The Beginning of Women's Athletics

 

Title IX was passed in 1972, the same year that full coeducation began at Davidson College. The law guaranteed equal access to athletic education for women at public institutions, and for Davidson, this meant creating a plan to integrate women into the existing sports landscape of the college. 

 

On October 26, 1973, the Board of Trustees passed their "Policy Statement on Athletics and Physical Education," which included a proviso that "women's teams be supported financially at a level which would enable them to make a positive contribution to the overall athletic program." This marked the college's intention to comply with Title IX  (Lamb, 2014).

 

Implementing a brand new athletic program for women at the college was not without its challenges; as full-time women students were entirely new to the college, the administration was largely unaware of the athletic pursuits of interest to women. This left "coeds" advocating for support from the administration and from the male-majority student body to join athletics, all while navigating a historically male institution for the first time. 

 

Women's athletics began as a grassroots effort at Davidson College, centered around female students' drive to join existing teams and creating new opportunities for women in sports. 

 

In the report below, you can read more about Davidson College's plan to comply with Title IX shortly after coeducation. This includes future plans for women's athletic teams. 

 

 

Starting in the 1972-1973 school year, women were integrated into the existing sailing, rifling, and swimming men's teams.  These sports more easily transitioned to coeducational teams as men and women were able to use the same facilities in the absense of women's sports facilites.

 

The first woman to join an athletics team at Davidson was Tracey Charles. Charles joined the Davidson College Varsity sailing team for the 1972-1973 season ("Davidson College Plan to Comply with Title IX"). Below is an image of Charles with her teammates from the sailing page of the 1973 Quips and Cranks yearbook. 

In the following year,  Mary Turner and Sue Beazley joined the Davidson College rifle team for the 1973-1974 season. Although Turner and Beazley were unable to compete against other schools due to Southern Conference regulations prohibiting coed competition, they were able to compete against other Davidson male team members and participated regularly in team practices ("Two Girls Win Rifle Team Spots, S.C. Rules Prohibit Competition," 1973). Below, their coach Abel White discusses how the two women fit into the Rifle Team:

 

 

Susan Reid was the first woman to join the Davidson College swim team in 1972-1973 (Gariglio, 2022).  In a 2022 interview with Davidson Wildcat News, she recalls being uncertain if she would be allowed to join the team after expressing her interest, as she would be the first female member. 

 

 

 

 

 

Gariglio, Dani. “The Pioneer.” Davidson Wildcats News , 23 June 2022. 

Susan Reid: "[The men's swimming coach] had to clear it with the Southern Conference if I could swim at all,” Reid said. “At first there were some discussions that maybe I could practice with the team, but wouldn’t be able to compete or count at duals. But that was all cleared up relatively early on, and I know Title IX was a big part of that discussion.” 

 

Reid was joined by fellow swimmer Kathryn Bridges the following year, and the pair were briefly sent by their Davidson swim coach to a nearby women's school, Queens University, to practice with other women. This experience gave Reid and Bridges a glimpse into the competitive standard of other women's athletic programs of the time, as compared to programs at historically male schools like Davidson College. 

 

According to Reid, laps were called "ups and downs" at Queens and swimmers had ample time to recover between laps, which was a shock to both her and Bridges. The duo outpaced the Queens swimmers due to the rigourious training they received from the Davidson men's team, proving how women could excel athletically when given the same opportunities as their male peers (Gariglio, 2022). 

 

Below is an image of Susan Reid and Kathryn Bridges on the swim team from the 1974 Quips and Cranks. 

 

 

Despite their small number on campus and their limited participation in scheduled games due to Southern Conference regulations, women athletes flourished on their respective teams. 

 

Tracey Charles earned her varsity letter on the sailing team in 1974, followed shortly by Susan Reid, who earned her letter on the swim team in 1975 ("Davidson College Plan to Comply with Title IX"). 

 

 

The biggest hindrance to women on these early coed teams was that the Southern Conference, the league in which Davidson College was a member, prohibited schools from participating in male-female compeition against other colleges ("Two Girls Win Rifle Team Spots", 1973).

 

This meant, if women on the team wanted to compete against other schools, the opposing team would have to have an equal number of women for them to play against. According to female athletes who remember the time period, this was a rare occurrence (Gariglio, 2022). This limited the opportunity for female Davidson athletes to compete and develop as athletes alongside their male teammates, and was part of the reason female students created the first all-women athletic teams at Davidson College. 

