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Vincent Chen 47327063

Professor McCrossen

HIST 2337 US Sports History

May 17th, 2021

Study Guide Women’s Amateur Sports

Chapter 6: The Early Years of Women’s Sports

1. By 1910, changes occurred in role and status of women
2. Until end of 19th century, people thought only light-moderate exercise was appropriate
for females
a. Widely believed that body possessed set amount of energy and that mental
exertion required for higher-education programs would diminish female’s
physical capacity
3. As late as 1912 - physician Dudley A. Sargent
a. “Are Athletics Making Girls Masculine?”
i. “Physically all forms of athletic sports and most physical exercises tend to
make women’s figures more masculine, inasmuch as they tend to broaden
the shoulders, deepen the chest, narrow the hips, and develop the muscles
of the arms, back and legs, which are all masculine characteristics.”
4. As early as 1840s, Catharine Beecher (education reformer) begun attacking stereotypes
a. Urged parents to encourage exercise for girls as an essential step in development
of healthy young women
5. 1861 - Matthew Vassar (philanthropist)
a. Established women’s college in Poughkeepsie, NY (Vassar College)
i. Featured PE program at heart of curriculum
1. “Good health is essential to the successful prosecution of study,
and to the vigorous development of either mental/moral powers.”
ii. One of first buildings constructed was “Calisthenium”, PE and
recreational activities
6. By 1880s in Boston, Sargent School and the Normal School of Gymnastics
a. Programs designed to produce teachers of PE were attracting attention
b. Graduates greatly influences development of women’s athletic and physical
education programs in public schools/higher education
c. Victorian standards emphasized importance of “moderation”
i. Resulted in calisthenics/dance classes
ii. Games: badminton, croquet, bowling
iii. Pursuit of: horseback riding, boating, skating
iv. Weightlifting, long-distance running, aggressive games were not
permissible
7. By early 1900s, PE courses became integral part of curriculum in colleges/universities
8. 1911, Lippincott’s Magazine published “The Masculinization of Girls”
a. Explored pros and cons of the new “athletic girl”
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b. Overall positive development

9. 1890’s - bicycle craze increase physical activity for women
a. Introduction of “safety bicycle” offered women unique opportunity to expand
mobility and increase physical activity
b. Safe form of transportation and source of amusement/exercise
c. Provided new sense of freedom
i. Susan B. Anthony called it “Freedom Machine”
d. Experience contributed significantly to emerging mindset regarding exercise for
women
10. 1895 - Frances Willard (temperance/suffrage advocate)
a. “A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I learned to Ride the Bicycle”
i. Emphasized important of exercise to contribute to better health and
heightened sense of individual worth
ii. Urged parents to permit daughters to ride if they were “normally
constituted and dressed hygienically”
11. Basketball also created opportunity for women to participate in competitive team sport
a. Women formed class teams in schools/colleges
b. By 1900, varsity teams challenging other institutions
c. School/college admins decreed that games be played behind closed doors to
exclude male spectators
12. Senda Berenson, PE instructor at Smith College, introduced “Smith Rules” for women’s
basketball
i. 6 person teams restricted to separate areas on the court
ii. Physical contact forbidden
iii. Only dribble once
iv. Defender couldn’t snatch the ball from opponent
v. Defender couldn’t prevent opponent from shooting
b. Gained popularity and stifled development of rigorous play
c. Berenson’s leadership set tone for growing movement by leading women physical
educators and coaches to abolish competitiveness of women’s sports on campus
13. Most state athletic associations dropped interscholastic competition for girls during 1920s
and 1930s
14. 1993 - Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union conformed with modern standard 5-person
game
15. Charles Dana Gibson (popular artist)
a. New “athletic woman” caught his attention
b. 1895 - drawings of tall, attractive upper-class young women were popular until
WW1

