Dr. Mary M. Bell began her career at NIU in 1957 and ushered women’s athletics into the university. Bell’s coaching experience ran the gamut of sports on the NIU campus. At one time or another, she coached field hockey, basketball, badminton, volleyball, swimming and softball between the years 1957 and 1976. The “founding mother” of NIU women’s sports was inducted into the NIU Hall of Fame in 1986. Bell was one of the first women in the Hall of Fame, joining her former student-athletes Ruth Fender (1963-66) and Jean Pankonin (1957-61). The softball field, named after Bell, was the third field named after a Hall of Famer, following the Chick Evans Field House and Ralph McKinzie Field.