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"Skirts, Bloomers, and Shorts"

An Anniversary Celebration
of Women's Athletics at Duke



The title is taken from a speech by Julia Rebecca Grout (1898-1984), Duke's first full-time director of women's PE. Click on the images to enlarge them for better viewing.

In April, 2001, Duke celebrates thirty years of women's varsity athletics. While intercollegiate women's competition here is of fairly recent origin, a concern with women's physical education and sport is of long standing.

Harvard Summer School of Physical Education, 1903. 		At Trinity College, formal physical education classes began early in the 20th century. In 1902, Wilbur Wade "Cap" Card, Class of 1900, became the director of the gymnasium and physical education. Card received his training in PE at the Harvard's Summer School of Physical Education. In the photo, left, he is on the far left, second row from the top, in the white turtleneck. Judging by the number of women in this photo, there was clearly an interest in women's "physical culture" at the turn of the century.
According to recollections of staff and alumnae, Card taught classes in calisthenics and basic gymnastics for women. By 1919, a Ms. Pauline Smathers had been employed as Director of Physical Exercise for Women. In the College Bulletin for 1919-1920, the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts included three hours per week of physical exercise, counting as one credit-hour. A Women's Athletic Council was formed in the early 1920's, and in 1922, a Miss Elva Christenburg, a student, served part-time as women's physical education instructor.
Women's PE class in Southgate, 1924

Delta Phi Rho Alpha, 1921 		The first organization for women athletes here was Delta Phi Rho Alpha, founded in 1921. This local sorority, formed to honor outstanding women athletes, initiated up to a dozen members each year. It also sponsored intramural tennis and basketball tournaments.

Also in 1921, Southgate Hall was built. Designed as a self-contained coordinate college for women, one wing of the building housed a gymnasium equipped for basketball, volleyball and gymnastics. The fields to the west were used for classes in archery, hockey, and tennis. At the time, about 150 of the 700 undergraduate students were women.
In 1924, Julia R. Grout (1898-1984) was appointed as the first full-time Director of Physical Education for Women. Known to all as "Jerry," she had received her BA from Mt. Holyoke 1920, and her MS in Hygiene and Physical Education from Wellesley in 1924.

By the late 1920's, the Department of Physical Education had distinct men's and women's divisions. In 1930 the Trinity campus became home to the Women's College of Duke University, and with sole use of the facilities, the athletic program for women began to expand. Ms.--later Professor--Grout added courses in baseball, riding, swimming, hiking, track and field, and various styles of dancing. A minor in physical education for teachers was offered in 1932, and a full major 1943. By the end of the decade, the Women's Physical Education Department consisted of a full professor, Ms. Grout, along with two associate professors, two assistant professors, and five instructors.
Julia R. "Jerry" Grout

WRA Handbook, 1959/60 		By the early 1950s, the program in physical education for women had reached maturity. The Women's Recreation Association, dating from the early 1930s, cooperated with the Department to organize recreational athletic activities for the students. An extensive program of intramural team and individual sports developed.

The decade of the 1960s saw a major change when people began to question the value of required physical education. With the adoption of Duke's "new" curriculum in 1968, PE courses would no longer count toward degree requirements after 1970. however, by this time, national interest in collegiate athletics for women was beginning to develop, and the passage by the US Congress of Title IX in 1972 would pressure schools to devote equal resources to women's sports. The early history of these developments at Duke was described in a 1976 brochure issued by the Athletic Department.


[Women's basketball]
Basketball, ca. 1940's 		[Rowing/Crew]
Crew,
1970's 		[Fencing]
Fencing
n.d.
Field hockey
1938
Golf, 1960s.


... by Tom Harkins
Duke University Archives

Sources (all in Duke University Archives)
© 2001, Duke University           Updated Tuesday, March 06, 2001 by Thomas Harkins     |      Top of document