{"id":6320,"date":"2016-03-25T13:40:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T13:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/?p=6320"},"modified":"2023-09-11T17:17:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T17:17:02","slug":"looking-back-at-the-humble-beginnings-of-uconn-womens-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2016\/03\/25\/looking-back-at-the-humble-beginnings-of-uconn-womens-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back at The Humble Beginnings of UConn Women’s Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nick Hurley, Research Services Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Team photo, CAC Women\u2019s Basketball, 1902 Season. Pictured are Coach Steve Crowell and chaperone Mrs. Stimson. Players included Grace Koons and team captain Marjorie Monteith<\/p><\/div>\n

With March Madness in full swing, and UConn’s top-ranked, undefeated women\u2019s basketball team set to take on Mississippi State tomorrow in Bridgeport, it seems appropriate to share this photograph of their predecessors, who enjoyed similar success during their first season in 1902.<\/p>\n

Basketball came to UConn (then known as the Connecticut Agricultural College) in 1901, with the formation of a provisional men\u2019s team under the direction of Athletics Professor T.D. Knowles. After winning their first game against Willimantic High School, a permanent team was organized for the following 1901-02 season. Many female students, according to the school newspaper (The Lookout<\/em>, predecessor to the Daily Campus), \u201ctook enough interest in the boys in the blue and white jerseys to accompany them to Willimantic and to cheer lustily during the entire game,\u201d though they wouldn\u2019t remain on the sidelines for long. By March 1902 The Lookout<\/em>\u00a0reported that “there has appeared a new feature in our athletics, a basketball team, made up and well made up from the young ladies of Grove Cottage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the supervision of Mrs. Stimson (then-President Stimson\u2019s wife), the girls played their first game on March 8th<\/sup>, 1902 against Willimantic High School in the College Hall on campus (presumably the building referred to as \u201cOld Main\u201d, which held administrative offices, classrooms, and the library, along with other meeting and recreation spaces.) The game kicked off at 2:30pm, with the first basket made soon after by Grace Koons\u2014the daughter of CAC\u2019s former president Benjamin Koons, for whom Koons Hall is named. This was followed soon after by another from Marjorie Montheith, daughter of popular professor Henry R. Monteith, the namesake for the Monteith Building. The final score? CAC: 15, WHS: 6.<\/p>\n

The team went on to win their second game as well, also against Willimantic, making them undefeated in their first season. Like the men\u2019s team, the experiment had been a success, and the women returned the next year alongside their male counterparts. From these humble beginnings came the powerhouse teams we know today, who have racked up countless NCAA Championship wins and other accolades.<\/p>\n

More information on the history of basketball at UConn can be found in the holdings here at Archives & Special Collections. The University of Connecticut Photograph Collection<\/a> contains numerous images of both teams throughout the years (as well as other sports), and the University of Connecticut, Women\u2019s Basketball Perfect Season Collection<\/a> includes publications, posters, and memorabilia related to the perfect seasons enjoyed by the Women\u2019s team between 1994 and 2003. A number of basketball-specific images can also be found in our digital repository<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Hurley, Research Services Assistant With March Madness in full swing, and UConn’s top-ranked, undefeated women\u2019s basketball team set to take on Mississippi State tomorrow in Bridgeport, it seems appropriate to share this photograph of their predecessors, who enjoyed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,9],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NKyO-1DW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6320"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9960,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions\/9960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}