Smith College: Home of the first Gym Suit

Everyday I get a news feed with various mentions of Smith College. Sometimes it interesting and sometimes its not and sometimes its not even about our Smith College... but this little mention made me smile and put google to work.

The Senior Journal's article Books for Seniors reviewed Patricia Campbell Warner's (professor of theater at the UMass Amherst) book When the Girls Came Out to Play. The book is a history of modern women's sportswear and how sportswear broke down traditional gender roles. Apparently Smith was home to a great evolution in women's gym wear... the Gym Suit...

"the most enduring symbol of women’s athletic wear — the gym suit — was born in 1892 at Smith College when students took up the new game of basketball. Very quickly, it became apparent that skirts were too bulky and restrictive for the sport.

'From then on, comfort and common sense played an increasing role, finally overwhelming the conservatism and societal limitations that had kept women covered, compressed and in skirts,' says Warner."

The 1902 Basketball Team in the Gym Suits

Playing in the gym suits in the Alumnae Gym, now archives

Looking for some pictures for this post led me to information about Senda Berenson Abott, considered the "Mother of Women's Basketball". She was the Director of the Gymnasium and Instructor of Physical Culture at Smith and was the first person to introduce women's college basketball to Smith and the world. Shortly after joining Smith, Senda read about basketball and contacted the creator in Springfield, MA to find out more about the game. On March 21, 1893 she organized the first women's college basketball game at Smith. First years played sophomores in the Alumnae Gym, now home of the College Archives and Sophia Smith Collection.

Apparently she adapted the rules of the game to meet the "current thinking about women's physical limitations" and to make the game less "rough." Her rules were published seven years after that first game and were used for many years. She was also the editor of the first Women's Basketball Guide, a member and chair of the United States Women's Basketball Committee, and in 1985 was one of the first women elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame.