Women's Athletics
Women’s athletics thrive at Concordia, but the varsity programs currently known and loved did not have their beginning until 1972 and have undergone some dramatic changes in management over the decades, from the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) and the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Women have fought for the chance to have their talents shine on the court, on the field, in the pool, and more, and while this trend towards gender equality is still ongoing, women’s athletics have nonetheless gained great strides.
The Pre-WAA Decades (1891-1926)
Athletics at Concordia have always been a vital activity for its students since its founding in 1891, but women’s athletics at Concordia didn’t truly emerge until almost thirty years later in 1920. In that year, the Women’s Physical Education (PE) department made its debut under the direction of Hilda Loverud, which brought PE classes to Concordia’s female students. It should hardly be considered a coincidence that the women’s PE department emerged merely a year after the ratification of the 19th Amendment (and the feminist movements born from this era) which gave women the political autonomy to vote. Some of the PE classes that arose from this era included various sports such as gymnastics and basketball, the latter of which proved to be a favorite of the students. There were also interclass tournaments, which included a freshman team versus a senior team, as well as games with the Agricultural College (now known as North Dakota State University) at the Fargo YMCA (until 1923 when only interclass games took place).1
The WAA Decades (1926-1972)
According to the 1932 Cobber yearbook, by 1926, the Women’s Athletic Association made its way to Concordia’s PE department with a “large and active membership” of Concordia's female students. While not yet affiliated with the National Women’s Athletic Association (this would happen in 1932), it made women’s athletics more prominent than in previous years. Though varsity programs did not yet exist, interclass tournaments provided women with the chance to experience competition, and to be chosen for these teams was considered an honor. WAA sought to promote interest in women’s athletics and provide women with the chance to receive honors and awards for their participation in athletics. It also worked under a point system, where the more a female student-athlete participated in the class competitions, the more points she would earn, and resultantly, rewards, such as a pin and monogram, which she would receive at an end-of-the-year banquet.2
The WAA not only qualified the female student body to participate in various sports which Concordia still has, such as basketball, tennis, hockey, and baseball, but also classes such as riflery, hiking, and ‘floorwork’ which included “marching, free exercises, and corrective gymnastics.” Soccer arrived in 1927, and by 1932, volleyball, softball (then known as kittenball), and swimming were added to the curriculum. Every year, tryouts were held in the PE class and teams were chosen by the PE director. Once the teams were selected, interclass tournaments were held every year. It seems that these athletes were held in high esteem as yearbooks from the era describe the experience as “real development along the path of lively and worthy womanhood.” As of 1941, Concordia grew to have fifty WAA members.3
The AIAW Era (1972-1982)
Not much changed for women’s athletics until 1972 with the advent of Title IX. With this came a promotion of women’s athletics, which were to have a higher budget for their programs than previously. Women also gained their own varsity squads both nationally and locally. While the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), didn’t directly emerge from Title IX (it was founded in 1967), it nonetheless came to showcase the first women’s national championships for the newly minted varsity teams.4
Concordia’s women’s programs also had their first opportunity to experience conference play with the Minn-Kota Intercollegiate Conference in 1972. The initial members included Concordia, Bemidji State University, Moorhead State College, North Dakota State University, and the University of North Dakota (Grand Forks), with associate members Mayville State University and Valley City State University. A year later, the University of Minnesota Morris was added to the conference. Eventually this conference dissolved into different divisions entirely, to become Division I, Division II, Division III, and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics programs, but at the time, they were all of the same standings.
Under the direction of the Minn-Kota chairman, Shirley Malcolm of Concordia, conference membership allowed women the opportunity to explore a kind of organized competition unlike ever before. Conference play included sports such as basketball, badminton, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, tennis, track and field, and volleyball in the beginning. The number of games was decided based on financial and staff limitations of each conference member, but also the number of female athletes.5 By 1981, however, Concordia chose to transition women’s athletics from the Minn-Kota Conference to the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) under AIAW at the Division III level.
