More than a century after Louise Pound pedaled across the University of Nebraska and competed in 100-mile cycling events, she has returned — in bronze.
A sculpture honoring the pioneering scholar and athlete was unveiled Sept. 18 outside Pound Hall. More than 150 university leaders, students, faculty, staff and members of the public attended the event.
Pound is depicted standing with her bicycle, a tennis racket in hand and books strapped to the rear fender. The sculpture is the culmination of nearly a decade of work by Deb White, a Nebraska alumna and former Husker cheerleader who discovered Pound’s story while researching a book.
“I’m happy for Louise,” White said. “I feel emotional that she’s getting the recognition she deserves. Not only having the building, but a sculpture that represents who she was.”
Born in Lincoln in 1872, Pound graduated from Nebraska in 1892. She later earned a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and spent nearly 50 years teaching English at Nebraska.
She also was an accomplished athlete at a time when opportunities for women in competitive sports were limited. Pound won the Lincoln city tennis championship in 1890 and the Nebraska championship in 1891 and 1892, defeating men along the way.
In 1894, she competed in men’s tennis at Nebraska. The university formally recognized the accomplishment in 2018, when she was awarded a men’s varsity letter.
Pound later won the Women’s Western Tennis Championship and Nebraska’s first women’s state golf championship. She remained a competitive golfer for decades, completed a 100-mile cycling ride, competed in figure skating, lead Nebraska’s first women’s basketball team and helped found the university's first women's cheer squad.
White’s interest in Pound became more urgent in 2017, when she learned the university was demolishing the Cather and Pound residence halls.
“I thought, once her dorm is gone, she’s going to be wiped off campus and just forgotten about,” White said.
White worked with university officials to have the former College of Business building renamed as Louise Pound Hall. Then, she started thinking about what else could be done.
“I felt like there should be a bronze sculpture of her in front of her building,” she said.
That idea led White to Dave Biehl, a retired veterinarian from Elkhorn, Nebraska, who creates bronze sculptures and glass art.
When White arrived at Biehl’s studio, he had just completed a life-size clay sculpture of Nebraska literary icon Willa Cather. The coincidence was hard to ignore as Cather and Pound had been friends and classmates at Nebraska.
Biehl agreed to create the Pound sculpture, but funding first had to be secured. White teamed with Lynn Roper, who had recently led a course about Pound, and Lucy Buntain Comine, a retired university development director.
The three raised the necessary funds within a couple of weeks.
For Biehl, the project offered an opportunity to help tell the story of a Nebraska woman whose accomplishments have become less widely known.
“In the 1890s, women were just supposed to, I think, sit in the corner and be quiet," Biehl said. "And she certainly wasn’t."
The sculpture incorporates several elements of Pound’s life. The bicycle represents her athleticism and the role bicycles played in expanding women’s freedom around the turn of the 20th century. The tennis racket represents her accomplishments as an athlete, while the books represent her academic career.
During the unveiling ceremony, Interim Chancellor Katherine S. Ankerson said the sculpture gives future generations of students a chance to encounter Pound’s story as part of their everyday campus experience.
“You didn't simply fund a sculpture," Ankerson said. "You made a decision about what this campus says to the next young Nebraskan who walks past it, and to the generations of Huskers after her."
The sculpture is about 10% larger than Pound’s actual height of 5 feet, 5 inches.
White’s research also helped verify Pound’s participation in men’s tennis in 1894 and led to her posthumous recognition with a men’s varsity letter in 2018. Pound is the only woman recognized as a member of the university men’s N Club.
White plans to continue to educate others about Pound and her accomplishments. Upcoming projects include submitting an application to have Pound included in the Nebraska Hall of Fame and working with the Nebraska State Historical Society to place a historical marker near the site of Pound’s family home in Lincoln.
“I’m just going to keep working on her legacy,” White said.
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