Watch as a statue of trailblazing UNL alumnus Louise Pound is unveiled Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, outside of Louise Pound Hall on the UNL campus in Lincoln.
Whispers of Louise Pound’s legacy are all over the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s campus.
Louise Pound won big in an era when female athletes had limited opportunities to compete. She was the 1891 and 1892 University of Nebraska-Lincoln tennis champion, competing in a primarily male field to win both titles.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
A statue of Louise Pound astride a bicycle was unveiled outside her namesake hall Friday on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. She is the first woman to be honored in bronze on the Lincoln campus.
UNL acting students Paige Fritz, from left, Harper Allen, Emma Hanson and Emerson Mattson stand in period-accurate costumes during an unveiling of trailblazing alumnus Louise Pound on Friday outside of Pound Hall on the UNL campus. Dozens of community members gathered outside Pound Hall to see the sculpture of the pioneering woman unveiled.
Lynn Roper speaks before the unveiling of a bronze statue of trailblazing alumnus Louise Pound on Friday outside Pound Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Louise Pound won big in an era when female athletes had limited opportunities to compete. She was the 1891 and 1892 University of Nebraska-Lincoln tennis champion, competing in a primarily male field to win both titles.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound was posthumously awarded a men's tennis N Club letter in 2018. With her varsity letters in men's tennis and women's basketball, Pound is the only combined letter winner for both women and men at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
A captain of NU's first women's basketball team, Louise Pound went on to coach the team until the university abolished intercollegiate athletics for women in 1908.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound, in so many fields, was the trailblazer for women's athletics in the state. And this while becoming a preeminent educator in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department over a half-century.
Louise Pound, 1872-1958, is buried in section 25 on the west side of Wyuka Cemetery. Pound, after whom Pound Hall at UNL is named, is the only woman in the University of Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame.
Louise Pound was one of the first women to own and ride a bicycle in Nebraska. In an era when women relied on men for mobility and hid their ankles, the bicycle became an early symbol of independence.
Louise Pound's legacy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln began when she was a student and continued as a professor.
A high achiever in both athletics and academics, the Victorian era woman will soon be honored with a bronze sculpture on campus.
Louise Pound won big in an era when female athletes had limited opportunities to compete. She was the 1891 and 1892 University of Nebraska-Lincoln tennis champion, competing in a primarily male field to win both titles.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound was posthumously awarded a men's tennis N Club letter in 2018. With her varsity letters in men's tennis and women's basketball, Pound is the only combined letter winner for both women and men at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
As much as she was an athlete, Louise Pound was a scholar. She completed her Ph.D. program in two semesters at Heidelberg University in Germany.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
A captain of NU's first women's basketball team, Louise Pound went on to coach the team until the university abolished intercollegiate athletics for women in 1908.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound won Nebraska's first women's state golf championship in 1916, even though she "never cared so much for golf."
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound was the first woman to be elected president of the national Modern Language Association in 1955.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Louise Pound, in so many fields, was the trailblazer for women's athletics in the state. And this while becoming a preeminent educator in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department over a half-century.
Louise Pound, 1872-1958, is buried in section 25 on the west side of Wyuka Cemetery. Pound, after whom Pound Hall at UNL is named, is the only woman in the University of Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame.
MATT RYERSON/Journal Star
Louise Pound was one of the first women to own and ride a bicycle in Nebraska. In an era when women relied on men for mobility and hid their ankles, the bicycle became an early symbol of independence.
UNL acting students Paige Fritz, from left, Harper Allen, Emma Hanson and Emerson Mattson stand in period-accurate costumes during an unveiling of trailblazing alumnus Louise Pound on Friday outside of Pound Hall on the UNL campus. Dozens of community members gathered outside Pound Hall to see the sculpture of the pioneering woman unveiled.
A statue of Louise Pound astride a bicycle was unveiled outside her namesake hall Friday on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. She is the first woman to be honored in bronze on the Lincoln campus.
Lynn Roper speaks before the unveiling of a bronze statue of trailblazing alumnus Louise Pound on Friday outside Pound Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Louise Pound won big in an era when female athletes had limited opportunities to compete. She was the 1891 and 1892 University of Nebraska-Lincoln tennis champion, competing in a primarily male field to win both titles.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
