(Editor’s note: This is a draft of a chapter about the history of girls sports at Princeton High School for Volume II of “Bartel’s History of Princeton,” 1940-1990.)
To trace the history of girls track and field at Princeton High School, we must first understand the history of the sport, and girls sports in general, in Wisconsin.
There was no interscholastic competition in girls sports in the state in the early 1960s, but congressional approval of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 drew attention not only to discrimination against minorities but also to women’s rights and sexual discrimination.
The Tokyo Olympics and a televised track and field meet between Russia and the U.S. in 1964 helped increase the public’s interest in women’s sports.
The state Department of Public Instruction, meanwhile, published a pamphlet promoting “Sports for Girls” despite reluctance from the male-dominated Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Sports writers such as Len Wagner, of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Tom Butler, of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, and Lee Fensin, of the Waukesha Freeman, helped further statewide discussion of girls high school sports through much of the decade.
Girls competition at the time was limited to intramurals organized by physical education teachers and the schools’ Girls Athletic Associations. But a growing number of girls wanted more competition than the local programs provided.
(Girls could also get waivers to compete in Amateur Athletic Union and club sports outside of school, but there were only a handful of clubs, primarily for swimming, in the state at that time, and they were based in larger cities.)
“Despite the stand against competitive athletics for girls taken by education people in the state of Wisconsin, sports for girls are apparently on the increase,” noted Wagner, who reported that Green Bay Preble was instituting a track program for girls in August 1964.
In his Sports Views and Reviews column, Wagner cited a Medical Tribune article by Dr. Frank Barnes Jr., chairman of the school health committee of the North Carolina Medical Society.
“Physical education and athletics do not represent any significant hazard for the healthy female,” Barnes wrote. “… It is generally agreed that a female athlete may compete in most sports at any time during her menstrual cycle. … It has been proved time and time again that the healthy, happy, physically fit girl does better in school, is better adjusted in society, has more self-confidence, and tends to adjust to married life more easily.”
While acknowledging interscholastic competition could provide better training for the girls, increase opportunities to meet people and provide a stronger challenge for the more skilled girls, opponents argued that varsity sports would limit the number of girls who could participate and, well, girls were just different than boys.
They explained that girls were more emotional than boys, which posed unique problems such as hard feelings among girls when they did not make a team and poor sportsmanship. Competitive sports could lead to girls who are more mannish in behavior, they said.
There were also practical concerns such as insurance costs, lack of coaches and availability of facilities.
Nevertheless, the Department of Public Instruction pushed for changes prior to the WIAA annual meeting in November 1964. An amendment on girls sports was approved by members, 331-22, in a mail ballot and reaffirmed at the meeting with several stipulations.
The emphasis in girls programs should be on participation and sportsmanship, the WIAA noted, and league, tournament or state championship competition would be discouraged.
“WIAA officials emphasized that girls sports will not be spectator affairs and keen interscholastic rivalries will not be permitted to develop,” the Associated Press reported.
The most popular “individual sports” for girls, according to the WIAA, were swimming, archery, badminton, tennis, bowling, fencing, golf, ice skating, skiing, and track and field. It classified basketball, curling, field hockey, lacrosse, softball, speedball and volleyball as team sports.
The WIAA Board of Control authorized the group’s executive director to name an advisory committee to help implement the newly acquired control of girls sports. The group included three administrators, three women physical education representatives and a member of the state DPI.
“The official change in WIAA attitude toward girls sports – from prohibitive to permissible – will be developed with an emphasis on increased opportunities,” a news release noted. “But wholesale interscholastic competition will not be developed or promoted, and the girls program will not rival or resemble the interscholastic program for boys, as in some states.”
The WIAA oversight of girls sports took effect immediately.
The Green Bay Press-Gazette praised the move in an editorial: “The decision of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association to assume jurisdiction over competitive sports for girls in high school and junior high school was long overdue but is still most welcome. … Meanwhile, the schools maintained the fiction that the girls would rather be in the bleachers or at the most acting as cheerleaders and that somehow this was better suited to their passive roles in life. … It may be that many girls are not emotionally suited to athletic competition. But the number who are involved in such activities, without making them ‘masculine’ or hurting them in their future role as wives and mothers, shows that many girls welcome healthy athletic competition.”
Orlo Miller, DPI coordinator of health, physical education and safety, wrote in a Wisconsin Education Association newsletter in February 1965 that educational opportunities should not be denied a student because of sex and that girls had been denied the opportunity to participate in school-sponsored athletics.
“We can no longer accept the idea that the role of girls is to sit and watch the boys perform,” Miller noted. “Neither should girls be relegated to the role of cheerleader or majorette.”
