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Monday, June 17,2013
The University Daily Kansan
Women's athletics accomplish historic progress
JENNA JAKOWATZ
jjakowatz@kansan.com
For more than 100 years, female athletes at the University have been on a mission to add their own national championship to the list of the men's accomplishments.
According to the University's history website, "In the first 26 years of its existence, the University of Kansas did not encourage its women students to participate in any athletic endeavors except as observers."
However, in 1903. Dr. James Naismith agreed to coach an intercollegiate women's basketball team for the University.
Naismith coached the women to a winning 6-2 record, but its success did not establish a permanent women's basketball team. It did, however, inspire women to continue to push for women's involvement in athletics.
"Thus, on February 8, 1912, the women of the University who [were] athletically inclined' organized the Women's Athletic Association (WAA) with the assistance of physical education instructor Hazel Pratt," the University's History's website notes.
Modeled after a similar group at the University of Wisconsin, members of the WAA vowed to keep their bodies physically fit and live up to rules of good sportsmanship.
Two years later, co-ed tennis courts and athletic fields opened up, and the women of the WAA were responsible for running high school girls' state basketball championships.
"Although its popularity among the students fluctuated, from the 1920s to the 1950s, the WAA managed to develop an impressive array of athletic clubs and contests. Its most memorable events were the annual intramural sports tournaments, which attracted nearly 1,000 participants," the website notes.
In 1974, women's athletics faced a financial obstacle.
According to the website, "Women's athletic programs at the University remained under the authority of the physical education department until 1974, and simply lacked the funds necessary to initiate anything
larger in scope than the traditional intramural competitions"
Despite the low funding, the University's women continued to compete in athletics.
In 1974, the University joined other colleges throughout the country and implemented a program of women's intercollegiate athletics.
In 1975, the University gave its first athletic scholarships to women.
According to the website, "Most of the women who received those scholarships were probably unaware of the enormous debt they owed to the WAA for its efforts to firmly establish a place for female athletes at KU."
101 years after the first women pushed to be included in athletics, outdoor track and field won its national championship, the first women's sport to do so, all because the WAA refused to continue to sit on the sidelines.
For more information about the WAA and its history, visit kubistory. com.
Edited by Allison Kohn
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas' Lindsay Vollmer, right, keeps in step with Nebraska's Anne Martin in the heptathlon 1,500-meter race on June 7. Vollmer won the heptathlon (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
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