Judy Hult Howe had the
distinction of being the youngest and prettiest of the 13 charter
inductees into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame. She is also
the only member of the group who competed in the Olympics. Before
the banquet, she admitted to being 40 but was probably in better shape (no pun intended)
than any of the male inductees because she
kept busy as a housewife with a husband and three children as a
career woman as head instructor of 200 students at the Mt Lebanon Gymnastics
Center. But Judy's Olympic career almost didn't
happen. After earning a place on the six member 1956 US Women’s
Olympic Gymnastic team, she was injured in practice the day before
the games opened at Melbourne, Australia. In spite of painful back
and wrist injures, she competed and earned the admiration of her
teammates, even though she didn’t win any medals. There was no
girls' gym team at Beaver High School when Judy Hult was a student
there, so she competed for the famous Rochester Turners gym teams of
the early 1950s. Her coach was
Clayton (Bud) Marquette of Ambridge,
who later moved to California and coached another Olympian, Cathy
Rigby. He was always good at recognizing gymnastic talent.
Judy Hult Howe had the
distinction of being the youngest and prettiest of the 13 charter
inductees into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame. She is also
the only member of the group who competed in the Olympics. Before
the banquet, she admitted to being 40 but was probably in better shape (no pun intended)
than any of the male inductees because she
kept busy as a housewife with a husband and three children as a
career woman as head instructor of 200 students at the Mt Lebanon Gymnastics
Center. But Judy's Olympic career almost didn't
happen. After earning a place on the six member 1956 US Women’s
Olympic Gymnastic team, she was injured in practice the day before
the games opened at Melbourne, Australia. In spite of painful back
and wrist injures, she competed and earned the admiration of her
teammates, even though she didn’t win any medals. There was no
girls' gym team at Beaver High School when Judy Hult was a student
there, so she competed for the famous Rochester Turners gym teams of
the early 1950s. Her coach was