Chapter 6: The Demise of Women’s Sports

1. Although many colleges sponsored intercollegiate programs for women between 1890s
and WW1, during 1920s, women educators led concerted attack upon competitive
programs until most abolished (high school also)
2. Primary motivation: an awareness of many unsavory aspects of men’s intercollegiate
sports (allegations of recruiting/academic scandals revolving football became rampant
during 1920s, win at all costs mentality raised ethical questions among women educators)
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a. Resulted in powerful movement to de-emphasize competitive sports for women

b. “Sports for all” became popular refrain
i. Most prominent creation “play day”
1. Instead of competitive athletic contests between schools, they
would meet for a day of games/activities
2. Fuse Victorian image of proper womanhood and medical theories
on female physiology
3. Emphasis on participation not competition
4. Concepts of teamwork, training, practice, strategies downgraded in
favor of socializing and enhancing individuality of participants
5. Formalized in 1923 Platform adopted by Women’s Division of the
National Amateur Athletic Federation
c. Some women coaches/PE teachers thought anticompetitive model was wrong.
i. Leader of this minority group, Ina Gittings, PE prof at University of
Arizona
ii. Many women instructors feared if women’s sports grew, men would take
over

Chapter 6: Helen and Trudy: America’s First Women Sports Stars

1. Images of New American Woman and Gibson Girl helped prepare American society to
embrace first female sports figures
2. Helen Willis “Little Miss Poker Face” (tennis player from Cali) - created awareness of
what women athletes could accomplish
a. Struggled with childhood illness, turned to tennis to enhance physical condition
b. 1926 - traveled to France to meet with reigning Wimbledon women’s champion
Suzanne Lenglen ($50/ticket)
c. Dominated American tennis from 1927-mid 1930s
d. Between 1927-1933 - won 180 straight matches without losing a single set
3. Gertrude Ederle (1920s, daughter of NYC butcher) - Swimmer
a. 1922 - set 7 world records in waters off Brighton Beach in Brooklyn
b. 1921-1925 - held 25 amateur national and world swimming records
c. Attracted national attention when swam 16 miles from Battery to Sandy Hook, NJ
through turbulent water
d. 1924 Olympics - 1 gold, 2 bronze
e. August 6, 1926 - became first woman to swim English Channel
f. 1929 nervous breakdown, 1922, fell down stairs and broke back, cast for 4 years
g. Supported herself giving swimming lessons at Lexington School for Deaf in NYC
(1950s-1960s)
4. Triumphs of women such as Helen Wills and Gertrude Ederle raised concerns of
exhibiting traits that exceeded conventional image of femininity
a. Displaying strength, speed, endurance, agility, fierce competitiveness
i. Image delighted feminists but disturbed traditionalists
1. Feared new woman athlete portended arrival of generation of
women who were neither fragile/vulnerable and who would not
need protective care of men
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b. Female athlete exemplified by Wills and Ederle no longer accepted traditional

virtue of “moderation” in pursuit of athletic dreams

Chapter 6: Babe: The Texas Tomboy

1. Ederle & Wills gained acceptance as athletes because they did not challenge traditional
images of woman
2. Mildred “Babe” Didrikson - viewed by people with mixture of incredulity, uneasiness,
awe (skilled and openly flaunted)
a. Appeared on sports scene in 1920s at beginning of Great Depression
b. By 1932 - Didrikson became media sensation with record-setting exploits at LA
Olympics
c. Born in 1911 to working-class immigrant Norwegian parents in Port Arthur, TX.
d. Nickname given by schoolmates who admired her ability to hit like Babe Ruth
e. Parents actively encouraged her competitive nature
f. Moved to Beaumont “The worst kid on Doucette Street”, got into frequent fights
with boys
g. In HS, became known as multisport overachiever, excelled in basketball, softball,
volleyball, swimming/diving, tennis, track
h. Before graduating from Beaumont High, accepted position to become “secretary”
for a Dallas insurance company for $75/month (very high for depression era)
i. Did not do much b/c her job was to play for firm’s basketball team that
Melvin J. McCombs assembled (National titles in 1930, 1931)
ii. Also competed in softball and AAU T&F
i. 1930 - despite cut foot, set American record in high jump and won golf in shot
put, baseball throw and javelin.
j. Great Depression created somber environment for all athletes during decade-long
depression
k. Olympic rules restricted women to only 3 events (set world record, 143ft javelin,
11.7 second 80 meter hurdles. Should have won gold in high jump but penalized
for unorthodox/unladylike jumping style)
l. Appeared as pitcher in 200 games on men’s touring baseball team (House of
David)
m. Pitched 1 inning at 1934 exhibition game for St Louis Cardinals v Philadelphia
Athletics
n. Played basketball for All-Americans
o. 1935 - won Texas State Women’s Golf Championship
i. Started wearing more fashionable clothes, had her hair done, wore makeup
and high heels, carried purse, because other golfers found her appearance
questionable
p. 1938 - married George Zaharias (wrestler) in California
q. Given 3 year suspension because she made money from other sports, returned to
competition in 1943
r. 1945 - won Western tournament, began 10-year streak of golf that never been
equaled
i. Played pivotal role in establishing Ladies Professional Golf Association
(LPGA)
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ii. 1946-7, won 17 consecutive tournament, earning $100,000/year in product

