In 1973 Koger made history by becoming one of the first Black women to play on the Virginia Slims Women’s Professional Tennis Circuit. She had an illustrious junior and collegiate career and became one of the best tennis players in the world in the 1970s. Koger learned to play tennis in Baltimore’s legendary Druid Hill Park under the guidance of her mother. Myrtle Koger (a member of the Baltimore Tennis Club and founder of the Netmen Coed Tennis Club of Baltimore) worked very hard on her tennis skills and won the ATA National Girls 12 and Under Championships in 1961. Ann and her sisters Patricia and Carol were among the first Black tennis stars in the Mid-Atlantic Section of the USTA.
The three sisters collected more than 100 trophies in these tournaments. Koger was a star student-athlete at Morgan State University, where she was a four-year letterman in basketball, field hockey, volleyball, and tennis. From 1969 to 1972, Koger followed Bonnie Logan as the second female member of the Morgan State Men’s Tennis Team, where she was second in singles and first in doubles. Incredibly, she placed second in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s (CIAA) Flight I Men’s Doubles Championships. In addition, Koger and Logan became the first Black women athletes to represent a historically Black university in a national collegiate tournament.
In 1968, Logan won the ATA National Women’s Doubles Championship, and in 1973 and 1974, she won the ATA National Mixed Doubles Championships. Since 1981, Koger has been the Women’s Tennis Coach at Haverford College. She also made history in college basketball by becoming the first woman to officiate an NCAA Division I men’s basketball game.
2010 was a special year for Ann Koger, In addition to being inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame that year, Koger was also inducted into the USTA Middle States Hall of Fame and received the Philadelphia Sports Legends Award.