First Intercollegiate Women Athletes

Long before Title IX, two IWU students, sisters Grace and Rachel Green, were invited to Millikin to participate in a tennis tournament in 1917. It seemed almost certain that this was not a sanctioned event of the Little Nineteen Conference until an oral history with Grace Green Shields was found to contain her 1976 recollections of that event. Sanctioned or not, it was definitely the earliest women’s intercollegiate athletic event.

Grace and Rachel Green are pictured in the 1919 Wesleyana with an image of the trophy they won as a doubles team and wearing sweaters that Grace mentions in her interview. She says IWU gave them a letter sweater along with the cup.

Grace and Rachel Green are pictured above in the 1919 Wesleyana with an image of the trophy they won as a doubles team. Rachel’s granddaughter donated the trophy and a uniform (pictured below) to IWU’s archives this month!

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Cup mentioned by Grace in her 1976 interview

Jersey donated with the trophy cup