Penny Ann Early

Penny Ann Early, later Penny Ann Hill, was an American athlete born in Chicago, Illinois, on 30 May 1943, who was the first female jockey licensed to ride in parimutuel horse races and the first woman to play in a professional men's basketball league in the United States, both in the 1960s. After graduating from Senn High School in 1961 she began work as a horse trainer, and in 1965 she appeared on the television show What's My Line. In 1968 she became one of the first licensed female jockeys in the United States, and male jockeys unanimously refused to ride in the first races she was entered in at Churchill Downs in protest. During that dispute the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association signed her to a short-term contract, and she appeared in a game against the Los Angeles Stars on 27 November 1968. She died on 23 June 2023.