History Huddle Podcast- Colton Powers

The episode discusses the impact of women on the history of sports at Washington Jefferson College. It highlights the mistreatment of women athletes and the positive effects of admitting women to the college. The article mentions the benefits of having women on campus, but also expresses disappointment in their lack of participation in sports and other activities. The author emphasizes the importance of women supporting each other and encourages them to get involved. The story concludes by expressing concern for the future of women's programs if participation does not increase. The episode ends with a question asking for examples of similar situations in history or personal experiences. what is up y'all how we feeling on this blessed day I hope we're all doing good I hope we're all smiling and healthy and welcome to the history huddle I am your hopes coach CP and if you're new here go ahead and hit that follow button give us a like tell your friends and let's dive into the sports history topic of the day today we're going to be discussing the impact that women have had on the history of Washington Jefferson College sports and more specifically we're going to dive into the story that highlights the mistreatment of these women athletes let's get to it ladies and gentlemen for this story we're going to go back a bit to 1970 when the first women students were admitted to Washington and Jefferson the admission of women into Washington Jefferson College for the first time marked a huge milestone in the history of education and gender equality for much of history and for the history of Washington Jefferson College up until 1970 women were excluded from formal education institutions with limited access to learning opportunities beyond domestic roles the admission of women into Washington Jefferson College represented a departure from traditional norms and barriers set up by the institution challenging gender stereotypes and advocating for equal educational opportunities by Washington and Jefferson providing women with the access to formal education the college empowered them to pursue academic and professional aspirations the admission of women to Washington Jefferson didn't only benefit women but having their presence on campus diversified perspectives enriched intellectual discourse and challenged gender biases thus fostering a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students at W&J benefits of having women as talked about in the red and black school newspaper in an article titled 75 women expect to enroll next year dated February 27th 1970 that's a while ago this article was written by a student named Tom Stacey and he seems to have a positive opinion on the school's decision and his audience is other male students at the time which I mean it was an all-boys school at the time so it's got to be other male students or maybe male teachers the first benefit that is stated in the article that there were more male applicants than previous years to Washington Jefferson due to the college deciding to go co-ed bringing around 325 students into the new freshman class that year another benefit stated in the article that of 75 women who are accepted and expected to enroll in the fall of 1970 45 of them were within the top 10% of their respected senior class also many of the women that had been accepted to W&J that year are better qualified than a lot of the male applicants that the school had already accepted so that's just a summary of what made the attitude towards women was initially positive but as we get into the topic of sports seems there might be more of an attitude shift regarding women athletes at W&J and this leads us into our main topic and story of the day and for this story we're going to jump from 1970 February 1970 to October 1974 an article in the red and black school newspaper let us read this article is titled women students neglect responsibilities much effort has gone into providing ample facilities and activities for these women on the W&J campus but the women have neglected to assume their role their share of responsibility a small number of women have elected to participate in these programs the lack of women taking part in women's council field hockey volleyball basketball women's intramurals and sauna threatened the continuation of these activities women's council is suffering from a lack of support it has the recognition and backing of everyone but the women students of W&J the apathy toward the council is evident through the number of the women attending meetings and assisting in the projects they themselves have suggested to the committees the council is young organization that needs to have all the women in power it can get to stay alive letting women's council dissolve is a consequence we all take upon ourselves the field hockey team has been endorsed by the administration and athletic department the members of the team have been accepted by as athletes by the male teams male students and faculty members have traveled to their games to cheer for them the only segment of the college that who has not supported them are the majority of women students only two co-eds have attended a game with only enough players to practice the offense against the defense and having only two subs is beyond belief that the team has been able to win the women of the college have as much responsibility as the men for supporting athletics of programs and participating in them the volleyball and basketball teams are organizing for the first time and especially need the support as many women as possible any co-ed with the ability to play owes it to herself in the continuation of varsity women's athletics to join the team if you will not play you can at least go to the games and give them your support women's intramurals last year were a failure because of the insufficient number of teams were organized and those that did had a habit of not showing up for games most volleyball games were forfeited because only one team showed up then were played softball never got off ground because there were not enough teams to play maybe this year with co-ed teams in the situation will improve more women will become involved the hours of the sauna time were threatened to be reduced because so few women used it is a matter of time before this will be done if more co-eds do not make use of it a few women on this campus have worked hard to get these programs perhaps failed to recognize by very few other women who would be interested in them but on campus co-education is so new the women students of today must consider what their neglect will do to the future of these programs the cancellation of any of these activities hinges on not on the support of the college but the participation of women that wraps up the story of the day first things first how do we feel about the tone towards women in that first sentence of that paragraph I'll let you think about that for a second to me it seems to be starting off strong maybe a little bit attitude behind that I know for sure the woman on campus didn't definitely did not take too kindly when this article came out it definitely seems to be a male author it kind of seems like the author has a negative attitude towards maybe women in general or maybe women just on campus maybe just these ones and his tone definitely seems disappointed and he definitely seems ungrateful like he thinks the women are ungrateful for what the school has provided for them and as we go on that to see the tone doesn't change from the beginning he talks about the council dissolving on itself with the lack of the participation which to me it sounds justifiable and maybe in his mind his attitude in this article will you know fire up the women on campus to participate more we then move on to the sports aspect which this is a sports history podcast and it is weird to me that there's no more girls out there supporting girls and we see this a lot today too it's a it's a problem that we need we need more girls coming out this sports you know supporting women athletes I mean for example I firmly believe there's more guys watching the WNBA than women and for WNJ it's usually the co-ed teams that go and support each other if the women's lacrosse team has a game the guys team goes if the women's basketball team has a game the guys team go and vice versa more women or women in general participating going to the games encourages the female athletes to keep the female athletic programs alive it fires them up also it just makes them feel better that you're out there you know supporting them and our story kind of wraps up with the author feeling sorry for the women on campus who fought hard to be able to give these opportunities to women that they aren't capitalizing on yeah that's my opinion on this topic but as always I want to hear y'all's opinions so here's the question of the day what's another example in history or recent history or in your personal experience that compares to the arguments made by this author leave your answers in the comments as hope as always I hope you enjoyed this short stories of women athletics at WNJ and I'll catch you in the next episode you're dismissed