Women athletes and their achievements through the history of WCU is on display at the Mountain Heritage Center. The exhibit Clearing the Hurdles: Women and Sport at WCU, 1889 to the Present opened early September and you can see it through through Dec. 12.
The exhibit explores the “people, events, and laws that helped shape women’s college sports into what they are today.”
“I think that the exhibit is part of the university’s initiative they had last year to try and highlight some of the Title IX era pioneers in women’s athletics here at Western,” said Peter Koch, the associate director of the Mountain Heritage Center.
Koch worked with History students to curate the exhibit as a part of the initiative at WCU.
The exhibit spotlights people and events throughout the years that have grown women’s athletics at WCU, like John Lee Madison hiring a woman to be the first physical education teacher back during the 1890s and Charles Poindexter, the first athletic director and football coach for WCU.
“He had a real vision of women’s sports,” Koch said. “Not necessarily being on the same level of men’s sports, but he definitely was trying to uplift women’s sports.”
One of the biggest contributions Poindexter made was his creation of the women’s basketball team.
“There were obviously a lot of students who wanted to participate, and they got that going, and they were playing other schools in the 1930s,” Koch said.
Through the basketball team, women’s sports kept growing and growing over the years, creating prominent names like Ruth Ballance Bost.
“She came here for a two-year teaching program, and she got to play basketball,” Koch said. “She was great, and she actually was a little younger; she was 16 when she was here.” Her Catamount jacket is one of the oldest items visitors will see is a Catamount jacket. After the death of her parents, she was sent to Western Carolina Teachers College (WCTC) in 1934 where she was a starting player on the WCTC basketball team.
Although Title IX took many years to develop into helping women’s athletics, WCU had already been supporting women’s athletics for many years.
“I think Western was way ahead of the game in some ways because we’ve always been a coeducational institution,” Koch said. “It was participating in playing other schools that was looked at as unfeminine, and it took a lot of effort to break through that barrier.”
Although WCU had been supportive of women’s athletics, there were still barriers that needed to be addressed and overcome to elevate women’s athletics.
“You could say we had some growing pains,” Koch said. “They had to get rid of some sports, including some women’s sports, to try and make funding and participation levels more equitable.”
However, women’s sports have still experienced tremendous growth. According to the exhibit, the number of women who participate in college sports has grown from under 5 thousand players to over 20 thousand players.
Some women’s players have also felt the acceptance of women’s athletics at WCU.
“I’ve felt very accepted and appreciated at WCU,” said Sofia Goclowski, a junior who plays soccer for WCU. “I’m sure our wins from the last two years have helped, but the respect from other sports, the acknowledgement from Chancellor Brown and others on campus make me feel appreciated.”
Just because there has been growth and acceptance doesn’t mean that women’s sports can’t grow further.
“There is always room for growth,” Goclowski said. “This applies to all schools, including WCU, and it will be exciting to witness women’s sports getting more and more competitive.”
Related story: WCU Mountain Heritage Center opens new Clearing the Hurdles exhibit
Version of the story was originally published in the Western Carolinian, September issue.
