The following was printed on Sr. Ann Joachim's HOF plaque:
During a multi-faceted career that spanned over four decades in Adrian, Sr. Ann Joachim was a pioneer in the fields of politics, law, education and athletics. Sr. Joachim began her teaching career in the early 1930’s (use the apostrophe) when Siena Heights University began as St. Joseph’s College for Women. A championship-level tennis player in her youth, Sr. Ann later became a women’s basketball coach and athletic administrator in the early years of athletics at Siena Heights College. Sr. Joachim earned the distinction of becoming the first nun in the United States to argue before the Supreme Court as a lawyer in 1936. She also was the first woman elected to the Adrian City Commission in 1971, and she served on it until 1974. She chaired the social science department at Siena Heights from 1939-1973. Sr. Joachim earned national recognition in the 1960’s when she led an unsuccessful effort to save the passenger train route from Detroit to St. Louis known as the Wabash Cannonball. When the college officially started an intercollegiate athletic program a few years later, the teams were originally named the “Cannonballers” as a tribute to Sr. Ann Joachim and her many contributions and influences at the college, in the community and throughout the United States.
