Germantown legend Ora Washington may not be a household name, but her decades-long career dominating tennis and basketball and sweeping up championship titles isn’t forgotten. Despite not being a prominent sports figure during her time due to racism, sexism, and homophobia, Washington has been described by the likes of tennis star Arthur Ashe as “the first Black female to dominate a sport.” Her story came from across the pond in a BBC Sport report by Renee Montgomery.

Washington moved to Phila. from her family’s Virginia farm during the Great Migration.

While she started working in domestic service in the suburbs, she was building the impressive sports career that defined her legacy.

She was introduced to the racket at the Germantown Young Women’s Christian Association. Reports find that she first started competing in 1923, rising to championship level aptitude. In 1925, Washington won her first American Tennis Association doubles title, and she continued to do so consecutively up until 1936.  

Then, by the end of the 1920s, she took up her second love, basketball, earning her the reputation as the “best Black female player in the U.S.” She played for Germantown’s all-Black YWCA Hornets, which claimed the national girls basketball title.  

Washington was also captain of the Philadelphia Tribunes, a team associated with the current Phila. newspaper, which serves a Black readership.

Despite the team winning 11 consecutive titles, Washington was never paid enough to give up her day job.

She retired from sports at the age of 38 but continued to work in domestic service until the 1950s.  

Washington often revisited her passions. She continued to play doubles in tennis until 1949 and played basketball until 1942.  

Her nephew believes that her sexuality as a gay woman may have squandered recognition for being a powerhouse athlete.  

“I would imagine those who knew of her sexuality suppressed her accomplishments when she was at her best,” he said.  

She passed away at the around the age of 72 and was inducted by the Black Athletes Hall of Fame five years after her death.  

Read more about Germantown sports legend Ora Washington at BBC Sport.