January 15, 2012
From ‘Lady Friars’ to Olympians, PC women’s athletics celebrates 40 years
This article was first published in Providence College Magazine in Spring 2012, on the 40th anniversary of the women’s athletics program.
“The girls have three hours a week in Alumni Hall exclusively set aside for their varsity practice. Beyond these hours, many of the girls take advantage of extra hours throughout the week. … The major difference now between girls’ and boys’ basketball is that there is less physical contact in girls’ games. The girls’ varsity uniform is feminine looking, yet ideal for comfortable wear.” — The Cowl, Dec. 14, 1972
By Vicki-Ann Downing
When Providence College opened its doors to women in September 1971, it also made plans to accommodate their athletic aspirations by hiring Helen Bert, a New York City basketball coach, as coordinator of women’s athletics.
Converting a small area of the Alumni Hall gymnasium to a Women’s Center with fitness equipment and meeting space, Mrs. Bert progressively introduced 12 sports for women. It was slow going at first — the “Lady Friars” were initially allotted only an hour a week to practice basketball — but under her persistent guidance over the next 17 years, scholarships were established, championships were won, and women in sports were accepted and celebrated.
This year, PC marks the 40th anniversary of the women’s athletics program started by Mrs. Bert, who died in 2002. Today, 182 women compete in basketball, cross country, field hockey, ice hockey, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and volleyball. Women receive 59 percent of available athletic scholarship aid at PC, an amount proportional to their enrollment.
During those four decades, women earned All-America honors 121 times. Fifteen women made 23 Olympic appearances. Women’s cross country captured the College’s only national varsity team title, the NCAA Championship, in 1995. When women’s ice hockey debuted at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, seven current and former Friars led Team USA to the gold medal.
“The 40th anniversary celebration honors and recognizes female student-athletes, past and present, whose many years of participation and dedication have provided Providence College women’s athletics with such a rich tradition and history,” said Jill M. LaPoint, executive associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator.
A reception to honor former athletes was held during Alumni & Family Weekend in February 2012.
LaPoint noted that PC’s commitment to athletic opportunities for women pre-dated Tide IX, the 1972 federal legislation that required any educational institution receiving federal aid to provide equality in programming.
“PC was on a pace to implement a women’s collegiate athletic program before it was mandated by the government,” said LaPoint.
Basketball’s early days
Dr. Donna T. McCaffrey ’73G, ’83 Ph.D., ’87G, assistant professor of history, played on Mrs. Bert’s first basketball team. She remembered the experience in a booklet, The Untold Story: The Origins and Early History of Women’s Basketball at Providence College, compiled in 2000.
“(Bert) recruited-dragged, nagged, and harangued interested women to come to a plenary practice session during the first week in October 1971,” McCaffrey wrote. “Seven freshmen and one graduate student composed the first varsity. Handicapped by the restricted use of the gym, it was a less than auspicious beginning.”
But it was a beginning. Catherine Little Bert ’77, now a college trustee, remembers that when she arrived at PC in 1973 she played “everything Helen told me to play.”
“The goal was to field teams,” said Little Bert, who later became Mrs. Bert’s daughter-in-law. “Helen would say, ‘I need you to play field hockey,’ or ‘I need 10 students to play volleyball,’ and so I played.”
Through Helen Bert’s persistence, money for athletic scholarships was awarded in 1975.
The first recruits began to arrive on campus, and “when I saw them, I was in awe,” said Little Bert.
One was Lynn Sheedy ’80. As a high school junior, Sheedy was injured during the state basketball finals in Alumni Hall. There were no trainers then, so Sheedy limped into the Women’s Center.
“A woman came out, dressed to the nines, and said, ‘I can take care of that,’” Sheedy recalled. “She wrapped my knee, and I went back out and won the state championship. That was Helen Bert. Later, she said to my mother, ‘We would love to have your daughter come to school here.’ That was the beginning of nine years ac PC for me, four as a player and five as a coach.”
Sheedy was among the women whose experiences as student-athletes led to careers in coaching and college administration. She was coach, athletic director, and dean of students at Salve Regina University and also coached at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
BIG EAST arrives
Sheedy witnessed many changes in the women’s athletics program. In her early days, she rode “the bumblebee” — a gold and black van — to games. She wore a skirt as part of her basketball uniform and paid half the cost of her Adidas sneakers. All women’s teams shared a locker room, and the field hockey team played on the outfield of the baseball field.
But in 1979, Sheedy’s senior year, the BIG EAST Conference was organized, bringing a larger budget, additional travel, and more scholarships. Among chose recruited to play was Kathy Finn Hill ’84, a star on her state championship high school basketball team in New Jersey.
Hill joined “a really up-and-coming program” at PC. “They were ready to break through, and I wanted to come aboard and help them do chat,” she said.
Hill remains the only player in PC women’s basketball history to be named BIG EAST Player of the Year. Her jersey was the first to be retired by the program in 2010.
Hill knew what it was like to be excluded from spores. She waited her turn to play basketball alongside her four brothers on a court across the street from her home.
“I was constantly fighting to play,” Hill said. “I had to really ask. It only happened if they had nine people and they needed another one. Girls just couldn’t walk onto the court and play. But once you were good enough, they let you.”
Today, her five children are athletes, including her daughter Kaitlin Hill ’15, a freshman on the rugby team.
“As good as the men”
The women’s athletics program reached the international stage in 1998 when Team USA defeated Canada for the first gold medal in ice hockey, led by seven current and former Friars, including goalie Sara DeCosta ’00.
“It really is amazing, the representation PC had on the Olympic team. That was really neat,” said DeCosca.
PC women’s ice hockey “was legendary,” said DeCosca. “When I was a little girl I used to watch the Friars play. A lot of the top female players in the country were from the PC program. When I started learning a little bit about the women’s game, I knew PC was where I wanted to be.”
Among the most successful women’s programs is cross country, which qualified for the NCAA Championship meet for 22 consecutive seasons through 2010 and won the national title in 1995. Head coach Ray Treacy ’82, director of track and cross country operations, took over the program 28 years ago.
“It was just a fledgling program that Mrs. Bert wanted to make something of,” said Treacy. “She gave me the reins. Her first words to me were ‘I want you to be as good as the men.’ They were second in the country at the time. That wasn’t putting any pressure on me straightaway, of course. But we got there fairly quickly, and it’s been a great run.”
Multi-sport athletes
In the early days, it wasn’t unusual for women to play multiple varsity sports. Jackie Gladu Barto ’84 selected PC because it would allow her to play three— field hockey, ice hockey, and softball.
“Mrs. Bert and the coaches said I could do it if I kept my grades up,” said Barto. “When field hockey ended in October, I went right to the ice, even if I missed a week or two of practice. When hockey ended, it was right to the softball diamond.”
Barto, who coached field hockey, softball, and ice hockey at PC, retired last year after 12 seasons as head coach of The Ohio State University’s women’s ice hockey team. She also coached the U.S. National Team to the gold medal at the 2008 World Championships in China.
PC’s early female athletes don’t consider themselves pioneers. Instead, they credit those who came before them, especially Mrs. Bert and Dave Gavitt ’89Hon., the legendary men’s basketball coach and athletic director, who died last year.
“Dave Gavitt was a visionary. Helen Bert built the framework. It was her wisdom, foresight, intuitiveness, class, and dignity,” said Sheedy. “Many female athletes all through the country, coaching at high schools and colleges, had a great experience at PC and were able to take what they learned and share it with others because of the two of them.”
