By Arielle Sargent, GoPSUSports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - To honor and celebrate Black History Month, Penn State Athletics is proud to share the stories of its African American student-athletes and coaches who have shaped Nittany Lion history through their success and challenges, even long after Penn State.
Penn State's first female African American student-athlete to play on the field hockey team (1969), as well the Lady Lion basketball team (1970) and the women's lacrosse team (1970), Lorraine (Hutchings) Oliver made Nittany Lion athletics history in a pre-Title IX era.
With Penn State first introducing women's intercollegiate athletic programs in 1964-65, the Nittany Lion women's programs were not referred to as "Varsity" programs until 1967, just a year before Barbara June Rose became Penn State's first African American student-athlete (women's gymnastics) in 1968.