With the advisory committee’s input, the WIAA published its first rules and regulations for girls sports in March 1965.
To participate in a “regulation event,” a girl had to have received six hours of instruction over a two-week period within the school’s intramural program. Practices, the WIAA decreed, had to be supervised by a female faculty member, though the school could authorize a male faculty member to act as an assistant.
Girls needed written approvals from their parents, school principal and doctor on file with the school before they could compete in an event. The approved events included Sports Days and Modified Sports Days.
Sports Days involved competition between teams from two or more schools. Girls were limited to one sport per Sports Day, no more than one Sports Day per week and no more than six Sports Days per sport in a school year. Travel should be restricted to short distances, the WIAA said.
Modified Sports Days involved competition between two or more schools lasting no more than half the regulation length of a full game or match.
Schools could also schedule Play Days when girls played with, rather than against, girls from another school and did not retain team/school identity.
The most controversial aspect of the rules involved directives to limit spectator appeal – they didn’t want men leering at the girls – and to minimize publicity about the events. The WIAA also said there could be no organized cheering, and the schools could not charge admission. Sports Day host schools were responsible for providing officials. Awards were prohibited except those of “intrinsic” value presented by a school to its own students.
After reading the WIAA Bulletin announcing the rules, Butler, in his Side Lines column, said the WIAA seemed to be apologizing for sponsoring the program. “The WIAA can never be accused of promoting girls sports,” he said.
“Coaches usually have the girls start off a Sports Day or Modified Sports Day by reading the rules. This often exhausts competitors before play ever begins,” Butler joked. “… No admission can be charged for a girls Sports Day. That in itself should hold down the crowd. It’s bound to eliminate that undesirable element which likes to gate-crash. Freebees take the challenge out of it. The rules also state that ‘under no conditions shall there be organized cheering.’ More applause is allowed in a school library than you’ll hear in the gym during a girl Sports Day. It’s even quieter at a Modified Sports Day. The WIAA fears an occasional huzza at a Modified Sports Day easily could degenerate into a series of wowees, completely destroying the solemnity of the occasion. … Iowa sponsors a state girls basketball tournament with crowds up to 15,000 attending games. Sometimes they cheer. There’s also an occasional whistle, other than from the officials, of course. Iowa girls still hold their heads high. … As matters stand now WIAA girls sports rules seem to inspire all the thrills and excitement of Arbor Day.”
WIAA Executive Director John Roberts responded to the ridicule from Butler and others by explaining that the rules were “primarily what our women’s physical education people and school administrators wanted.”
He emphasized that the schools did not want a highly competitive program with leagues and tournaments.
Sports Days, however, drew dozens of schools across the state. The first Sports Day track and field state meet was held in May 1964 at Monona Grove High School. Twenty-nine schools participated. Teams were limited to five girls each. Each girl could compete in two running events and one field event.
The top sports headline of the day was “Clay knocks out Liston in minute,” but Butler used his column to focus on the Monona Grove meet and the lessons he learned.
“I succumbed to a devilish impulse and attended a girls Sports Day at Monona Grove High School last Saturday,” he wrote. “It was the first statewide track meet attempted for girls in Wisconsin. This represents a modest step for girls athletics, but an important one. Physical education instructors were pleased with the beginning.
“Some weeks ago, I chided the WIAA for its regulations for girls sports. The rules forbid organized cheering, discourage spectator appeal, minimize publicity and play down awards. Patricia Collins, chairman of the Division of Girls and Women’s Sports, Platteville State University, invited me to the track meet so I could see what is being accomplished in the field of girls athletics. She and her colleagues showed me the error of my ways.
“A total of 141 contestants from 29 schools participated Saturday. They ran, jumped, and threw with as much enthusiasm as boys do. Only a handful of spectators watched. That’s the way the instructors wanted it. ‘We want to start slowly,’ Pauline Martin, physical education instructor at Monona Grove, explained. ‘We’re trying to keep girls’ athletics from getting to the point where a small group could tie up a whole gym or track. This is new to us. We don’t want a lot of people around now.’
“‘You know, girls are more emotional than boys,’ Pauline stressed. She explained how boys can shrug off disappointments more easily than girls. As one who tangles regularly with three girls of my own, I got the message. She went on to point out that until this year there was no specific governing body for girls athletics as such, so teachers asked principals if the program couldn’t be put under WIAA control.
