The Women in Physical Education Oral History collection was the result of interviews conducted by Claudia Wasik with alumna and educators in the Michigan State Normal College (Eastern Michigan University) Department of Physical Education. Ms. Wasik was a graduate of EMU, receiving her BS in 1962 and her Master's Degree in 1966, and is a former EMU tennis and volleyball coach. She began teaching Physical Education at EMU in 1965, and retired in 1997. It was in the interest of her academic and research pursuits that she conducted the interviews with women in the physical education department.

The Department of Physical Training was established at the Michigan State Normal School in 1894, also the year that the new gymnasium building was completed. From its inception, the Department was overseen by Wilber Bowen and Fannie Cheever Burton, who was the first Director of the Women's Gymnasium.