Women In Sports

Been doing a little research on a woman named Elizabeth Cartwright (1863-1948), who may be the first female athletic director of a state school in the country, but am not sure. Born in New York, she moved to Washington in 1895 to teach "rhetoric and physical culture" at the Washington State Normal School in Ellensburg.

The Normal School did not have an athletic department before her arrival, but in less than a year had a football, basketball, and baseball team for men, and women's basketball team. She coached women's and men's basketball from 1895-1897. April 18, 1896 her Normal School squad went up against the University of Washington in a game of 9-on-9. This, only one week after the first intercollegiate women's basketball game in history (Stanford v. Cal), certainly the first in Washington State history. Her squad lost 2-1, or 6-3 depending on the source.

In 1898 she moved to Hawaii to teach at Honolulu high school. Sound familiar? A Cartwright born in New York, who moves to Hawaii who is a fan of team sports. Been looking and looking through Ancestry.com but can't find if her and Alexander Cartwright were related.

She later married Lincoln Loy McCandless, US representative of the Hawaiian Territory. Here she is at the National Women's Convention in Philadelphia in 1937. Interested in hearing more about women in sports, please share....

[vintagesportscollector]

Babe Didrikson Zaharias may unquestionably be the greatest female athlete of all time. I have always been fascinated by her. Unparalleled accomplishments in Golf, Track and Field, Basketball and a slew of other sports. An amazing person to read up on if you have the chance.

image.jpg

[Duluth Eskimo]

I agree with Babe Didrickson, but I will throw a vote out for Patty Berg who is also an athlete I collect. Much like Didrickson, they excelled at sports they were allowed to participate in. Jason

The Babe and Patty Berg are both cornerstones of women's athletics without question. Any images of Patty Berg you'd like to share Jason? IMO any woman who was an officer during WW2 gets my vote.

[Duluth Eskimo]

I have lots of golf photos of Berg as I have a large collection of Minnesota related golf memorabilia, but nothing war related.

[vintagesportscollector]

+1 Berg

berg2.jpg

Great Berg cards!

I found this article about a 1927 Roslyn Yippers versus Wenatchee Apple Knockers game amusing; “the umpire was surrounded by a gesticulating group including a few women who were not backward in expressing their opinions of umpires who were either blind or paid by the other team, and so forth.” (June 20, 1927 Wenatchee Daily World)

Plenty of Pre-War bloomer girl baseball teams...

After the US Women's impressive World Cup victory thought I'd revisit this thread with a story of a female manager in semi-pro baseball shortly after women's suffrage.

The 1925 Edmonds baseball club was managed by Emma A. Hough (1877-1940). Born in Nebraska, she moved with her family to Edmonds/Everett/Snohomish, Washington shortly after 1920. She was never referred to by her name in newsprint in reference to the team, just by her husbands' "Mrs. Frank Hough". The only employment info of Frank Hough (1871-1946) I could find was as a "Clothes Presser" on his WW1 draft registration, yet he and Emma had been married since 1894. How she started to manage a town baseball team is a mystery.

She knew baseball, after the team lost to Snohomish County League champions Granite Falls she proposed, "Mrs. Frank Hough, manager of the local team, challenged Nevins, manager of the Granite Falls team, for another game on the Everett grounds, with a Seattle Umpire, but Nevins refused unless he could have his same umpires he had at Granite Falls. Our boys have done excellent work this summer.... and the loss of Sunday's game was not entirely their fault." (9-25-25, Tribune Review) 5 to 4 loss in ten innings to Granite Falls. The Edmonds team finished their 1925 campaign with 18 wins and 4 losses, to capture the Snohomish County Independent Championship.

[steve B]

Not a mainstream sport in the US, but ..........

Beryl Burton UK cyclist

World champion road - 1960, 1967
world champion pursuit - 1959,60,62,63,66
Second 1961, 64, 68
third 1967,70,71,73

And this bit, probably the best of all

In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles– a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969. While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder. She is reputed to have given him a liquorice allsort as she passed him. Apparently, McNamara ate the sweet.


Steve B

Incredible example Steve! IMO all of women's sports are not mainstream.

