Women's basketball team, 1910 |
According to the Normal School Herald from January of that year, "the game teems with excitement and sport, and great enthusiasm has been shown by both boys and girls." A basketball section highlighting players, scores, and schedules began to regularly appear in January and April issues thereafter, the Herald proclaiming that "basketball is the game at Normal during the winter months." Although the Herald primarily concentrated on men's basketball, recaps of women's games do appear such as in the April 1903 issue when CVSNS played their first game against the Girls' Varsity at Dickinson College, losing 6-4. A week later CVSNS made up for their loss, defeating Dickinson 6-2.
The emergence of women's involvement in basketball at CVSNS and across the country reflects a larger theme about women's roles that began to shift in the late nineteenth century. The mid-nineteenth century Victorian ideals that placed women in the roles of mother and wife began to dissipate as women entered professions such as teaching and social work. Athletics became an integral part of the new model of American womanhood. At CVSNS, the Herald noted that "the girls were by no means inferior to the boys in their love of the sport." The image above is the earliest photographic record of a women's basketball team at CVSNS. The young man in the photo was the team's leader. Note that the uniforms reflect the era's ideals of modesty, as women had to "cover up" on the court. While athletics did offer new opportunities for women, athleticism had to be balanced with the social norms of the era.
Want to learn more about Ship's history? No need to wait for the next Throwback Thursday! Visit Archives & Special Collections during our open research hours, or contact us via e-mail: specialcollections@ship.edu or phone: 717-477-1516.
Sources:
Grundy, Pamela and Susan Shackelford. Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball. New York: The New Press, 2005.
Normal School Herald 7, no. 2, January 1903, University Archives & Special Collections, Ezra Lehman Memorial Library, Shippensburg, PA.
Normal School Herald 7, no. 3, April 1903, University Archives & Special Collections, Ezra Lehman Memorial Library, Shippensburg, PA.
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