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For the Love of the Game

by Barbra Alan

The interactive timeline is a small sampling of the highlights, accomplishments, images, and remarkable women who have made athletics at PSU something to celebrate.

In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was in office, Henry Ford developed the first Model T automobile, and of the 2,008 athletes who participated in the Games of the IV Olympiad in London, 37 were women.

At New Hampshire State Normal School (NHSNS), students—all of them female—prepared for careers as teachers by taking courses in subjects such as history, mathematics, the sciences, English composition and literature, and pedagogy. They also studied elocution and physical culture. An excerpt from the NHSNS catalog reads, “In physical culture the aim is to give practical, all-around development to the individual. The work is graded and taught with the need of the public school teacher constantly in mind. It includes rhythm work, games, and general instruction in the theory of gymnastics.”  

Outside of the classroom, the women of NHSNS played basketball, golf, and tennis—all at a time when the idea of women participating in athletics was still largely frowned upon by society.

Over the past century, the women of NHSNS, Plymouth Normal School, Plymouth Teachers College, Plymouth State College, and Plymouth State University have built upon that foundation. Today, women have their choice of 11 varsity sports and an ever-growing list of intramural and club sports. They prepare for rewarding careers in athletic training, health education, physical education, and adventure education, with options in teacher certification, health promotion, applied health fitness, exercise physiology, and more.

To celebrate the enormous contributions teachers, coaches, administrators, and students—female and male—have made to women’s athletics at PSU over the past century, the University kicked off You Go, Girl! Celebrating A Century of Women’s Athletics on Alumni Weekend last May. The celebration continued through Homecoming and Family Celebration and included exhibits of photographs and memorabilia from women’s athletics as well as presentations by female athletes.