Mary Browne

Mary Kendall Browne (1891 to 1971) was an American tennis player who also competed as an amateur golfer. Born in Ventura County, California, she was ranked in the world top 10 in 1921, 1924 and 1926 by the tennis writer A. Wallis Myers, reaching a career high of world number 3 in 1921, and she was the top-ranked American player in 1914. She played in the 1925 and 1926 Wightman Cup matches between the United States and Great Britain, and in golf she was runner-up at the 1924 U.S. Women's Amateur. After her playing career she coached at the University of Chicago, where she is credited with inventing the backboard for practice, and later at the University of Washington and Lake Erie College. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957.