New York World report of the First Women's Intercollegiate Basketball Game in 1896

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August 16, 1896, Sunday – The World: New York

COLLEGE GIRLS PLAY BALL IN BLOOMERS

A game of basket ball between eighteen young women, students of California universities, attired in regulation gymnasium costumes, was an event that caused several hundred fashionable women much excitement in San Francisco the other day. The game was between girls from the University of California and from the Leland Stanford, Jr. University.

No men were admitted to the Page Street Armory, where the game was played, and there was much fruitless curiosity among the masculine citizens of San Francisco as a consequence.

The audience was composed of San Francisco society women and students of the two colleges. Many of them wore the colors of the opposing teams and strained their throats with the college yells while the game was in progress.

The fact that men were not admitted to the game did not prevent them from remaining in the vicinity of the armory, and as the noise of the battle rose it took a score of police to keep the roof of the building clear of sport-loving gentlemen who did not want to miss the excitement.

HAD UNDERGONE HARD TRAINING

The members of both teams had undergone lengthy training and were as fit as any athletes that ever appeared on a football field. Many of them were bicycle riders and for two months before the game—which was the first intercollegiate game of basket ball ever played on the Pacific coast—had eaten at a training table where the sweets and delicacies so dear to the feminine palate were strictly tabooed.

Their training was as rigorous as the athletes of Yale or Harvard undergo and the result was seen in the excellent game played.

The girls all wore bloomers and sweaters. The Stanford nine wore cardinal sweaters without stays or belt, brown bloomers, a cardinal polo cap with a tassel, black stockings and gymnasium shoes. The girls from the State University at Berkeley wore white sweaters, blue bloomers, black stockings and shoes and had the college monogram embroidered on their garments as well as shoulder knots of blue and gold.

PLAYED A GOOD GAME

The game was played in two halves of twenty minutes each with an intermission of ten minutes during which the players were rubbed down.

The first half was a tie, each side scoring one goal. In the second half Stanford scored on a foul and Berkeley failed to score, so the game was decided in favor of the wearers of the cardinal by one point.

There was no feminine delicacy about the playing. The girls went in to win and they played earnestly. At times several players were down in a heap, and there were many fine exhibitions of high jumping.

Great speed and endurance were shown and until time was called it was do or die. When the game was over the friends of Stanford were so elated that they carried the victors from the armory. On their return to the college grounds they were met by a brass band and escorted in carriages to a banquet in which all of the students participated.

The gate receipts were divided between the opposing teams. The Stanford girls will use their share in building a cinder path for women. The money obtained by the Berkeley girls will help to defray the expenses of the male athletic team on its Eastern tour.

Excerpted from "The First Decade of Women's Basketball: A Time Capsule of Media Reports from the Dawn of the Game."

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