Katherine Mearls Rogan was a 1926 graduate of Boston Girls High School. Back in 1998 a Boston Globe reporter Barbara Huebner wrote an article on the occasion of Katherine's 90th birthday. In it there is one thing that strikes me as a coach of today's youth. It seems that in all that I read all of these athletes from the past are truly confident in their ability but extremely humble people. For example, in the decade that Katherine dominated the woman’s athletic scene, there were very few that could run as fast, jump further or higher, throw as far and swim as quickly as Katherine Mearls Rogan. The Boston newspapers routinely described her as “America's finest girl athlete” and compared her popularity to that of Babe Ruth. Katherine's daughter Kay and her son Al, rarely remember their mother ever talking about her athletic achievements. Even at the age of 90 even after winning 5 straight national championships in the standing long jump even after U.S. Titles in the 40 yard dash, the 50 yard dash, the 100 yard dash and other various national and New England Championships in the high jump, hurdles, shot put, javelin and in swimming, her humility rang true when she remarked, “I didn't think very much of it” (It being the nine years, 1924 to 1933 when she competed against the likes of Babe Didrickson) “We didn't make a big deal of it. We had fun.” How truly remarkable and how truly humble. Her daughter Kay believes that her mother, along with fellow inductee Rena MacDonald, were the two women that were the bedrock upon which women's track and field has been built on in the last 80 to 90 years. The 1920's saw a booming decade in woman’s athletics and fortunately for Katherine Mearls. However, unfortunately for a few decades that followed, according to Louise Tricard author of “American Women's Track and Field: A History, 1895-1980, there was a growing force lead by a national organization of female physical education instructors who had persuaded the public that girls were too frail to compete other than in “play days” a sentiment that lingered for decades . Luckily for us, this sentiment did not effect Katherine. Nor did it affect Ben Levias, Katherine's first coach. Ben was described in local newspapers of the time as, “the person in charge of all New England girl athletes,” his tenure was at the Boston Swimming Association. At the age of 16 Katherine was in her first track meet on Boston Commons. Katherine says, “there were no lanes or anything, you just ran”. And run she did. From then on she would go on to set national high school records, New England, National and World records. As a senior in high school in 1926 she tied the American record in the 50 yard dash with a time of 6.0. What a nice way to finish off your high school career. From there she would go on to twice finish 4th in the nation in the 40 yard dash 1927 and 1930. She finished 2nd in the nation in 1929 in the 40 yard dash, 2nd in the shot put in 1930 and 2nd in the javelin in 1930. She was the national champion in the 40 yard dash in 1928 and in 1929 she won and set an American record in the standing high jump with a leap of 3'11.75” Arguably, her most impressive achievement was when from 1927 to 1931 she was she was the National Champion in the standing long jump. During that time she set American and world records. After her running career, she married Al Rogan and started a family all while owning and operating Al Rogan's Sporting Goods Store in Newton Corner. Katherine passed away in 2001, she has two children Kay and Al. Katherine is a member of the New England Women's Sports Hall of Fame.
Class: 1926 Inducted: 2011