Delphine Hanna Lecturers
The Delphine Hanna Lecture honors the memory of a woman who influenced and guided the development of physical education in the United States. Following receipt of a diploma and teaching certificate from the Brockport State Normal School in 1874, Hanna taught in the grade schools of rural New York, Kansas, and Ottawa, Canada for ten years.
In 1885, she completed a one-year certificate program at the Sargent Normal School. Then in 1890, H anna received an M.D. degree from the University of Michigan. In 1901, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. In addition, Hanna was chosen for an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oberlin College where she accepted an appointment as Instructor in Physical Culture in 1885 and remained until retiring in 1920. From 1887 to 1903, she held the title, Director of Physical Training of the Women’s Department. In 1903, Hanna was appointed a full professorship, the first to be awarded to a woman in physical education.
Along the way, she studied with Dio Lewis and took additional studies in orthopedics, the Delsarte System, Swedish gymnastics with Baron Nils Posse, and attended the first session of the Harv ard Summer School of Physical Education. Strongly influenced by Dudley Allen Sargent, she devoted her attention to developing a program that featured anthropometric measurement, physical “correctives” studies, and a commitment to working with individuals to improve their fitness and health.
During her career at Oberlin College, she mentored a series of students who would become a virtual “w ho’s who” of physical educators shaping American physical education in the first half of the 20th century. These included: Thomas Wood, Luther Halsey Gulick, Fred Eugene Leonard, J Jesse Feiring Williams, Jay Bryan Nash, and Gertrude Moulton.
A modest woman of high achievement and influence, Delphine Hanna was one in the first group of forty-eight Honor Award recipients in 1931 named as Fellows of the American Physical Education Association. She was arguably, the primary foremother of modern American physical education.
Delphine Hanna Lecturers
1992 George H. Sage
1993 Charles 8. Corbin
1994 Linda K. Bunker
1995 Linda L. Bain
1996 Joy T. DeSensi
1997 John J. Burt
1998 Doris R Corbett
1999 Seymour Kleinman
2000 Sharon L. Shields
2001 William G. Sparks III
2002 Jan Rintala
2003 Robert Pangrazi
2004 Virginia Overdorf
2005 John Charles
2006 R. Scott Kretchmar
2007 Michael Metzler
2008 Ann Boyce
2009 John M. Dunn
2010 Karen DePauw
2011 Andrew Hawkins
2012 Leah Fiorentino
2013 Ron Feingold
2014 Marilyn Buck
2015 Greg Twietmeyer
2016 Anna Marie Frank, 25th Delphine Hanna Lecture
2017 Brian Culp
2018 Beth Hersman
2019 Jared Russell
2020 Jody Langdon
2021 Joe Deutsch, 30th Delphine Hanna Lecture
2022 Luciana Zuest
2023 Jessie Germain
2024 Vanessa Fiaud