Constance Mary Katherine Applebee (June 4, 1873 – January 26, 1981) is best known for introducing field hockey in the United States. She was a co-founder of the American Field Hockey Association and served as its head for 20 years. She also founded Sportswoman magazine and was the athletic director at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

for 24 years. Applebee graduated from the British College of Physical Education in 1899. In 1901, she came to America and took a course in

anthropometry Anthropometry (, ) refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of biological anthropology, physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthr ...

Dudley Allen Sargent Dudley Allen Sargent (September 29, 1849 – July 21, 1924) was an American educator, lecturer and director of physical training. Biography Dudley Allen Sargent was born in Belfast, Maine on September 29, 1849, the son of Benjamin Sargent, a sh ...

's Summer School of Physical Training at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. After a discussion among her classmates and instructors regarding the British sport of field hockey, she took them to a courtyard behind the Harvard gymnasium and gave a demonstration of the game. In the autumn of 1901 she embarked on a tour of women's colleges in the northeastern United States, introducing field hockey and giving coaching and instruction regarding the sport to the students and faculty at each stop. She was invited to

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

by Harriet Ballintine, the school's athletic director, and also visited

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

and

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

, and Wheaton Female Seminary. She made return visits to each of those schools and the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics to coach field hockey through the spring of 1904. In 1904 she was hired as full-time athletic director at Bryn Mawr College, where she served in that capacity through 1928. In September 1922, Applebee established an annual three-week camp for intensive field hockey instruction at Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of Camp Tegawitha. The camp was in business for more than 70 years before finally closing after the 1994 season. In 1924 she founded The Sportswoman, initially a field hockey magazine that eventually focused on all women's sports She was more commonly known by her

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

, "The Apple", and on January 26, 1981, she died at 107 at a

New Milton New Milton is a market town and civil parish in the New Forest District, New Forest district, in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymi ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England nursing home. She is buried at St John the Baptist Church at Burley in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

. As well as a grave she is commemorated within the church in one of the stained glass windows. She was also active in establishing lacrosse as a women's sport in the United States of America. The U. S. Women's Lacrosse Association was founded at her camp in the summer of 1931. The USWLA governed the sport on the collegiate and club levels until 1981, when the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

inaugurated its national championship tournament for women. Applebee was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.

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Further reading