“It is under this WIAA direction then that a statewide meet, such as the one Saturday, can be held. Girls must compete in intramurals before qualifying for a state meet similar to the one at Monona Grove, where only five entries per school were allowed. Entries were limited to five so they could travel in a car with an adviser and there would be no need for school buses. A $2 per girl entry fee was charged and this included a noon lunch. …
“Lack of qualified officials poses a problem as the gals struggle to get their program off the ground. ‘We have as much trouble training officials as contestants,’ Miss Collins admitted. Dr. Beatrice Baird and Lee Stephenson of La Crosse State University, Miss Martin’s alma mater, brought a dozen students to help out Saturday. Even home economics teachers and a few housewives did their bit to make the meet a success. Saturday’s program included 13 events – the 50-yard dash, 100, 220, 440, 50-yard low hurdles, 440 relay team, running and standing broad jump, discus, shot put, softball throw, basketball throw and high jump. …
“I saw no Olympic champions out there Saturday. No one expected any. Now, though, there’s an outlet for gals with ambitions along these lines. One bystander put it this way: ‘This is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to girls sports.’”
The girls track program continued to gain momentum in 1966 with the help of the Wisconsin Division of Girls and Women’s Sports, whose members, such as Collins, included physical education representatives from Wisconsin colleges.
Collins, who served as state DGWS chairman from 1965-1966, early in the school year asked all the state colleges and universities to sponsor Sports Days for their area high school girls. Fourteen colleges hosted events involving fifty-seven high schools. The high schools then were asked to hold their own Sports Days. Thirty-six schools held Sports Days attracting about 140 high schools.
The sports in some areas included not only track and field but also swimming, gymnastics, bowling, archery, badminton, volleyball, basketball and softball.
Fond du Lac Goodrich High School’s invitational Sports Day became the big – and in many cases only – track and field meet of the season for many schools in this area of the state.
The Waukesha Freeman in 1966 surveyed several Milwaukee suburban coaches and athletic directors and found only a slight increase in the number of Sports Days since the switch to WIAA supervision.
Several athletic directors told writer Lee Fensin that they lacked the facilities to provide girls and boys sports.
“If girls do eventually get the freedom to compete in sports on the same level as the boys, something will have to be done about the lack of facilities,” Fensin prophesized. “This would take money, which many people aren’t willing to spend to let the girls have their varsity sports. … At one time, men wouldn’t hear of their wives going out of the home and taking jobs. Now, it is quite popular for women to work outside the home. The same will happen with girls varsity sports in the schools. It is almost unheard of now, but it will eventually come about when the problems of facilities and money are somehow worked out.”
Forty schools participated in the Monona Grove Sports Day state track and field meet in May 1966. Forty-eight competed in the 1967 meet, when Wagner reported in the Press-Gazette that interest was so keen it seemed likely that regional or sectional meets would be needed in 1968.
Eight sectionals were held in May 1968, with the top three girls in each event qualifying for the state meet in Monona Grove. The sites were Monona Grove, Fond du Lac, Fort Atkinson, West Allis, Racine, Wausau, Menomonie and Mazomanie. Sixty schools participated in the state meet.
Faced with growing interest in girls track and field, the WIAA held a series of eight meetings across the state in fall 1968 to give members another chance to discuss the existing rules and to offer suggestions about future plans.
The WIAA Bulletin in November included an abbreviated summary of the meetings. A lack of facilities emerged as the top obstacle for schools, the organization said, and there also seemed to be a trend toward liberalization of the rules, including stronger competition and lifting the restrictions on spectators and publicity.
Still, a majority of schools “opposed any apparent trend away from so-called femininity,” according to the Ozaukee County News-Graphic.
After the Girls Sports Advisory Committee reviewed the meeting information, the WIAA Board of Control in January 1969 lifted the ban on publicity and admission fees for individual sports such as track, gymnastics and swimming, but maintained them for team sports such as volleyball, basketball and field hockey.
More than 300 high school girls competed in the fifth annual state track and field meet at Monona Grove in 1969. Officials also announced the state meet would move to Appleton East High School in May 1970.
Princeton High School launched its girls track program in time for the 1970 season.
The Princeton story
Mrs. Pat Richardson, of Green Lake, joined the Princeton School District as the elementary and high school art teacher beginning with the 1968-1969 school year. She agreed to coach girls track, assisted by physical education teacher Jerald Hanneman, when it debuted at PHS in spring 1970.
“This is something new for Princeton, but we are one of the few schools in the conference that has a girls track team,” Hanneman told High-Times, the student newspaper, on April 9, 1970. “Until competition starts, we don’t know how we’ll stand.”
The only meets on the girls’ schedule were a triangular with Cambria and Fall River at PHS in late April and the sectional meet at Fond du Lac in early May.