 

In 1973, women's tennis and basketball were chosen by the Board of Trustees as the first varsity women's sports at Davidson College (Lamb, 2014).

 

 

Women's Tennis

 

Davidson's tennis program introduced their first women's team during the 1973-1974 season ("Davidson College Plan to Comply with Title IX"). Several female students organized to form a team, and since there was no coach available to take over and no funds available to hire one, then-junior Carol Goldsborough (Davidson College Class of 1974) temporarily coached the team by leading practices and hosting tryouts ("Women's Net Team Has Spring Debut," 1973).  Goldsborough was assisted by Dea Booth (Davidson College Class of 1976), and the two made phone calls to set-up games with rival schools (McAvoy, 2014).  

 

The leadership of Goldsborough is explored in the Davidsonian article below, which also names the members of the first women's tennis team. Although Booth is not singled out in the article below, in contemporary accounts from her team members she is described as leading the team with Goldsborough (McAvoy, 2014). 

 

 

 

 

 

"Women's Net Team Has Spring Debut," The Davidsonian. October 12, 1973. 

"Last spring College President Samuel R. Spencer Jr. and tennis coach Jeff Frank formulated the idea of a Women's Tennis Team, because Southern Conference rules will not permit sexually integrated teams. Ms. Carol Goldsborough, a junior from Maryland, was recruited to head the team, coordinating activities with Frank, to whom she is responsible. This fall Goldsborough organized an elimination tournament for team placement, althrough her personal evaluation was also a factor in determining the numbered positions. The 7-man team, which has no substitutes, includes Mary Lyon (Dea) Booth, Goldsborough (captain), Sue McAvoy, Mary Miller, Ruth Murphey, Nancy Stanger and Becca Stimson."

 

Goldsborough and Booth's leadership of the team as students shows the drive and dedication of female athletes. The passion displayed by them and other female students fueled the establishment of the first women's sports teams at Davidson. 

 

The first yearbook photograph of the women's and men's tennis teams is found in the 1974 Quips and Cranks, below (Carol Goldborough stands on the far right). 

 

 

Becca Stimson (Davidson College Class of 1977) was a prolific athlete and was a founding member of several of Davidson's first women's sports teams.  Stimson was part of the original seven person tennis squad and she speaks about her experience on the team in her oral history interview, below.

 

Stimson, Rebecca. "Interview with Becca Stimson '77." Interview by Cabot, Katherine and Annabel Winters-McCabe. 9 October 2020. "Davidson College Women's History Project, " Davidson College Archives and Special Collections.  

 

 

Women's Basketball

 

In 1973-1974, the women's basketball team was introduced at Davidson. Ann Holland volunteered as the first women's athletic coach. Holland was the wife of Terry Holland, then the head men's varsity basketball coach and eventual athletic director at Davidson from 1990-1994. As this was her first time coaching basketball, Holland consulted with her husband for guidance on how to lead the team in practices ("Holland, Duncan Discuss Coed Basketball Prospects," 1973). 

 

In the Davidsonian article below, Holland explains that female students' passion for forming their own team inspired her to volunteer, despite her lack of coaching experience. 

 

 

 

"Holland, Duncan Discuss Coed Basketball Prospects." The Davidsonian, December 7, 1973. 

"Davidson has formed its first girl's basketball team this year under the coaching of Ann Holland and Joe Duncan. Holland, wife of varsity mentor Terry Holland, explained how she stepped into the role of head coach. "I heard that some of the girls wanted to form a team, but that no one would coach them, so I talked to Terry and said I'd do it. I guess I was their last choice, but I felt that they needed a coach and Terry agreed to help so I took the job," she said."

 

Holland was assisted by Joe Duncan, a junior at Davidson College and member of the junior varsity men's basketball team, who came on as the women's team's assistant coach for the 1973-1974 season ("Holland, Duncan Discuss Coed Basketball Prospects," 1973), (Stimson Oral History Interview, 2020).  Holland would leave as volunteer coach in the following year, and Duncan took over the coaching position alongside fellow Davidson students and members of the men's basketball team, Charlie Slagle and Ken Schmader, for the 1974-1975 season (Quips and Cranks, 1975).

 

Coach Ann Holland is seen coaching athletes in 1974 in the image, below. Coach Slagle is shown coaching one of the women from the basketball team in the 1975 Quips and Cranks yearbook, below. 