endorsements, elected president of LPGA 3 times, elevated public
awareness of women’s game
iii. Dominated in gold until Spring 1953, diagnosed with colon cancer
1. Returned to gold 4 months after major abdominal surgery and
regained championship form, won 9 more tournaments and
finishing in the money in 20 others
2. September 1956, disease returned and died at 45 yo
iv. Press covered her transformation from “muscle moll” to a loving wife and
homemaker, not her success as professional golfer
3. Even at mid-century, status of women athletes tenuous at best
a. Could not simply be recognized as athletes, subject to scrutiny for level of
“tomboyishness”, attention to domestic responsibilities, and athletic performances
4. Fanfare of publicity around athletes in 1920s dimmed and national mood turned gloomy
as economy tanked
5. Public response to Didrikson’s record breaking accomplishments was appreciative but
subdued
a. Not just because of economy, also because uncertainty of how to respond to
female athlete whose accomplishments overshadowed best male athletes
b. Susan Cayliff (biographer) - Babe defied norms. Unmarried, self-supporting,
earning big money, implicitly rejected economically-dependent status expected of
women
c. Hesitancy from public resulted in part from her refusal to conform to established
standards
d. Didrikson’s undisguised disdain for femininity and overpowering athleticism
inflamed fears of parents that their daughters would adopt her as role model and
become “tomboys”
6. Cindy Himes - “Babe Didrikson Zaharias, more than any female athlete of her day,
embodied the new female athlete. Zaharias changed cultural perceptions of the physical
limitations of womanhood using her body as a weapon….Babe Didrikson Zaharias
became the standard for excellence in women’s sports for several decades.”

Chapter 6: Women Play Hardball: The Peaches and the Chicks

1. December 1941, US entered WW2 - many leaders of Organized Baseball believed loss of
players to military service would lead to cancellation of professional game
a. Inspired 2 executives, Branch Rickey and Phil Wrigley, to create All-American
Girls Baseball League
i. Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, South Bend Blue Sox, Rockford Peaches
ii. Each team had male manager and female chaperone
iii. Initially played fast-pitch softball, earned between $55-$150 a week and
played 108 game season
iv. Many spectators went because of curiosity but many returned b/c of high
quality play
b. Now called All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - survived after war
and in 1984, expanded to 10 teams
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i. Changed rules in 1948 to create modified form of baseball, complete with

overhand pitching and a smaller ball
ii. First crop of players had to attend Helena Rubinstein preseason charm
school to be instructed on ladylike behavior
iii. League dissolved in 1954 as victim of same economic/social forces that
killed town ball and lower division minor leagues
iv. TV was major factor in cutting attendance that contributed to demise of
league
v. Also victimized by postwar expectations that women should revert to
traditional roles
1. Idea that women played hard-nosed form of baseball conflicted
with popular convention
vi. Historian Susan Cahn - “By continuing to see athletic ability as masculine
skill rather than incorporating athleticism within the range of feminine
qualities, the league’s ideology posed no challenge to the fundamental
precepts of gender in American society.”

