{"id":3913,"date":"2021-01-09T17:55:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T22:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2021-01-09T17:55:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T22:55:54","slug":"womens-sporting-excellence-seton-hall-the-origins-of-equality-in-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/2021\/01\/womens-sporting-excellence-seton-hall-the-origins-of-equality-in-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Sporting Excellence & Seton Hall \u2013 The Origins of Equality in Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

January of 1974 marked the advent of Women\u2019s Intercollegiate Athletic competition on the South Orange campus of Seton Hall which came six years after full co-education was approved by school administration officials.\u00a0 From the tip, female student-athletes who began the trend of competitive success on the Basketball Court or Fencing \u201cPiste\u201d that Winter (to be joined in the Spring by Swimming and Tennis, and in subsequent years by Softball, Volleyball, Golf, Track & Field and other sports) would ultimately become trailblazers in the annals of Setonia sports history.<\/p>\n

Prior to the mid-1970s, women had the opportunity to participate on club or \u00a0intramural teams which were more informal than competition between various institutions of higher education.\u00a0 Known as either the \u201cPirates\u201d or colloquially as the \u201cBucettes\u201d (the female equivalent of a Buccaneer, i.e. – Pirate) Women-centered squads were created in part to provide student activity opportunities for all co-eds, but also required as a result Title IX federal legislation.\u00a0 This public law enacted during the June of 1972 required that all college campuses across the nation establish equity in the establishment of athletic opportunities for both male and female students.\u00a0 Initially, Seton Hall played a number of local teams across New Jersey and the metropolitan area under the banner of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) founded in 1971 prior to joining the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) by the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

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Icon depicting Women’s Sports at Seton Hall, 1974<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately, Women\u2019s Athletics have been documented by the student and local press from the first games ever contested in early 1974 onward.\u00a0 An account of the start of the Basketball and Fencing programs from that era was covered in detail by Ms. Gail Elrick in an article entitled: \u201cWomen\u2019s Sports are alive and well at Seton Hall\u201d published in the 1974 Galleon<\/em> (Seton Hall Student Yearbook, p. 119) is quoted in part here . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until three years ago women\u2019s sports were practically non-existent at Seton Hall.\u00a0 With the completion of the Women\u2019s Residence hall in 1971, the need for athletic and recreational activities for women became necessary.\u00a0 In 1971 . . . Volleyball, basketball and softball intramurals were organized.\u00a0 A women\u2019s fencing team (club) was already in existence and club basketball was introduced.\u00a0 A very popular activity was a noncredit modern dance class . . . This year the Athletic Department was fortunate to have Sue Dilley as the new assistant director of recreation to head women\u2019s athletics . . . The program greatly expanded due to better organization and an increase of interest . . . \u00a0Dilley believes that preparation should begin in college.\u00a0 If programs are organized in which women may compete, their skills would improve . . . The Recreation Department . . . encourage their participation . . . volleyball intramurals, the first activity planned this year, revealed that some success had been achieved.\u00a0 There were six more teams than the preceding year.\u00a0 Intramurals were also offered in basketball, softball tennis, swimming and badminton . . . Plans are to advance one club sport to the varsity level each year.\u00a0 Basketball was raised to the varsity status, joining fencing as the only two women\u2019s varsity sports . . . As these opportunities are taken advantage of, more will become available.\u00a0 Women have to prove themselves by actively participating in organized athletics.\u00a0 The Recreation Department\u2019s job is to organize and preside over activities, while it will always be the students that keep athletics alive on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Forward Christine Mapp (10) drives to the baseline as Kathy Keating (22) looks to help out during a 1974 contest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reports were also made on individual sports within the 1974 Galleon<\/em> (p. 120) to compliment the overall article above.\u00a0 When it came to the inaugural Basketball lineup, Ms. Cathy Meyer gave a detailed account of the establishment of the sport from December 1973 when a call for volunteers was made with 30 answering the call.\u00a0 After tryouts had completed 12 players were selected to make the squad under Coach Sue Dilley.\u00a0 They had their first scrimmage with Bergen Community College that month and Ms. Maureen Keenan became the first team captain.\u00a0 Their inaugural game was contested on January 5, 1974 when the played the City College of New York (L, 33-42) and registered their first victory against Ramapo College by a score of 57-15 on January 19, 1974.\u00a0 They ended the 1973-74 campaign with a \u00a09-4 record and just missed the AIAW New Jersey State Colleges Playoff of that year, but would rebound to have a 13-5 mark and make the AIAW National Tournament.<\/p>\n

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1973-74 Seton Hall Women’s Fencing Team .LEFT: Kneeling: Linda Hall, Liz Carol, Lesley Sharrock, Nancy Cucci. STANDING: Gregory Boutsikaris, Claudia Cantemi, Brenda Hand, Barbara Williams, Sue Brown, Coach Harry Boutsikaris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Success also came to the Women\u2019s Fencing force of 1973-74 and reporter Ms. Judy Rothrock (also of the 1974 Galleon<\/em> Yearbook, p. 129-131) wrote the following testimonial for those who competed in \u00e9p\u00e9e, foil, and sabre.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps the most inspiring sport for women at Seton Hall in the past four years is the women\u2019s fencing team.\u00a0 Up until this year, it was the only varsity sport made available on the campus.\u00a0 Its success has been outstanding . . . The team started on a club basis, only to receive varsity status its second year . . . Since that time, the program has been open to all women on campus regardless of fencing experience.\u00a0 They begin with individual instruction and are immediately included in the dual meets as they improve.\u00a0 However, there is no long wait before they may participate . . .\u201d\u00a0 The first contest for Setonia came against Caldwell College and resulted in a 13-3 for the Pirate \u201cSwordswomen\u201d and on the season they hovered around the .500 mark, but this would turn around to consecutive winning records later that decade.<\/p>\n

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Women’s Fencing Action, c. 1974<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From its beginnings in 1974, the Women of Setonia Athletics have continued their path of sustained play on behalf of their alma mater, individual and team success along with increased popularity that has endured to the present day.\u00a0 Go Bucettes and Pirate Swordswomen!<\/p>\n

Full-text and additional illustrations on Seton Hall Women\u2019s Athletic Teams featured within the pages of our Galleon<\/em> Yearbooks (1974-2006) can be discovered through online resources of these texts can be found via the following link:\u00a0 https:\/\/scholarship.shu.edu\/yearbooks\/index.2.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Additional details on all aspects of the Athletic and Recreation Program at Seton Hall can be found within our Special Collection connected to sports on campus. The link to our ArchivesSpace catalog can be found via the following link:\u00a0 https:\/\/archivesspace-library.shu.edu\/repositories\/2\/resources\/420<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information and questions about the Athletic History of Seton Hall, contact Alan Delozier, University by e-mail at: Alan.Delozier@shu.edu<\/a> or by phone at: (973) 275-2378.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January of 1974 marked the advent of Women\u2019s Intercollegiate Athletic competition on the South Orange campus of Seton Hall which came six years after full co-education was approved by school administration officials.\u00a0 From the tip, female student-athletes who began the trend of competitive success on the Basketball Court or Fencing \u201cPiste\u201d that Winter (to be … Continue reading “Women\u2019s Sporting Excellence & Seton Hall \u2013 The Origins of Equality in Athletics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":3916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,1],"tags":[286,249,248,283,284,130,282,285],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seton-hall-history","category-uncategorized","tag-286","tag-athletics","tag-basketball","tag-fencing","tag-galleon","tag-seton-hall-university","tag-womens-sports","tag-yearbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3922,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions\/3922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}