1986 Hall of Fame Inductee
No other person has done more to promote women's athletics in its early stages at Brigham Young University than Phyllis Jacobson. She was the catalyst for generating the funding and support for women's athletics, and the administrator who sent BYU's first female athletes to national collegiate championships.
Born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Jacobson obtained a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Utah State, followed by a master of science degree in physical education the next year.
After teaching for a time in Idaho and Nevada, she came to BYU in 1957 as an instructor in the Physical Education Department. She has since done graduate work at Penn State and received her Ph.D from the University of Utah in 1971.
At BYU she has coached the women's golf team, the women's ski team and the men and women's archery team. She served for 10 years as chairman of the Women's Physical Education Department and was also the chairman of the Department of Physical Education and Dance.
The Provo resident was a member of the Governor's Physical Fitness Council of Utah, the National Olympic Academy Committee and a delegate for the U.S. to the International Olympic Academy in Greece in 1979. She was chairman, president, or board member of several state, regional and national physical education organizations.
Past member of the YWMIA and Young Women General Boards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jacobson wrote six books and manuals, including Hooked on Aerobics, the book that served as the basis for the popular KBYU-TV program of which she was designer and creator. She also published several articles on physical fitness and quality living in professional journals, manuals, and Latter-day Saint periodicals.