Celebrating Girls and Women in Sports
The St. Stephen's community celebrated female Spartan athletes throughout the week of Feb. 5, leading up to National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Activities culminated on Thursday, February 7, when Head Athletic Trainer Kathy Rainey and Middle School Athletic Coordinator and Field Hockey Coach Chelsea Richards led a special Chapel service honoring Girls and Women in Sports.
During their Chapel talk, Rainey and Richards provided a fascinating history of women in sports — from Althea Gibson becoming the first African-American woman to win three grand-slam tennis championships in the 1950s and Katherine Switzer registering to run the Boston Marathon in 1967, to the creation of the sports bra in 1977 and the American Women's Soccer team winning the World Cup in 1999.
"I was 11 years old when I saw Brandi Chastain and the rest of the USA National Women's Soccer Team defeat China," Richards said. "I still remember Chastain falling to her knees and ripping off her jersey after she scored the winning goal. This World Cup gave millions of little girls in my generation the idea that they could compete and succeed on the largest stage in a traditional sport."
Rainey also recalled the importance of the event. "As a 27 year old, I watched the same game," Rainey noted. "For the first time, I thought the women that I played with and knew could be on TV. I also thought, 'Holy, cow! A woman just took her shirt off on national TV!' Suddenly, training in a sports bra without a shirt became acceptable.
"From Althea Gibson to Brandi Chastain, the opportunities for women to play sports have increased significantly, but we still have so far to go," Rainey concluded.
During their presentation, Rainey and Richards asked a number of pointed questions: Why are only 40 percent of female teams in the NCAA led by female coaches? Whi is the number of women coaching men's collegiate teams less than 2 percent? Why does the public think it is OK for men to coach and announce women's sports, but views it as odd for women to coach and announce men's sports? Why are the salaries of professional male and female athletes still not equal? What will it take for women of our students' generation to lead in sports?
"We want to challenge you to be the next generation of change," Rainey said to students. "It is simple: lead confidently, take risks and support each other in sport."
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During their Chapel talk, Rainey and Richards provided a fascinating history of women in sports — from Althea Gibson becoming the first African-American woman to win three grand-slam tennis championships in the 1950s and Katherine Switzer registering to run the Boston Marathon in 1967, to the creation of the sports bra in 1977 and the American Women's Soccer team winning the World Cup in 1999.
"I was 11 years old when I saw Brandi Chastain and the rest of the USA National Women's Soccer Team defeat China," Richards said. "I still remember Chastain falling to her knees and ripping off her jersey after she scored the winning goal. This World Cup gave millions of little girls in my generation the idea that they could compete and succeed on the largest stage in a traditional sport."
Rainey also recalled the importance of the event. "As a 27 year old, I watched the same game," Rainey noted. "For the first time, I thought the women that I played with and knew could be on TV. I also thought, 'Holy, cow! A woman just took her shirt off on national TV!' Suddenly, training in a sports bra without a shirt became acceptable.
"From Althea Gibson to Brandi Chastain, the opportunities for women to play sports have increased significantly, but we still have so far to go," Rainey concluded.
During their presentation, Rainey and Richards asked a number of pointed questions: Why are only 40 percent of female teams in the NCAA led by female coaches? Whi is the number of women coaching men's collegiate teams less than 2 percent? Why does the public think it is OK for men to coach and announce women's sports, but views it as odd for women to coach and announce men's sports? Why are the salaries of professional male and female athletes still not equal? What will it take for women of our students' generation to lead in sports?
"We want to challenge you to be the next generation of change," Rainey said to students. "It is simple: lead confidently, take risks and support each other in sport."
Girl Power: A Brief History of Women’s Athletics at St. Stephen’s
A deep dive into the school archives uncovered St. Stephen’s diverse and oftentimes eclectic athletic offerings for girls throughout the school’s history. Whether classified as an activity, a physical education (P.E.) class or an athletic team, St. Stephen’s has provided an impressive array of athletic offerings to its female students throughout the years.
While there were no official athletic teams in the first year of school, tennis was offered as an intramural sport, and everyone, girls included, participated in Field Day activities. Tennis takes the trophy for being the most consistently played girls’ sport at St. Stephen’s, beginning in 1951 and continuing every year to the present. A sampling of other girls’ sports and activities introduced in the early years and still played today includes basketball, volleyball, field hockey, soccer, track, cross country, modern dance, crew, diving and swimming. Latecomers to the girls’ athletic scene were golf and lacrosse.
In the fall of 1959, a new P.E. program was introduced at the school in an effort to provide more “ladylike” activities for female students. The program’s focus shifted away from varsity sports and toward mandatory P.E. classes with such offerings as rhythmic gymnastics, archery, riflery, swimming, trampoline, folk dance and fencing. Due to its popularity, the only varsity sport that remained for girls was field hockey. Female students, however, made it known that the new offerings were not to their liking. According to the student newspaper at the time, every female student at St. Stephen’s signed a petition demanding to have a say in the girls’ sports offerings. By the fall of 1960, they had successfully changed the P.E. program to add back the varsity sports they had enjoyed playing in the past.
From the winter of 1969 through the 1974 season, girls participated in a popular sport called speedball. Speedball is similar to soccer, but players use their hands as well as their feet to handle the ball and score goals. A student publication from 1972 described speedball as “a combination of soccer, basketball, football and roller derby.” The St. Stephen’s girls’ speedball team competed against at least seven other schools, and varsity girls lettered in the sport. Like several other sports that came and went throughout the years, speedball disappeared from school yearbooks in 1975.
Horseback riding was an early activity, and some students even brought their own horses to board in the campus stables. The riding program waned until the early 1970s, when new stables were built and an instructor was hired to manage the program. Horseback riding as an activity lasted through the late 1980s. Another form of riding, mountain biking, became popular in the early 1990s, along with caving and climbing. At first considered a club, these activities formed the basis for the Devil’s Canyon Wilderness Program, which is still going strong.
An important component of many athletic teams, including those here at St. Stephen’s, cheerleading should not be overlooked. With the exception of this current school year, cheerleading has been a popular sports activity since 1951. So if girls chose not to participate in competitions as athletes, they could cheer on the teams from the sidelines. Fight, Spartans, fight…like a girl!
Title IX, banning gender discrimination in education programs, may have been enacted in 1972, but St. Stephen’s already was ahead of the game! Girls’ athletics have been a vibrant component of campus life since the beginning days of the school, and the current core group of sports teams, P.E. classes and athletic activities have been available since the mid-1980s. Roller derby anyone?
—Amy FitzGerald, St. Stephen’s archivist, and Nita Shuffler, former head librarian
Address: 6500 St. Stephen's Dr., Austin, TX 78746
Phone: (512) 327-1213
Phone: (512) 327-1213