Department, and Kittie Blakemore, were leading advocates for women's sports at WVU, former Director of Athletics Leland Byrd once explained.
"I was on the job a week, and I had a message sitting on my desk from Dr. Carruth, Kittie Blakemore and Martha Thorn," Byrd said in 2013. "They wanted an audience with me, so I met them."
"They said, 'Hey, we've got to start a women's sports program at West Virginia University.' Of course, Title IX was just coming in and I said, 'We can start it, but it will have to be on a shoestring. I don't know where we'll find the money, but we'll find it,'" Byrd added. "To my knowledge, Kittie took $1,000 (for women's basketball), Martha took $1,000 (for women's tennis) and that's how we began."
Thorn, who grew up in Hinton, played basketball and field hockey at James Madison University where she earned a degree in health, physical education and general sciences in 1959.
She received a master's degree in health and physical education from WVU in 1963 and later returned as WVU’s director of intramural sports after a teaching and coaching stint at Milford High in Milford, Delaware.
In addition to coaching the women's tennis team, Martha Thorn was also an assistant professor and lecturer in the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, formerly known as the School of Physical Education. Learn more about Martha Thorn and the growth of women’s sports at WVU.