Steady Eye on the Target

A hundred years ago was not a good time for a woman to be interested in sports, or even to glisten with sweat.

Proper, ladylike behavior was paramount, so the female Terps who formed the Women’s Athletic Association in 1924-25 to provide a structure at UMD for what were often called “girls’” sports might have been considered some nervy dolls.

The organization started out with rifle and “basket-ball” teams, but even in the suffrage era, the rules governing women’s sports locally and nationally discouraged unbecoming exertions, roughness, competition—or comfort.

While Maryland Athletics today counts hundreds of female student-athletes spanning 12 Division I sports, the pioneers of the women’s athletics movement at UMD had only two sports and faced other kinds of endurance tests. We found these with the help of University Archives.

• Women in bloomers, Middy blouses with ties and rolled-up hose played in matches between classes (i.e., freshmen vs. sophomores)—but no scores were kept.
• Players had to stay in the third of the court assigned to them to prevent physical strain.
• Stealing the ball was prohibited; even touching a ball held by an opponent was a foul.

• Members used .22-caliber rifles. Due to initial limitations on space and equipment, only six markswomen could practice at once.
• Formed in 1922, the team won the national championship in 1926, 1931 and 1932, led by sharpshooter Irene Knox, who qualified for the 1932 Olympics.
• There was no such thing as an “away” match; teams competed against other schools by swapping scores via telegraph and mailing bullet-riddled paper targets for proof.