The team included three seniors, Rosalie Borzick, Annette Messa and Kathy Winiecki. Other team members listed by the newspaper were Joan Barden, Annabelle Bednarek, Diane Bednarek, Sue Bentilla, Janet Clewien, JoAnne Disterhaft, Nancy Disterhaft, Hollie Giese, Ruth Golz, Cindy Jantz, Cheryl Kozlowski, Mary Jo Ladwig, Marlene Matuga, Sally McClelland, Jolene Murphy, Cindy Otto, Karen Otto, Tina Otto, Sue Schneeberger, Carol Sosinsky, Judy Sosinsky, Ruth Treder, LeAnne Workowski, Nancy Workowski, and Shiela Wyse,
The girls made their debut on April 28 and finished second with 57 points, well behind Fall River (84) but well ahead of Cambria (11).
PHS, the smallest school and newest program among the 13 schools competing on May 2 at the Fond du Lac sectional, won by the host school, finished sixth with 12 points and qualified two girls for the state meet at Appleton East: Sue Schneeberger, a freshman who finished first in the high jump at 4 feet, 8 inches, a sectional record, and Cindy Jantz, a sophomore who finished third in the discus with a toss of 78 feet, 9.5 inches.
The day’s schedule included several new events, including the mile (1,600-meter) run, 880-yard run and 880-yard medley relay.
Schneeberger also finished fourth in the 440-yard dash at the sectional and teamed with Jantz, Marlene Matuga and Donna Wielgosh to place fifth in the 880-yard relay. Nancy Disterhaft placed fifth in the mile run.
I could not locate Schneeberger, but Cindy (Jantz) Jachthuber, of Princeton, recalled competing at the sectional and state meets. The team held several practices, she noted, with Hanneman more involved in the training than Richardson.
Jantz adapted quickly to the discus. “It came almost naturally for me,” she said. “It was kind of like throwing a Frisbee.”
The top three finishers in each event at the 11 sectionals qualified for the sixth annual state meet. Neither Schneeberger nor Jantz reached the podium at state, where 542 girls, representing 126 schools, competed.
“The girls didn’t represent the stereotyped image of husky women athletes,” writer Jan Wood reported for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “Many were pretty, most were trim. … Pigtails and ponytails tied in ribbons topped off outfits that ranged from tailor-made track jerseys of their own to makeshift uniforms of similarly colored T-shirts. Kewaunee’s girls borrowed the boys’ long wrestling jerseys.”
WIAA makes it official
The WIAA Board of Control voted in May 1970 to direct and coordinate organization of tournament activity in girls track and field, gymnastics and swimming beginning in 1971.
“It was agreed the office would be able to absorb the added duties without increase in staff, and it was understood there will be close involvement with the Girls Sports Advisory Committee as well as with persons who in the past have set up some of the statewide competition,” according to the WIAA Bulletin.
The WIAA established the framework and dates for the first “sanctioned” state tournament program in girls track and field, gymnastics and swimming in September.
About 225 schools participated in the track sectionals in May 1971. Girls who finished first or second in the 14 events at the 10 sectionals qualified for the first official WIAA state meet at Appleton East on May 22. The times and distances recorded at the 1970 meet were considered the existing state records.
Girls from forty-seven schools competed at the meet, with Reedsburg claiming the first WIAA state title in girls track and field. Nine state records set the previous year were broken.
The WIAA divided track competition into two classes (A and B) based on school enrollment for the 1972 tournament, added regionals in 1973 and added Class C in 1976. The association combined the girls and boys meets in Madison beginning in 1976. (The meets moved to La Crosse in 1990.)
Princeton High School, meanwhile, hired its first female physical education teacher, Mrs. Rochelle Olson, for the 1973-1974 school year. She agreed to coach girls track and girls basketball.
The girls track team placed third in the WIAA Class C regional at Poynette in May 1975, graduated only one senior from the 1976 squad and won its first Dual County Conference title and regional championship in 1977.
No girl from PHS qualified for the WIAA state track meet until 1981 when sophomore Ann Meyer advanced in the two-mile (3,200-meter) run with a second-place finish at the Class C sectional at Kohler. She finished seventh at state, returned in 1982 with an eighth-place finish, and became the first PHS girl to reach the podium and score points at the WIAA girls state meet with a sixth-place finish in 1983.
Sally Severson qualified for state in the 800-meter run in 1985, when she finished third in Madison, 1986 and 1987, when she finished fourth.
The PHS girls won another regional track title in May 1988 with Dale Grubba as coach. They finished second at the sectional meet as Michele Resheske qualified for the state meet in two events. She finished fifth in the high jump and sixth in the long jump at Madison.
