Hoover, an OAC graduate in the Class of 1901, married Jay Bowerman, a future governor of Oregon, and was the mother of University of Oregon track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. While at OAC, she played on the women’s basketball team. She returned to OAC to earn a second degree in home economics in 1916, and taught school for a number of years.
This was the Women's Basketball championship team from 1898, the first basketball team at Oregon State. Team includes Fanny Getty, 2nd back; Dora Hodgins, 2nd forward; Leona Smith, 1st back; Inez Fuller, 1st forward; Blanche Holden, goal thrower; Lillian Ranney, center; Bessie Smith, captain and guard; W.H. Beach, coach; and F. W. Smith, manager.
Left-Right: Bessie G. Smith, Letita Ownsbey, Elizabeth Hoover, Coach Will Beach, Minnie Smith, Inez Fuller (by banner in-front). Published in the June 1900 Souvenir Edition of the Barometer.
