Why Seven Sisters Matters

“Sprinters poised to start” (1926)

Photograph by Eric Stahlberg, Smith College Archives.

Smith hosted the Seven Sisters Cross-Country Championship on Saturday, October 19.  Five of the original Seven Sisters (Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Vassar) competed, along with two new-comers: St. Catherine's (all the way from Minnesota!) and Simmons.  (Barnard and Radcliffe now compete with Columbia and Harvard.)

When Smith's cross country team began, they were not part of the NCAA (that was for men's sports only), nor part of their current conference, NEWMAC (New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference).  Instead, they participated in the Seven Sisters Conference, which was for women's colleges in New England.  The Seven Sisters Championship was the biggest and most important race of the season.  Not only did the race promise strong competition, but it also presented an opportunity for the women to come together afterwards for a celebratory banquet where they had a chance to get to know one another not as competitors but as peers--women striving both athletically and academically in a world that was not always ready to accept them for either. 

Every year, the Seven Sisters Championship race serves as a reminder of the important role women's colleges played in women's history, not only as academic institutions, but as institutions that believed the body as well as the mind should be nurtured.  When chemist and educator Mary Lyons founded Mount Holyoke in 1837, women were required to walk a mile a day.  Vassar, founded in 1865, had a gymnasium, bowling alley, riding school, boating, swimming, and ice skating for women.  In 1892, educator Senda Berenson was hired to teach physical education (then called "hygiene") at Smith. She introduced the students to Swedish gymnastics and organized fencing, volleyball, and field hockey contests.  Most famously, Berenson introduced Smith to basketball, resulting in the first women's basketball game to take place among Smith women.

The women's athletic philosophy of the time was "the most for the most," meaning that all students should be involved in athletics in some way. The first running competitions at Smith took place in 1926, when the school incorporated track events into the students' Field Day.  NOTE: women were not allowed to compete in track and field in the Olympics until 1928.  However, cross country and track and field did not become athletic teams until the 1970s and 1980s, and cross country was not considered a varsity sport at Smith until 1981.

This was Post Title IX, and more schools were offering different sports to female students.  Yet a big question loomed over this transition: what is the philosophy of women's athletics?  Is it, "A sport for every girl, and a girl for every sport," (the motto of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), which was the governing body of women's sports until 1981), or should women's sports follow the competitive path of men's sports?

Ultimately, the competition-driven philosophy of the NCAA won out (thanks in part to its deep pockets; it offered to pay the expenses for all teams - including women's - who would compete in an NCAA championship), and slowly but surely, most competitive schools joined the NCAA, including Smith.  The AIAW folded in 1982.  

Many positive changes have taken place since those days, but Smith is proud to continue the Seven Sisters tradition.  It serves as a reminder that although women's athletics has made great strides, the strides must continue.  And it brings up two important questions: Now that women are competing in great numbers, what is next for women's athletics?  And, how can Smith and the Seven Sisters continue to be pioneers in achieving that goal?