2-839-763 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Silver bowl tennis trophy presented to Sally Ride, 1965. This silver trophy bowl was awarded to Dr. Sally K. Ride in 1965, recognizing her second place finish in a tennis tournament in central California when she was fourteen years old. Ride took her first tennis lesson in 1961, and she quickly became a talented and dedicated player. She entered the private Westlake School for Girls in 1965 on a partial tennis scholarship and also went on to become a nationally-ranked tennis player as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College and Stanford University. She briefly considered becoming a professional player, but decided to concentrate on a career in science instead. She became the first American woman in space when she flew aboard STS-7 in 1983.