A timeline of women’s sports at Springfield College

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1956: Paula Dubel Phillips becomes Springfield College’s first female Olympian, as a member of the U.S. Track & Field team that competes at the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

1963: Springfield College’s women’s intercollegiate athletics program begins, with field hockey, tennis, softball, and basketball.

1964: The college’s first official women’s basketball team, coached by Jone Bush and Martha van Allen, goes 7-0.

1969: Springfield College hosts and wins the first national collegiate championship for women’s gymnastics under the Division of Girls and Women in Sport (DGWS).

1972: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal funding, is signed into law.

Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) is passed, requiring federally-assisted, coeducational institutions of higher education to disclose information about the gender breakdown of their athletic programs.

2002: Title IX is renamed the “Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act,” in honor of her role as an author and leader in the House of Representatives to protect the law.

2013: The SafeZone program is started at Springfield College to educate the community on LGBTQ issues.

2020: Title IX Final Rule regulations for addressing sexual harassment are issued by the Department of Education.

2010: Erin Pac ’03 wins a bronze medal in the Two-Woman Bobsled event at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Not long after James Naismith invented basketball, women began playing his new sport. Here’s a brief timeline of how women’s athletics have progressed at Springfield College – and beyond –since then:

1892: James Naismith happens upon a group of girls from Buckingham Junior High School attempting to play Naismith’s game; the first game of women’s basketball commences.

1928: Springfield College summer school admits women for the first time.

1936: Dorothy Audette, the first woman to be a full-time student at Springfield College, earns a Bachelor of Science degree.

1939: Dorothea Poulin, the first full-time fouryear graduate and an accomplished swimmer, earns a degree in Physical Education.

1951: Springfield Col- lege admits women as fulltime students. Dorothy Wright is hired as the first Dean of Women. Abbey Hall, the first women’s residence hall, opens.

1953: The college’s name is officially changed from International Young Men’s Christian Association College to Springfield College to recognize women students.

1954: Eunice A. Ganung is the first woman to graduate under the new full-time women’s pro-

1973: Sharon Miles is appointed as Director of Campus Security at Springfield College, becoming the first woman director of security on a college or university campus in the U.S.

1982: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) offers the first championships for women’s athletics and becomes the official governing body of women’s sports.

1988: Amy Lim Chee Chan ’91 represents Hong Kong in the 1988 Summer Olympics badminton competition and wins a bronze medal in mixed doubles.

1994: The Equity in

2013: Dr. Mary-Beth Cooper is appointed as the College’s 13th President, the first woman to hold that position at the college.

2021: The Athletics Department at Springfield College begins to use gender pronouns on team rosters.

2021: Mikaili Charlemagne ‘23, competes in the 50-meter freestyle swim at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, representing her home country of Saint Lucia.

2022: Kelly Curtis ’12, the first Black athlete to represent Team USA in the sport of skeleton, makes her Olympic debut at the Winter Games in Beijing, China.

2022: Title IX turns 50 on June 23.