Note: This piece originally appeared as a submission in The Beacon, the University of Portland's student newspaper. To view the story on their website, click here.
The year is 1979. Moe O'Connor and her husband, Russ, have been living in the Pacific Northwest for just over a year, having moved there after Russ got a job working for Intel. She had grown up an athlete, having played tennis primarily and doing so in college at Bradley University. It wasn't a unique thing to her. Back in Chicago, her hometown, it was just expected that women competed in sports back in the day, at least at her high school.