I hope this does not get the thread moved elsewhere but todays headlines seem to be about Becky Hammon as a potential head coach in the NBA? http://www.sbnation.com/2015/7/21/90...gue-highlights

Thoughts?

[travrosty]

Charlotte Dod one of the most versatile womens athletes of all time, tennis, golf, archery and more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_Dod

[grainsley]

I think Althea Gibson deserves a mention here. I first heard of her from a part she had in a John Wayne movie, The Horse Soldiers. After garnering some interest in her, I did some research....not only a tennis pro (won Wimbledon), but also a pro golfer. Just sounds like a very interesting woman. And generally, I find women more interesting than men, but that's just me. And I think she just recently had some U.S. stamps issued with her on them playing tennis.

Great athletes all. I was not familiar with Charlotte Dod, thank you for sharing that link.

Here's Althea's stamp, great image:

[btcarfagno]

I try to buy AAGPBL items when they are available at reasonable prices. I have maybe 500 autographs and several scorecards. Would love to obtain a uniform someday. They so rarely come up for sale.

Tom C

[Huysmans]

Fan from 1908.

[Huysmans]

Pic 2

[Jewish-collector]

I've done extensive research on Jewish women athletes. There a ton of them who competed in the 1970's and up thruout college athletics. A huge number of these Jewish athletes in sports like tennis, gymnastics, and swimming. Especially in the Ivy League schools.

[billyb]

Just a quick story.
My wife's name is Cartha Lynn and she has always hated the name, Her mother, now deceased, always told her, she was named after a childhood friend of hers.
My wife, born in Knoxville, and Cartha being a very rare name, I decided to do a google search. Who was Cartha Lynn born about 1931 in Knoxville.
Only one name showed up, a Cartha Lynn Doyle, b: 1929 in Knoxville, just a two year difference from my mother-in-law. As I checked further, this Cartha Lynn Doyle, played one year for the Rockford Peaches. They called her "Duckey Doyle".
Well, I had to write her a letter with what information I had, and supplied our telephone number, without my wife knowing.
Tee Hee Hee.
A couple weeks later the phone rang and my wife answered, it was Duckey Doyle. We found out that Ms. Doyle and my mother-in-law both attended Young High school in Knoxville. However, she did not remember my mother in law, but my wife and Ms. Doyle had a great conversation mainly about how they both hated their first names.
She kept up her baseball involvement as an umpire in the Knoxville area, and has been inducted into the Knoxville Hall of Fame.
The called ended with Ms. Doyle giving us an open invitation to her home whenever we were in the Knoxville area. She was touched knowing a past childhood friend had named a child after her. And no, we are not in the will.
We have been in the area (Nashville) on a couple of occasions, but my wife is shy and said no to the visit. Too bad, it would have been a great visit.

[GaryPassamonte]

How about this?

WOW! Great images and stories. Interesting fan and Bloomer Girls photo. Any more information on those items, circa?

Loved the story about Ducky Doyle and your wife's name Bill. While there are thousands of children named after the "Mick", there are certainly very few named after AAGPBL players, though this was probably more popular during WW2.

Jewish Women in Ivy League Athletics, now that is a niche market Any examples in your research of particular interest?

Great contributions everyone.....

[seattlerainiers]

Here's one for you, Ty.

Babe Didrikson single signed PCL ball, 1934

Well Dave, that's just ridiculously cool! There has to be an awesome PCL story around that baseball. If so, please share.... Thank you.

[khkco4bls]

Original 1890 broadside for the young ladies baseball club. Sorry about sideways photo

[71buc]

Myrtle Rowe type 1 1910 photos

Beautiful Broadside.....

I did not realize there were so many women in semi-professional baseball, especially in Pennsylvania. Great image of Myrtle Rowe, who played first base with the boys for the Antler Athletic Club in New Kensington, PA. I had read of men (Smoky Joe Wood, Rogers Hornsby among them) dressing in drag to play with barnstorming Bloomer Girls teams, but seldom about women such as Lizzie Arlington or Jackie Mitchell who competed briefly on men's teams.

April 2, 1931 Mitchell, 17, supposedly strikes out Ruth and Gehrig in an exhibition game: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...-out-babe-ruth