Chapter 6: “The Instinctive Urge to Compete”

1. Anticompetitive philosophy of underscored “play day” concept was never fully accepted
2. By mid 1930s - small revolt began to take hold among new generation of women
educators as they began to undercut play day philosophy by encouraging limited
competition
a. Most prominent occurred in NorCal where group of women faculty created
“sports days”, Berkeley women challenged Mills College and Stanford
i. Competed in tennis, basketball, golf, swimming, volleyball, rifle teams
competed in national meets
3. Under the radar, predominantly black colleges in South sponsored/competed teams w
rival institutions
4. White educators envisioned play days as helping create well mannered ladies, majority
destined for career as wife/homemaker
5. Admins of black colleges recognized that women graduates were preparing for world of
work, envisioned competitive sports as means of preparing “self-confident,
high-achieving socially responsible adults”
6. Late 1930s, survey revealed that 75% of predominantly black colleges offered
competitive sports as compared to just 17% of white institutions
7. Group of young/aggressive women profs at Ohio State took lead in advocating for
competitive intercollegiate competition for women
a. Come of age after 19th amendment granted women right to vote
b. New path blazed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins (Secretary
of Labor, first woman to serve in Cabinet)
i. Openly supportive of efforts by educators like Ina Gittings of University
of Arizona and Louise Cobb of University of California to encourage
women’s division of the National Amatuer Athletic Federation to endorse
competitive athletics for women
8. 1938 - Gladys Palmer, appointed chair of department of women’s physical education at
Ohio State, published article advocating creation of women’s National Collegiate Athletic
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Association to serve as vehicle to create competitive sports for college women

(“instinctive urge to compete”)
9. Gladys Palmer organized national golf tournament for college women at Columbus in
June of 1941
a. Viewed with disdain by traditionalists, but received major boost from New York
Herald Tribune by Janet Owen
b. Controversial tournament provided small but significant first step away from play
day mentality
c. Set motion a serious dialogue about competitive athletics for women that would
resume after end of WW2, ultimately paved way for passage of Title 9 in 1972
and inclusion of women’s athletics on equal basis in NCAA

“A New Woman, A New Game”

1. At dawn of 20th century, America was in industrial/social revolution
a. Increasing number of women in labor force and business, law, medicine
b. Colleges known for rigorous academic requirements began implementing PE in
curriculum with expectations far exceeding good health habits
c. 1890 - Smith College, New Hampton, Massachusetts, built one of largest, most
well equipped gymnasiums in country
i. 1892 - appointed 23 yo Senda Berenson as physical educator
1. Implement daily fitness regimen for students
a. Physical strength, prepare for workforce
ii. 1892 - included marching and Swedish gymnastics
1. Students became bored
iii. Berenson transformed women’s sports
1. Naismith - basketball
2. Berenson started implementing it
iv. March 22nd 1893 - first Smith College basketball championship
Sophomore (class of 1895) v Freshman (class of 1896)
v. 1893 - women competing was radical concept
vi. Medical profession opposed to women athletics, proposed negative effects
of it
vii. Berenson remained undaunted by opposition
1. Eliminated physical roughness from men’s game
2. Popularity soured on campus
viii. Student’s enthusiasm for the game had tremendous impact on public
perception of women’s athletics
ix. Major newspapers and magazines on the northeast covered the
championship game, reported compared popularity to Harvard-Yale men’s
football game
x. Colleges around country adopted game, popularity soared
xi. Berenson’s spirit and determination revolutionized the world of women’s
sports

Website Notes
1. Olympic events before the 1920s in which American women won gold medals.
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a. Archery: Matilda Howell (1904)

b. Diving: Aileen Riggin (1920)
c. Golf: Margaret Abbott (1900) (porcelain bowl)
d. Swimming: Ethelda Bleibtrey (1920)
e. Tennis: Helen Wills (1924)
f. Track and Field: Betty Robinson (1928)
2. Which decade do you think was the most important for American women at the
Olympics?
a. I believe the 1920s and 1930s were the most important for American women at
the Olympics because they showed the world, not just America, that they were
physically capable of performing just as much as men could. They won gold
medals and paved the way for future female athletes. Although many despised
them back home for not conforming to traditional female values, they contributed
to the acceptance and advancement of competitive sports for women.