|
|
Women's Sports: 40 years in the making
Gymnastics celebrates its beginnings
MU first put down tumbling mats, aligned the balance beam and filled the chalk box for its new women’s gymnastics team in 1967. Marge Meredith, BS Ed ’53 and M Ed ’59, a retired (’87) physical education faculty member, remembers this year quite well.“We started at a very beginning level,” Meredith says. “In Missouri, no one knew a whole lot about gymnastics. In the late 50’s, I conducted workshops around the state and in the early 60’s interest in starting sports for women grew.”
In the early 60’s, Meredith attended the National Institute of Girls and Women’s Sports, which set the wheels in motion for the start of an MU gymnastics team.
Meredith recalls how the team traveled with their own money, drove their own cars, and stayed with family or friends when they competed on the road. “On a trip to Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University), we stayed on the floor with my Aunt and Uncle.”
Now, women take their access to sports for granted, according to Meredith, who taught physical education for 30 years. “When I was in college, there were no collegiate teams, only intramurals. Opportunities for women today are great – they can compete in just about anything.”
“It is wonderful to see the numbers of women who participate in sports today – from elementary school level on through high school and college.”
Gymnastics, like most sports, has evolved greatly in its technical delivery to include extremely complex maneuvers. Technology has created new opportunities for the sport: the spring floors allow higher takeoffs in floor routines and the sport’s move away from wood beams as balance beams creates a more durable surface for routines.
“They are so advanced now,” Meredith says. “They are beyond what the Olympics were in the 1960s and probably the 70’s.”
In one practice, Meredith remembers how Dan Devine, MU’s winning most football coach from 1957-70 (record: 92-38-7), was interested in using gymnastics trampolines to improve his players’ balance. Devine came to McKee gym, where the gymnastics team practiced and competed, to evaluate the usefulness of the trampolines. He subsequently used the trampolines to train his football players.
“I thought it was interesting that he thought to use the trampolines to improve his players’ performance,” Meredith says.
Since its inaugural 1967 season, the gymnastics team has prospered greatly. This year, Adrianne Perry, a junior studying textile apparel and management, finished 10th in the NCAA Championships’ second session and 22nd overall.
Marge Meredith and Marilee Howell, M Ed ’57, also a retired faculty member from the former physical education program, share fond memories of preparing teachers and building awareness of physical education and play.
“Physical education and play are pardoned to every aspect of life,” Howell says. “You look around and see so many problems because people aren’t moving, exercising. Physical education is an important part of life’s journey and should be incorporated throughout all learning processes."
Tennis, Swimming, and Track and Field launch in the ’60s
Howell taught physical education at MU from 1952 through 1994 and shares many memories with Meredith, including a very similar story of happy beginnings. Howell’s story, however, is about the beginnings of the women’s tennis and swimming.
“In these individual sports, we took our best performers from our intramural teams, and created collegiate teams to participate in competition,” Howell says. “We either went to or hosted play days to compete against Missouri’s state colleges. We also competed in activities with local campus’ like Stephens College.”
In addition to these sports, a major part of her work at the University was orchestrating Mo-Maids, an annual synchronized swimming show that ran each spring through the early 90s. Howell was most busy on the tennis court during her tenure at MU, working with intramural players and the collegiate team — and she is still an active player today.
“When I retired, we were listed as being among the top two percent of physical education programs across the country,” Howell says. “Our students gained extensive academic knowledge because of their anatomy and physiology courses from the School of Medicine, for example.”
Alumna puts lessons to practice
Sally Myers, BS Ed ’66, was a member of MU’s first women’s tennis and gymnastics teams. Myers, daughter of Clay Cooper Jr., BS Ed ’40 and M Ed ’47, a longtime former coach and athletics administrator at the University of Missouri, recalls MU’s physical education faculty.
“I love them,” Myers says. “The faculty members stand out as role models for me. I really admired them and thought they were true professionals and leaders in the field.”
Myers noted how the women faculty members were key to female participation in sports. “They identified students who had skills and organized the team for competition. Most of the players were also physical education majors, so it was a good opportunity to both study academics and play sports with colleagues.”
After graduating from MU, Myers earned graduate degrees and then went on to teach physical education as both a faculty member and administrator at Miami University in Oxford, Oh. for 30 years.
Even after twelve years of retirement, sports still play a major role in her life. “I try to be active,” Myers says. “Whether it’s swimming, tennis or walking, I am always on the move.”