General 8/17/2022 6:30:00 PM Omar Ricardo Aquije

Colgate Celebrates 50 Years of Women's Athletics

In 1973, six women’s teams gained varsity status, changing Colgate athletics forever

One of the most significant milestones in Colgate Athletics history has arrived: 50 years of women's varsity sports.

To recognize the milestone, Colgate Athletics will publish stories, provide exclusive interviews, and share unique perspectives from Vice President and Director of Athletics Nicki Moore and other trailblazers who have made an impact on women's athletics programs at the University.

In addition, important moments that helped bring women's sports to what they are today will be highlighted. And much has changed since 1970, when the first women's athletics programs emerged as club sports.

In 1973-74, basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, swim and dive, tennis, and volleyball became Colgate's first women varsity programs. Today, 13 of the 25 varsity sports are women's teams. Women make up nearly half of all Colgate student-athletes.

It took support from faculty and students, administrators and board members. It took the efforts of women, who led the push to change, and men who supported them.

Wanda Warren Berry, who was asked to grade papers in 1958 for philosophy and religion courses and became full professor decades later, put it best when she said, "Colgate changed from a completely male enclave because women worked a second or third or even fourth shift to bring it about."

The push to change the scope of higher education received an enormous boost when President Richard Nixon signed into law a bill known as Title IX, which was part of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The bill stated, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Womens History

Colgate quickly showed support for the provision.

"Colgate University will comply with all applicable provisions of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and its implementation," said Thomas Alva Bartlett, who became Colgate's eleventh president in 1969. His primary task was to guide the University through the transition to coeducation.

Title IX became a major force in driving changes in athletics departments at the collegiate level and work continues every day at Colgate to achieve equality in every field and every arena

SEEKING COEDUCATION
People began talking about coeducation at Colgate in the 1880s, when the University was known as Madison. At the time, at least a few female students were taking courses.

Emily Taylor, daughter of University president Stephen W. Taylor (1851-56), sat in on a few classes. Then came Mabel Dart, who at age 14 became the University's first full-time female student.

Local publications like the Madisonensis suggested the college was "becoming quite co-educational."

But it wasn't until the 1960s that coeducation received serious thought.

Women's History

Across the U.S., a battle was underway to eliminate injustice and inequity. Racial, religious, and ethnic prejudices were challenged, and gender barriers began to topple.

The momentum for coeducation was building at elite men's colleges, including Colgate. When alumni and students were surveyed on the topic, Colgate received enough positive feedback to pursue the idea.

Professors, wishing to speed up the process, set up their own study group as a catalyst to successfully fulfill the promise of coeducation.

The group, formed by Colgate's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, argued that a campus with female students would improve "the academic tone of the college" by strengthening its applicant pool, creating a more competitive classroom environment, and enhancing the arts and humanities.

In 1965, Colgate went ahead with a study. Two years later, a final report explicitly argued for the intellectual benefits of admitting female students. The Board of Trustees promptly approved the report.

Colgate's first group of female students arrived on campus for the start of the 1970-71 academic year, consisting of 214 women, which included 132 first-year students. The remainder were transfers.

They joined 432 men as the Class of 1974. At last, Colgate had made the jump to full coeducation. But significant work needed to be done for the University to provide appropriate support for its female students.

Female students began playing intramural sports in 1970, but women's varsity programs were still a few years away.

Gloria Borger '74, P'10 was a member of the first class to include women. When she gave an address at a Colgate anniversary event in 1990, she described those early years as, "a male-dominated and male-orientated institution that had not fully prepared for the changes women would bring… We were seeking equality of treatment and we got full-length mirrors and ironing boards."

The number of women grew each year, topping 600 in 1973. When the decision to go forward with coeducation was made, Colgate had only five women teaching on campus. In 1974, Colgate made a commitment to expanding the number of women on the faculty.

That year, five women were hired for faculty positions during what was known as "the year of the woman."

Slowly, women were making their presence known on campus. They were taking on more leadership positions and starting organizations, like the Colgate-Hamilton Women's Caucus, which met weekly to discuss issues affecting women on campus.

Female students were also pushing to expand opportunities for women who wanted to play sports.

WOMEN'S ATHLETICS: FROM CLUB SPORTS TO VARSITY
In their first year on campus, women began informal intercollegiate competition when they challenged Cazenovia to a tennis match.

In 1973, with two women on the Physical Education Department staff, women's varsity competition began in six sports. While Colgate men's athletics programs were part of the NCAA, women's teams competed through the Association for the Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), which was formed in 1971.

Colgate women played at the Division II level.

The athletics opportunities for women were gradually expanding, and Title IX played a major role. The University's first recruited female athletes arrived in 1976. A year later, women began to receive sports-related financial aid.

Colgate's club softball team filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in 1977, seeking varsity status. The team won its case.

Womens History

The popularity of women's college sports began to grow. Fans were attending games, and women's basketball was receiving television contracts for tournaments.

The NCAA saw a financial opportunity in women's athletics. Colleges started to abandon the AIAW, which folded in 1982. By joining the NCAA, Colgate female student-athletes began playing against Division I opponents.

More club teams gained varsity status. Soccer made the transition in 1982, followed by cross country in 1987.

