Music and Sports

Ursinus Glee annd Mandolin Clubs Photo, 1900

Glee and Mandolin Clubs Members, 1900

Chaminade Club Members, 1902

 

Chaminade Club Photograph, 1902

Ursinus Glee Clubs Photograph, 1904

Ursinus Glee Clubs Members, 1904

Most of Ursinus’s clubs outside of the literary societies focused on music and athletics, and sadly women were rarely found in these. Whether it be Glee Club, Mozart Club, Orchestra, or Mandolin Club, that the 1897 Ruby and subsequent yearbooks show hardly any women present.[1] Women formed their own glee club, the Chaminade Club, in 1902.[2] Two years after that, in 1904, the Chaminade Club is pictured with the men’s Glee Club, yet they are distinct Glee Clubs.[3] Before 1904, the two Glee Clubs were separate in the Ruby. Two interpretations can be made from this, the first is that the Ruby editors simply did not want to add another page and instead put the two together. The other would be that the women’s Glee Club was taken seriously enough to be photographed next to the men under the combined title “Ursinus Glee Clubs.” 

Men's Baseball 1895 games with scores and the 1897 team members list (2pg)

Men's Baseball Team Photo, 1897

Men's Football Team Photo, 1897

Men's Football Team Members, 1897 (2 Pg)

In terms of athletics, students pushed hard for sports early on, especially baseball and football. The students pushed the College Board, debated in literary societies, and were willing to do whatever it took to get sports on campus.[1] Baseball and football became a staple of social life at Ursinus, but women could not participate in either of these sports. There are stories of women shouting from the rooftops of Olevian Hall when the men won a game, but they could not play the game themselves.[2] Calvin Yost even states that some of the early “women were not supposed to participate in athletics except of the more ornamental sort such as croquet and archery.”[3]

Tennis Association, 1899

Tennis Association, 1907

Tennis Association Team Photo, 1907

However in 1899, under the tennis association page in the Ruby, women’s sports appear: there is a record of an Olevian Tennis Club with three women.[1] Similar to the Olevian Society’s lack of permanent space, the women did not have their own tennis court, but rather had to share the faculty’s court.[2] Although the 1899 Ruby did not have a photograph, the 1907 Ruby did, and in it, the men and women who played tennis were photographed together. Even under the members list the men and women are listed together, showing a potential coed team in which the women are respected in their sport just as much as the men.     

Girls' Basket Ball Members, 1902

Girls' Basket Ball Team Photo, 1902

Girl's Basket-Ball Team Photograph, 1903

Girl's Basket-Ball Members, 1903

Basket Ball Members, 1907

Basket Ball Team One and Two Photograph (2 Pg)

In addition, the Ursinus College Bulletin reports that the first appearance of basketball was on December 8, 1900 when a team of all girls from Ursinus played against a team from Perkiomen Seminary.[1] The team is thoroughly commended for their excellent passing, with some team members given specific congratulation for their performances. Sadly though, Ursinus lost despite being ahead in the first quarter because the other team overcame them in goal throwing.[2] There is no mention of this in the 1900 Ruby, which begs the question: why was it not recorded when both the male baseball and football games were? Instead, the first mention of basketball is found in the 1902 Ruby with a photograph and a page of all the members.[3] At first, I was fairly surprised to see the women’s team all wearing dresses, since it would be unusual to that from a women’s team today, but someone in 1902 would think it unusual for women to be wearing anything but a dress when playing basketball.