Ella Chafee is a true pioneer in the development of the Women’s Division of the NWBA. 

She competed on the first Paralympic women’s basketball team in Tokyo Japan in 1964. In 1968, she returned as a member of the Paralympic women’s team at the games held in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Her affiliation and longevity in wheelchair basketball is legendary as she was a member of the Chicago Charmers, Chicago Express, and RIC Sky (a Chicago wheelchair basketball team affiliated with the WNBA Chicago Sky). She has spent a lifetime promoting and preserving women’s wheelchair basketball not only in the Chicago/Midwest region but nationally as well. 

For much of her playing career, Ella was the only Class I player on her team and had to play every minute in many of her games.  Her involvement in team development included her serving as the official team representative and assistant coach.

It was Ella’s longtime teammate Mikel Vandello who said it best, “I can’t give you statistics, but I can tell Ella never quit. If she was on the bench, she was always encouraging the players on the floor with her very identifiable voice.”

Today Ella continues to promote women’s wheelchair sports. As a guest lecturer for Project C.H.A.N.G.E., a federally funded program to eliminate misconceptions of person’s with disabilities, she emphasizes that her wheelchair basketball career her most important method of inclusion, and she would pop into her sports chair and demonstrate her moves to the delight of the audience.