Photo Essay: sports over the past 100 years
2 min read
The Terrapin Swimmers in 1963. | UMW’s Centennial Image Collection
By: Victoria R. Percherke & Emily Warren
Sports Editor and Photo Editor
Over the past 100 years at UMW, sports have changed drastically in some ways but also remain very much the same. From synchronized swimming to archery, here are sports through the ages at UMW.
Did you know Monroe Hall used to have a pool? This is Mary Washington College’s synchronized swimming club, the Terrapin Club, in the Monroe Hall swimming pool in 1963. In March of that year, the Terrapin Swimmers hosted a show called “New York Afloat” with events themed after different places in New York. Two of these routines were titled “Greenwich Village” and “Ballet at the Theater.” Just 12 years ago, the Terrapin Swimmers hosted a synchronized swim invitational at Goolrick Natatorium, but it is no longer an active club on campus.
Just a year later in 1941, eight girls on the Mary Washington College archery team represented their college in the National Intercollegiate Archery Tournament. Out of 576 total targets, the girls hit 509, making an 88% accuracy rate. Archery was also the first sport to include women in the Olympics in 1904.
The women’s basketball team traveled to Richmond to face off against Westhampton College in their first game of the season. With a close score of 35-33, they defeated their opponents. Women initially wore floor-length dresses when basketball was first invented in 1891, but they switched to a divided skirt to make it easier to run across the court.
This women’s field hockey team went on to represent Mary Washington College at the Virginia State Hockey Tournament hosted at Sweet Briar College.
The men pictured above were part of Mary Washington’s first ever men’s soccer team. This same year, men at the college also gained a basketball team. In the 70s, soccer uniforms consisted of a collared shirt in the form of a v-neck or a “wrap-around” collar seen on the opponent to the right. These designs are continued today.
Bernadette D’Auria and Daniel Childers contributed to reporting for this article.
