Amanda Clement

Amanda E. Clement (March 20, 1888 – July 20, 1971) was an American baseball umpire who was the first woman paid to referee a game, and may have also been the first woman to referee a high school basketball game. Clement served as an umpire on a regular basis for six years, and served occasionally for several decades afterwards. An accomplished athlete in multiple disciplines, Clement competed in baseball, basketball, track, gymnastics, and tennis, and has been attributed world records in shot put, sprinting, hurdling, and baseball.

Early life and umpiring career Amanda Clement was born in Hudson, South Dakota, then part of the Dakota Territory, on March 20, 1888, to Harriet Clement (1849–1932), one of the original settlers of Eden, South Dakota, and her husband Phillip (1847–1895), who died when Amanda was very young. In 1904, Clement traveled to Hawarden, Iowa, to watch her brother Hank pitch in a semi-professional game. The umpire for the amateur game taking place before Hank's did not show, and Hank suggested that Amanda, who had played baseball with her brothers and was knowledgeable about the game, serve as the umpire. In so doing, Clement became the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game. Her performance was so well received that she was hired to umpire further semi-professional games.

Now, if women were umpiring, none of this would happen. Do you suppose any ball player in the country would step up to a good-looking girl and say to her: "You color-blind, pickle-brained, cross-eyed idiot, if you don't stop throwing the soup into me, I will distribute your feature all over this ground until the janitor will be compelled to soak you up with gasoline?" Of course, he wouldn't. Ball players aren't a bad lot. In fact, my experience is that they have more than the usual allowance of chivalry. And I don't believe there's anybody in the country that would speak rudely to a woman umpire, even if he thought his drive was 'safe by a mile' instead of a foul. — Amanda Clement, interview with The Pittsburgh Press, 17 September 1906 Clement, a Congregationalist, refused to umpire on Sundays and stayed in the homes of clergymen while umpiring on the road. While at Yankton, she refereed high school basketball games, possibly the first woman to do so, captained the college's women's basketball team, ran track, was a gymnast, and was by her own approximation the state's best tennis player.

A number of additional accomplishments in sports have been attributed to Clement, but cannot be confirmed because of poor record keeping at the time. These claims include winning tennis championships in Iowa and South Dakota and setting world records in shot put, sprinting, hurdling, and baseball, where it is claimed that Clement threw a baseball 275 feet. Clement also managed several YWCAs, including one in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Clement also served as the coach of Hudson Independent basketball team, organized tennis tournaments, and served as a newspaper reporter, police matron, typesetter, justice of the peace, and as the city assessor for the town of Hudson.