 

 

In 1974, Pat Drake, the first full-time coach for women's athletics, came to Davidson College (Lamb, 2014).  

 

Pat Drake was hired as the first female full-time coach for women's athletics in 1974-1975. Drake was also the first women's physical education teacher. She taught classes and coached the men's swimming team, the newly created women's club swimming team, and the women's varsity tennis team ("Pat Drake is First Women's PE Teacher," 1974). 

 

Pat Drake was introduced to campus in an article from the Davidson Update. In the article, Athletic Director Thom Cartmill speaks to Davidson College's future plans for the women's athletics program. He and Drake stress that interest from female students will guide the future offerings of the women's athletic program.

 

Cartmill also argues that female students are less interested in the competitiveness of athletics, and are more concerned with the social part of being on a team; this argument from administration will reemerge when Davidson College first debates the divisional ranking of men's versus women's teams. 

 

 

"Pat Drake is First Women's PE Teacher," Davidson Update, October 1974. 

"[Thom] Cartmill thinks women probably differ from men in the amount of time and dedication they want to devote to a sports program, as well as being less interested in the competitive aspects of a game. "We want to broaden our entire offering of the recreational sports," he says, and he points out the importance of the carry-over aspects of a game like tennis. "It not only develops healthy bodies, but it is an activity that fits into schedules easily, adds to the social life of the individual, and can be enjoyed for many years," he says.

Cartmill and his new women's gym teacher emphasize that the women's sport program belongs to the women and should be enjoyed. "If there is a demand for a program, we will do our best to provide it," Cartmill says. "If there is an interest in field hockey, we'll move that way." Pat Drake adds that her goals are the women's goals. "I'm here to do what they want to do. Within reason—sufficient interest and adequate numbers for instance—we'll do whatever they want to do." 

 

 

The women's tennis team picture from the 1975 Quips and Cranks shows Pat Drake (far left) with the team. 

 

 

 

After Drake's hiring in 1975, women's coaches at Davidson were often tasked with coaching multiple athletic teams while also teaching women's physical education classes, thus creating a reliance on female student athletes to assist in leading and organizing team activities ("Resource Material for Consultation on Athletic Policy," 1980). 

 

Below, Sue McAvoy (Davidson College Class of 1977), who was a member of the original student-run women's tennis team, recounts the transition to having a staff member as the team's coach. 

 

McAvoy, Sue. "Interview with Sue McAvoy '77." Interview by Loehr, Grace and Katherine McGovern. 7 October 2020. "Davidson College Women's History Project, " Davidson Archives and Special Collections.  

 

 

Pat Drake was joined by Susan Roberts, the second full-time women's athletics coach, in 1976. Roberts became the coach of women's basketball, as well as the leader of the recently created women's field hockey club team (Lamb, 2014).

 

1978-1979 saw the introduction of cross-country and track to women's athletics at Davidson. Both sports were both coached by graduate assistant Dee Dee Mayes. By 1979, Davidson had three full-time female coaching staff, and seven athletic teams for women: two coed teams, and five all-women's teams ("Resource Material for Consultation on Athletic Policy," 1980). 

 

Below, in the outline of men's and women's teams in 1980, you see the multitude of roles held by female coaching staff (the "1/2" mark in the column denotes a coach that coaches multiple teams). 

 

 

In 1977, the first female athletic award was created and given to Rebecca Stimson, the award's namesake. 

 

The first female athletic award, the Rebecca E. Stimson Award, was introduced in 1977. Stimson played basketball, field hockey, and tennis while at Davidson, and earned four varsity letters ("Wildcat Hall of Fame: Rebecca Stimson '77"). 

 

Emil Parker, who served as Sports Information Director of Davidson College from 1968 to 1999, was at the trustee board meeting when the female athletic award was first proposed in 1977. In his oral history interview with Eileen Dwyer in 1999, he recalls the difficulty of the naming process for the award as there was not yet an established legacy of women athletes at Davidson. The Tommy Peters Award, given exclusively to male students, was the only student athletic award at the time ("Wildcat Hall of Fame: Tommy Peters '45"). 

 

Parker, Emil. Interview by Dwyer, Eileen. 12 April 1999. "Women's Athletics at Davidson College Project, " Davidson Archives and Special Collections.  