While the number of women's varsity teams was growing, equality was lacking in other places. All varsity women's teams shared one locker room, and the bulk of the athletics budget was reserved for male sports.

By the 1990s, nearly 40 percent of Colgate's approximately 500 varsity athletes were women, although their teams received only about one-third of the athletics budget and the available scholarship funds.

Another significant moment in Colgate women's athletics came when female students sought a varsity ice hockey program.

Women began to play ice hockey soon after arriving on campus. They competed in intramurals in 1972 and formed a club team the next year.

The first club teams used worn hand-me-down uniforms from the men's team and had to borrow helmets. Players had to use figure skates. In the late 1980s, the club team had a budget of $4,000.

The movement for ice hockey became a long and dramatic process that put Title IX to the test. Petitions to form an ice hockey varsity sport were denied in 1979, 1983, 1986, and 1988.

Two lawsuits were filed, and seven years would pass before women won their battle and saw ice hockey achieve varsity status, which came in 1997. Colgate earmarked $40,000 in annual funding for women's ice hockey, ensuring the program received adequate equipment and new uniforms.

The women's ice hockey team began competing at the Division III level.

After the success of hockey, men's and women's crew was next in line to become varsity sports. In the fall of 2000, the crew teams, which together had about a hundred rowers, moved up to varsity status after 23 years as a club sport.

COLGATE WOMEN'S ATHLETICS TODAY
Colgate sports have come a long way since the first women's club teams received varsity status in 1973.

The University now has 13 women's teams and 12 men's teams that compete in the Division I level.

Whether on the court, the field, or the ice, women have been responsible for some of the most successful athletics programs in Raider history.

Womens History

The women's soccer team won nine conference titles in the 90s. The women's ice hockey team reached the national championship for the first time in history in 2017-18. Since then, the hockey team won the program's first two conference championships.

Last season, women brought home two of Colgate's three conference titles (volleyball and ice hockey).

In December, volleyball advanced to the NCAA tournament following a season when the Raiders took on some of the best, including the two teams that reached the 2022 national championship.

Two months later, women's hockey hosted a regional quarterfinal as a top four national seed.

And the list goes on for the achievements of women in competition.

Colgate's 25 varsity teams continue to draw top recruits from across the country, many of them women.

Women have taken their place among Colgate's Hall of Honor. The names include Sandra Baur Bixby '76, a member of the first ever varsity teams in field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse in 73-74. She's known as one of Colgate's founding Mothers.

There's also Gail Majdalany '79, Colgate's first woman all-American diver.

The 2022 Hall of Honor will welcome 14 new members, including six women.

After earning degrees from Colgate, women went on to become major donors. In March 2022, Colgate announced that 13 alumnae each donated $1 million in gifts, which support financial aid and academic programs. Known as the "13 Women Initiative," the gifts are also meant to inspire other female alumni to donate to Colgate.

Women have become coaches and taken on various leadership roles.

In 2012, Victoria Chun '91, a stand-out volleyball player and coach, became the first woman to serve as the athletics director. She was also the first Asian American woman athletics director in NCAA Division I history.

Today, Nicki Moore is Colgate's Vice President and Director of Athletics, a role she began in 2018. In doing so, Colgate became the second-ever Division I program to hire two women Athletics Directors in succession.

Under Moore's leadership, Colgate improved the infrastructure for many women's sports, enhanced equipment, and launched the first women's program endowment.

In addition, the University has added athletics scholarships and financial aid to several women's sports.

Moore said the 50th anniversary is a reminder to her that almost from the very beginning of Colgate as a coeducational institution, Colgate has acknowledged the value of women's intercollegiate athletics, setting up a strong foundation upon which to continue building.

"Colgate women are a special group — they have advocated for themselves over the years, and through that advocacy, have improved the opportunities for all women on campus," Moore said. "It means that while we do have a rich history, 50 years is still a relatively recent history, and so we are still today in the early stages of building the women's program — particularly when you compare it to the 200 years of the men's program.

"Thus, being intentional and bold today in enhancing and advancing opportunities for women student-athletes gives Colgate the best chance to be wildly successful — even on the national stage — in these programs down the road."

As Colgate embarks on its Third-Century Plan, the largest and most important transformation in the University's history, upgrades will be made to athletics facilities, with the most extensive renovations coming to the Reid Athletic Center.

Reid was built in 1959, when Colgate was an all-male campus with 1,500 students. While women saw their club teams become varsity sports, facilities were not designed for female athletes. For years, all the women's teams shared a locker room.

While improvements over the years have provided women's teams with more adequate facilities, the Reid renovations will provide Colgate with a facility designed for a coeducation campus.

That means significant improvements to locker rooms, team rooms, file review spaces, and the offices of coaches, especially for women's sports.

Men's and women's basketball teams will enjoy the exact same square footage and amenities to their facilities. And volleyball will be elevated to the same level.

"While men's sports will also see significant enhancements, in Reid, we have been very intentional to ensure all new facility projects are planned and built with equity as an important driver," Moore said.

For more information on Colgate University history and the transition to coeducation, read the book Becoming Colgate: A Bicentennial History by Jim Smith. The book is available for purchase at the Colgate Bookstore.

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