Ruth Heller Aucott, a 1952 Cheltenham High School graduate, ranks as one of the most accomplished scholar-athletes ever to grace the halls of Cheltenham High.

According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Aucott was an honor student and participated in field hockey, basketball, and tennis as a Panther. The Glenside native grew up on the 200 block of Bickley Road.

She went on to Ursinus College where she won 12 varsity letters in basketball, tennis, and field hockey.

In 1955, she became the first field hockey player ever awarded first-team All-American status while still in college. In those days, the sport was played at the club level.

Aucott is also the first physical education major in Ursinus history to be a class valedictorian.

She played on the U.S. national team seven times from 1955 to 1967 and on international touring teams that played in Australia and Holland. In 1988, she was one of the charter inductees into the U.S. Field Hockey Hall of Fame.

Aucott also excelled in golf and tennis. She won the Akron women’s tennis championship in 1962 and won the Ohio Senior Women’s Golf Tournament in 1987.

She married her college classmate and sweetheart George W. Aucott in 1956, and they lived for many years in the Akron, Ohio area where George became the President and Chief Operating Officer of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.

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