A portrait photograph of Julia A. NorrisJulia Anna Norris was born in Boston. She studied physical education at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and completed a medical degree at Northwestern University in 1900. From 1900 to 1911, Norris taught physical education at Cortland Normal School, where she introduced women's basketball to campus. While teaching at the University of Chicago, she also served as an "assistant school physician", and published a series of academic articles on physical education titled "A Graded Course in Schoolroom Gymnastics". In 1912 she joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota, where she taught physical education and was director of Physical Education for Women until she retired in 1941