Water Sports (Group C)
Introduction of Water Sports into University Competition
Sports in the 1920s is deemed by most people to be the "Golden Age of Sports" in America. The name comes from the boom in popularity for professional sports, but the result was a huge spike in the interest of sports by everyday people, including college students who competed at the intramural level. Friendly sports competitions in universities boomed in the 1920s. Teenagers and young adults being able to see sports legends, such as Babe Ruth, who was a huge inspiration to play sports themselves. The most popular sports of the 1920s were boxing and baseball, but swiming and diving were also prevalent. One of the most legendary swimmers from the 1920s was Gertrude Ederle. In 1926 as a 19 year old she became the first woman to swim across the 21 mile wide english channel that seperates England from the north-western tip of France. Water sports were already generally popular at this time but Gertrude Ederle really made an impact on the motivation of women to participate in water sports, whether it be for fun or for serious competition.
However, even though a spike of sport popularity was quite noticable, actual sport competition and particiaption for women only slowly increased in the early 20th century. This is so for historically a siginicant portion of women-based activity in sports were limited. Nevertheless, as female participation generally increased, more offical female clubs and organizations dedicated to a more variety of sport-types also began to become more integrated into universites. This includes more water-based sports as it also gained popularity as well.
Water Events at Florida State College for Women
As many other sport competitions, water sports in particular appear to have been more intramural as oppsed to being between insitutions. It was mainly held at one annual event at Lake Bradford in Tallahassee Florida. It had always been held as the last major sport event for the year and each class would compete against eachother. Freshman, Sophmores, Juniors, and Seniors, would all particpate and determine a winner based on points for each event.
The organization of this event adhered to the Women's Athletic Association, in which the points that they would earn would be tallied into all the points that they have earned for previous sports events throughout the year. This point system was not unique to only water-sport particpation, but instead was an integral part of the "F Club" organization. Women competing in sports year round would try to acheive a total of 200 points from all the events they competed in. If they ended up earning their 200 points then that would secure them to become a member of the F Club. Such events would include a variety of activitives not just limited to swimming but including; water sailing, canoeing, water polo and many others.
Works Cited
“College Athletics - History Of Athletics In U.s. Colleges And Universities.” StateUniversity.com, education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1846/College-Athletics-HISTORY-ATHLETICS-IN-U-S-COLLEGES-UNIVERSITIES.html.
Bell E.D, J.D., Richard C. “A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX.” The Sport Journal, 12 Oct. 2016, thesportjournal.org/article/a-history-of-women-in-sport-prior-to-title-ix/.
"Florida Flambeau, May 21, 1921." Fsu.digital.flvc.org, Heritage Protocol, fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/FSU_Flambeau_05211921 (IID)
Freeman, William P. “College Athletics in the Twenties: The Golden Age or Fool's Gold.” Institute of Education Sciences, Mar. 1977.
“Sports - 1920s Culture.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/a/rusd.org/1920s-culture/home/sports.