1983 Into Today with the NCAA
By the 1982-1983 season, AIAW had collapsed and was replaced by the NCAA. Apparently, the downfall of AIAW had “little effect” at Concordia, but left some worried about cutbacks in women’s athletics after the incredible advances AIAW and Title IX offered women in 1972.6 Despite this, however, the women’s basketball team won championships both under AIAW and the NCAA in 1982 and 1988 respectively. Their championship banners can still be found in the rafters of Memorial Auditorium, offering a promise and expectation of greatness for future female athletes.
Throughout the fifty years of athletic competition for women, Concordia has had a string of success stories starting in 1976, with women’s basketball being Minn-Kota Conference champions. They continued this remarkable success in both the Minn-Kota and MIAC conferences under both AIAW and the NCAA. In fact, the women’s basketball program may go down as having the longest streak of continuous successes Concordia athletics has ever seen, having been Conference champions in 1978-1982, 1986-1988, 1990, and finally again in 2006. The only sport that can rival this incredible success is the men’s football team, which has been around since the 1920s and has had a much longer time to find success. That said, the importance of the women’s golf program which also saw consecutive conference championships from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1995 to 2000 should be acknowledged. Women’s track, soccer, and volleyball also captured conference championships between the 1980s to the mid-2000s on various occasions.7
By 2020, Covid-19 led to the canceling or greatly diminishing of the 2020-2021 season for athletes across the nation. As a result, the NCAA sought to give athletes another year of eligibility, allowing seniors to continue with a fifth year of both study and play. At Concordia, this optional 5th year was known as a Flex Year, which applies to all students who were scheduled to graduate between May/August 2021 and May/August 2025.8
The Concordia athletic department and coaching staff have also exhibited a strong record for women in sports. In 2018, Rachel Burgeson became Concordia’s first female athletic director. In 2021 the college received excellent marks on the Tucker Report, which offers yearly grading of female coaching for college programs, by noting the percentage of which female programs are headed by a female coach. According to the Concordia Athletics website, “Concordia was the only school in the MIAC to receive the top grade in the report. Concordia has a female head coach for 70% of its women’s sports, which is a big step above the MIAC average. The Tucker Center report shows that females held 47.2 percent of head coaching positions (60 of 127) for women’s sports within the MIAC for the 2020-21 academic year.” It should be noted, however, that the story of gender equality for women is still ongoing both nationally and locally in athletics, so this story is far from over.9
Author: Casey Coste
Footnotes
[1] Concordia College, The Cobber (Moorhead, MN: 1932), 21; Cobber, 1941, 152; Cobber, 1932, 214.
[2] Cobber, 1932, 215; Concordia College, The Scout (Moorhead, MN: 1929), 202; Cobber, 1932, 215.
[3] Scout, 1926, 187; Cobber, 1932, 214; Cobber, 1932, 218; Scout, 1929, 202; Scout, 1929, 204; Scout, 1929, 207; Cobber, 1941, 152.
[4] History com Editors, “Title IX Enacted,” in History, accessed February 10, 2022, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/title-ix-enacted; Linda Jean Carpenter and R. Vivian Acosta, “Back to the Future: Reform with a Woman’s Voice,” Academe 77, no. 1 (1991): 23–27, https://doi.org/10.2307/40251009.
[5] Jenna Clark, “Women’s track team begins season,” Concordian, April 14, 1972, 8.
[6] Tom Gjersvig, “Demise of AIAW has minor effect at CC,” Concordian, March 25, 1982, 9.
[7] Concordia College Archives, “Concordia Quick Facts: Athletic Championships” Concordia College Archives, accessed April 4, 2022, http://concordiacollegearchives.weebly.com/concordia-quick-facts.html
[8] Concordia College, “Athletic Director Rachel Bergeson,” Concordia (MN), accessed April 4, 2022, https://gocobbers.com/staff/AthleticAdministration/Athletic_Director.
[9] Concordia College, “Cobber Flex Year,” Concordia College, accessed April 4, 2022, https://www.concordiacollege.edu/directories/offices-departments-directory/registrar/cobber-flex-year/; Jim Cella, “Concordia Receives ‘A’ In Tucker Report For Women In College Coaching,” September 24, 2021, https://gocobbers.com/sports/index/2021-22/concordiatopstuckerreport.