Since 1996, the Virginia Department of Athletics and the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center have collaborated in a celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, an event that brings national attention to the achievements of female athletes and to issues facing girls and women in sport.
This year, the event’s theme will be “Half a Century of Opportunity. Half a Century of Excellence.” Letterwinners from the first three varsity women’s teams at the University of Virginia will be honored at halftime of next Sunday’s Duke game.
On September 29, 1973, the field hockey team took the pitch on Nameless Field against Roanoke College. As the Cavaliers represented the University of Virginia that September afternoon, they represented more than just a field hockey team. They represented the first intercollegiate team contest by UVA female students and ushered in a new era at Virginia.
In 1971, UVA’s AD Gene Corrigan appointed Barbara Kelly as the assistant director of intramurals and physical education, making her Virginia’s first full-time female athletic staff member. After developing a successful intramural and club sports program for women, Kelly was named director of women’s sports and primary senior woman administrator. She worked to bring about the University’s first three women’s varsity intercollegiate teams in 1973-74.
“They had just admitted undergraduate women in 1970, and I arrived in September 1971, so, with only 500 women, I had to find what sports they were interested in participating in,” Kelly said in 2017 while reflecting on her career. “So we offered one sport per season: field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter and tennis in spring.”
In addition to her administrative duties, Kelly coached women’s basketball for its first two seasons. The team won its very first game, 37-32, at Mary Washington on Nov. 30, 1973. They also won their first-ever home game, topping Old Dominion 46-40. Chris Dawson led the team in scoring and rebounding that year, averaging 10.2 points and 12.8 rebounds. She would continue being a trailblazer for women’s sports her entire career, serving as the senior women’s administrator at Cal and then as the associate commissioner of the Pac-12.
Chesley Garrett led the first field hockey team, with the squad picking up seven draws and four losses. Their first victory would come under their second head coach, Dr. Diane Wakat, the next year on Oct. 3, 1974,…