 

Emil Parker: "The Rebecca Stimson Award, which is our prize for female athletes, that was named for Becca. And I remember, back when we had some of the meetings, everybody said, "We've had this Tommy Peters Award for years and years, you know, all males on campus. But, you know, it really should be women's athletes." And this was in the late [19]70's. I remember some conversation about how to name it when you didn't have the same tradition you had with the men's athletes. Where you had Tommy Peters who went off to war—he only played here one year and was killed off in war. You didn't have women figures like that." 

 

Becca Stimson was a student athlete at the time of the award’s creation and she speaks about her intial mixed reaction to being the namesake of the award in her oral history interview, collected as part of the “Women’s Oral History Project.” 

 

 

By 1982, women athletes were actively competing against other all-women's teams in Southern Conference competitions. In 1984, women's tennis at Davidson achieved a particularly noteworthy success, winning the Division III National Championship (Quips and Cranks, 1984). 

 

In 1986, the women's basketball team followed suit and won the Division III state championship. 

 

This legacy of successful scholar-athletes continued into the last decades of the 20th century.

 

In 1991, the field hockey team won the Deep South Field Hockey Championships, and the women's tennis team won again, winning the Big South Conference Championship that same year. Furthermore, from 1993 to 1995, women's soccer retained the Southern Conference Championship.

 

In 2006-2007, the women's basketball team had a record-setting season with at 23-9 record, including a 10 game winning streak. The team followed this with their first post-season appearance in the NIT tournament.

 

In 2008, women's swimming won the conference championship. Even more recently, Lindsay Martin became an NCAA qualifier in swimming in 2010 and 2011.

 

In 2009, women's soccer won their first Southern Conference Championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time.

 

Today, women's athletics continues this tradition with the establishment of the Curry Family Women's Athletics Initiative by Stephen and Ayesha Curry in 2021.

 

Bibliography:

• “Davidson College’s Plan to Comply with Title IX Including a Report on Women’s Athletics, 1971-79. Current Draft, October 1, 1979.”  RG 3/1.1, Range B Section 5. Vice President for Academic Affairs Dean of Faculty Admin Files, Athletics- Women's Athletics/Compliance with Title IX 1975-1986. Davidson College Archives and Special Collections, Davidson, NC. 
• Gariglio , Dani. “The Pioneer.” Davidson Wildcats News , 23 June 2022, davidsonwildcats.com/news/2022/6/23/general-the-pioneer. 
• "Holland, Duncan Discuss Coed Basketball Prospects." The Davidsonian, December 7, 1973. 
• Lamb, Caitlin Christian. “41 Years of Women’s Varsity Sports.” Around The D, 19 Nov. 2014, davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/aroundthed/41-years-of-womens-varsity-sports/.
• McAvoy, Sue. "Interview with Sue McAvoy '77." Interview by Loehr, Grace and Katherine McGovern. 7 October 2020. "Davidson College Women's History Project, " Davidson Archives and Special Collections. https://davidson.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01DCOLL_INST/1lben0i/alma991025069549005716. 
• McAvoy, Sue. “The Union Alumni Notes: 1977.” Davidson Journal, Spring 2014, p.49.
• Parker, Emil. Interview by Dwyer, Eileen. 12 April 1999. "Women's Athletics at Davidson College Project, " Davidson Archives and Special Collections.  https://davidson.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01DCOLL_INST/1lben0i/alma991025209483105716.
• "Pat Drake is First Women's PE Teacher." Davidson Update, October 1974.
• "Resource Material for Consultation on Athletic Policy," 1980. Davidson College Archives and Special Collections, Davidson NC. 
• Stimson, Rebecca. "Interview with Becca Stimson '77." Interview by Cabot, Katherine and Annabel Winters-McCabe. 9 October 2020. "Davidson College Women's History Project, " Davidson Archives and Special Collections.  https://davidson.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01DCOLL_INST/1lben0i/alma991025069549705716
• "Two Girls Win Rifle Team Spots, S.C. Rules Prohibit Competition." Davidson Update, December 1973.
• “Wildcat Hall of Fame, Rebecca Stimson ’77 .” Davidson College Athletics, davidsonwildcats.com/honors/hall-of-fame/rebecca-stimson-77/70. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
• “Wildcat Hall of Fame, Tommy Peters ’45 .” Davidson College Athletics, davidsonwildcats.com/honors/hall-of-fame/tommy-peters-45/90.  Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
• "Women's Net Team Has Spring Debut."  The Davidsonian. October 12, 1973.