1896 Stanford Women’s Basketball Team
First Group of Women to Initiate an Intercollegiate Sports Competition for Women in any Sport
Date of Birth:
1896SECTORS:
BIO:
The 1896 Stanford Women’s Basketball Team–Stella McCray (Captain), Agnes Morley, Jessie Ryan, Lena Ducker, Anita Corbert, Frances Tucker, Mattie Clark, Esther Keifer, and Mayme Merritt– were the first group of women to initiate an intercollegiate sports competition for women in any sport. In February of 1896 they felt they were ready to beat Berkeley and issued a challenge for a game to the women at the university. A group of Cal women decided to assemble a team and accept the challenge, the game against Stanford would be their first game ever. This game, which was the first women’s intercollegiate sports competition, was held at the Page Street Armory in San Francisco on Saturday April 4,1896.
The game created quite a stir throughout the Bay Area, as no men’s college basketball was being played in the West either. The Cal men wouldn’t play their first basketball game until 1907. These women were not only pioneers of women’s sports, but also introduced the game of basketball to the west coast.
Womanhood is a public art and digital media project that promotes the historical contributions of women to Santa Clara County. https://womanhoodproject.org/
Womanhood is supported by the County of Santa Clara Office of Women’s Policy.
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Project Artist & Trigger Image Source: Elba Raquel
Profile Image Source: Stanford Archive – Stanford Historical Photograph Collection
