Clara Gregory Baer

Clara Gregory Baer (August 27, 1863 – January 19, 1938)[1][2] was an American physical education instructor and women's sports pioneer.

Baer introduced the first teacher certification course for physical education in the Southern United States, and authored the first published rules of women's basketball.

[3][1] After college, she returned to the South, initially invited by the Southern Athletic Club to teach gymnastics to women.

[5][6] Baer decided to contact the president of Newcomb College, now part of Tulane University, to inquire about the possibility of a job teaching physical education to students.

[4] Her position was made permanent, and she eventually completed a 38-year career in physical education and teacher training.

When Newcomb College first tried basket-ball in its gymnastic work, there were no published rules for women, none of the fine points of control that characterize the game today.

In a letter to the Posse Gymnasium Journal, she described the basic elements of the game, consisting of a court divided at the midpoint, with lines marking where the players could move, and outlining the object of the game, to "make the ball touch the opposite ground, beyond the base—when it counts a point for the side sending the ball".

[15] The letter by Baer appeared in the January, 1895 edition of the journal, while the first game of volleyball, invented by William G. Morgan was reported to be first played in February 1895.