PHS repeated as regional champion in 1989 and at the sectional meet qualified seven girls for state: Resheske in the long jump, Doris Pulvermacher in the high jump, Angela Belke in the discus, Rene Tiegs in the 400-meter dash, and the 1600-meter relay team of Amy Juzenas, Angie Prellwitz, Amy Reimer and Tiegs. Belke scored the team’s only point with a sixth-place finish.
Other girls sports
After Congress passed Title IX in 1972, requiring equal opportunity for girls in educational athletic programs receiving federal funds, the WIAA established official girls sports programs throughout the rest of the decade – volleyball in 1973, cross country in 1975, and basketball and softball in 1976.
Princeton High School girls (and boys) had competed in volleyball with other Central Lakes Conference schools – Green Lake, Oxford, Endeavor, Almond and Wild Rose – in the early 1950s.
“Princeton High School made history last Thursday night, March 29,” the Times-Republic reported on April 12, 1951. “It marked the first time that both a girls and boys team have defeated a conference school. Under the new physical education program directed by Miss Ann White and Mr. Ralph Lenz, both boys and girls played volleyball against another Central Lakes Conference school. The object of the games is to develop a better school spirit for both groups of students. Princeton’s feminine players opened the evening’s activities by defeating Oxford in two thrilling games 16-14, 17-15. The team was handicapped by the smallness of Oxford’s gym, with numerous serves hitting the ceiling. Girls that played were JoAnn Radtke, Maleta Reetz, Dorothy Klapper, Mary Rita Ostrander, Grace Lorbiecki, Diane Golz and Connie Crimmings. High scores for the girls were Diane Golz 9, JoAnn Radtke 9. With the girls setting the pace, the Princeton boys really swamped the Oxford boys 15-5, 15-9.”
The newspaper reported in 1953 that the PHS girls volleyball team practiced from 2:30-4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays while the boys took the Monday and Thursday time slots.
“No conference games will be played this year, but all games will be played at Almond on Play Day, March 14,” the newspaper noted.
PHS in 1954 moved to the Dual County Conference, which did not include girls volleyball. The local girls continued to play volleyball in physical education class and, beginning in 1969, an intramural program.
Coach Rochelle Olson established the girls volleyball program under the WIAA rules in February 1973. The team began interscholastic play in 1975 and went 3-5. Sandy Farris received the team’s first MVP award at the all-school banquet in May 1976.
Princeton High School girls began playing basketball with a six-game Dual County Conference schedule in 1973-1974. After the program lapsed for two years, Coach Kay Apkarian was hired for the 1976-1977 season, which ended with Madison West winning the inaugural WIAA girls basketball state tournament. Lillian Dahnke was named the most valuable player for the 2-11 PHS girls at the annual awards banquet in June 1977.
Cross country for boys and girls started as a one-year trial in 1977 under coach Dave Meinke. Ann Meyer became the first PHS girl to qualify for the WIAA state cross-country meet in 1980.
The PHS softball team debuted in 1979 under coach Douglas Drager and played a 10-game schedule. No results or individual awards were reported in the local newspaper in 1979 or 1980. Juniors Shelly Luzenski and Julie Lashock were named to the all-conference team in 1981 when PHS went a program-best 5-5 and finished second in the conference.
Princeton girls in grades 3-8 had been playing recreation softball in summer and basketball in winter since 1968 when Pat Campbell founded the “Teddy Bears” program. The team was sponsored by the Princeton Woman’s, Lions and Rotary clubs and St. John’s Catholic Church Altar-Rosary Society.
“About fifty enthusiastic grade-school girls showed up for the first practice of the girls softball Little League last Wednesday evening,” the newspaper reported on June 20, 1968.
The girls chose Princeton Teddy Bears as their name and elected team captains from each grade. The first club officers were Mary Jo Ladwig, president, Joan Murphy, vice president, Carol Sosinsky, secretary, Judy Sosinsky, treasurer, Cheryl Walker and Wendy Miller.
The team practiced and played two games against their mothers in the opening season but divided into two age groups in later years and played teams from Montello and Green Lake.
Campbell led the program through 1973.
“I hope that even though I’m not coaching any more, that the girls of Princeton are not left out or forgotten as far as their sports are concerned,” Campbell told the newspaper in May 1974.
Three high school students – June Naparalla, Kay Jantz and Lori Clark – volunteered to coach the younger girls as softball became part of the city’s summer recreation program that summer.
Please let me know if you spot any errors or can provide any anecdotes about the history of girls sports at Princeton High School.
Thank you for reading and caring about local history.