Pat Nordell is a Los Angeles-based lesbian sports coach and photographer. Nordell was a star athlete and popular personality through her high school years and afterwards in amateur and intramural sports in the Midwest. After finishing a teaching degree at the Illinois State Normal University and a bachelors of science at the University of Arizona at Tucson, she made the shift to California in 1960 to start her teaching career. The bulk of this career was spent at Westchester High School where her outstanding record as coach of Varsity Girls Basketball, Girls Softball, Women's Track and Field and ultimately Men's Track and Field, gained her considerable recognition and made her one of the first women coaches of men's athletic teams in Los Angeles. As a strong advocate against gender discrimination in sports, Nordell initiated and won a protracted law suit against the Los Angeles Unified School District for equal pay for women coaches. This collection, comprising of comprehensive scrapbooks and photographs, provides a record of the professional public life, feminist advocacy and private life of Pat Nordell.

Patricia Nordell is a Los Angeles based lesbian sports coach and photographer. Nordell was born in May 1932 and raised in Wheaton, Illinois. As is evidenced in the collection, she was a star athlete and popular personality through her high school years at Wheaton Community High School, from which she graduated in 1950. Nordell stayed in the Midwest after high school, playing amateur and intramural sports in Wheaton and Chicago, excelling in a number of sports including basketball, volleyball, baseball and bowling. Nordell completed a teaching degree at the Illinois State Normal University from September 1956 to June 1957. She continued her college education at the University of Arizona at Tucson from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1960. Both in Illinois and Arizona, Nordell continued her engagement with sports, playing namely intramural volleyball and basketball.

4.8 Linear Feet (6 document boxes, 6 flat boxes)

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