Reardon, Nancy (1914 - 1941)

Nancy Reardon was a gifted Tasmanian athlete who excelled in rowing and netball.

Appointed Head Sports Mistress at Friends School in Hobart, Tasmania, in the mid-1930s, Nancy was credited with raising the standard of netball (then known as basketball) in that state to a very high level in the period before the war. She was the first Tasmanian ever to be appointed to the All-Australian Representative netball team chosen in 1939 to tour New Zealand in 1940. Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to represent her country overseas. The 1940 tour to New Zealand was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War Two. That same year, Nancy married Rex Marsh and moved to Western Australia. The marriage was shortlived for Nancy died in childbirth in 1941. Her daughter, Diana Nancy Marsh, was raised in Western Australia.

Events

1939	All Australian team selection - Nancy Reardon was selected in the 1939 All Australian Representative Netball (Basketball) team to tour New Zealand in 1940.

Australian Women Exhibitions

• She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/sport-home.html. [ Details... ]

See also

• Barker, Pauline, A Netball History in Tasmania: 'The First Bounce' - An Account of the History of the Sport in Tasmania, Images and Visual Solutions, Hobart, 2005, 150 pp. [ Details... ]