
Senda Berenson Abbott
mother of women's basketball
Frail and dogged by poor health as a child, Senda Berenson Abbott took gymnastics so she would have more energy for her true passions ~ music + art. Instead, the lessons convinced her of the importance of physical education for all girls.
As a teacher at Smith College, she organized the first collegiate women's basketball game in 1892 according to her own rewritten rules {later published as Basket Ball for Women}. That contest pit freshman girls against sophomores, with the winning team hosting the losers for dinner afterwards. Senda's aim: make sports + exercise part of life, not just for an elite few, but for every woman.
revolutionizing | women's sports
overcoming | society's notion that rigorous exercise was unhealthy and inappropriate for women
emphasizing | teamwork + character over winning
1892 | modifies James Naismith's basketball rules so they are appropriate for women {eliminating "unnecessary roughness" and even, at one point, dribbling}, then introduces the game to her gymnastics students at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
1901 | authors the first official guide, Basket Ball for Women, so young ladies could play to win while following agreed-upon guideposts. She later brings volleyball, fencing, field hockey and folk dancing to Smith.
1985 | one of the first two woman inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
from | to
frail, unhealthy child | catalyst for women to participate in competitive sports
born on
March 19, 1868
born in
Biturmansk, Lithuania
birth name
Senda Valvrojenski
nickname
"mother of women's basketball"
citizen of
Lithuania
The United States of America
~ 1880 ~
daughter of
Julia and Albert Valvrojenski
~ changed their last name to Berenson when the family came to the United States in 1875 ~
sister of
1 older brother, Bernard Berenson
~ famed art historian ~
1 younger brother, Abie
2 younger sisters | Elizabeth + Rachel
great-great aunt of
photographer Barry Berenson
actress Marisa Berenson
grew up in
Boston, Massachusetts
educated at
home
~ health issues kept her from attending school on a regular basis ~
Girl's Latin School (Boston Latin Academy)
Boston Conservatory of Music
~ attended, but did not graduate because of her health ~
Boston Normal School of Gymnastics
~ became the Department of Hygiene and Physical Education at Wellesley College ~
loved studying
art ~ music ~ literature
married to
Herbert Vaughn Abbott
~ married 1911-1929 ~
influenced by
her older brother, Bernard
Dr. James Naismith
George Santayana ~ philosopher
Ralph Adams Cram ~ art critic + architect + friend
died on
February 16, 1954
~ Santa Barbara, California ~
"Cultivate yourselves...If you are interested in vital things outside your work, it will reflect itself in your work."
Cultivate Yourselves | ca. 1890
"Until recent years, the so-called ideal women was a small waisted, small footed, small brained damsel who prided herself on her delicate health, who thought fainting interesting and hysterics fascinating."
Senda Berenson: The Unlikely Founder of Women's Basketball | 1894
"Unless a game as exciting as basket ball is carefully guided by rules as will eliminate roughness, the great desire to win and the excitement of the game will make our women do sadly unwomanly things."
Basket Ball for Women | june 1899
"We need to cultivate the spirit that fair play comes first—defeat or victory afterwards."
Basket Ball for Women | june 1899
"Rough and vicious play seems worse in women than in men. A certain amount of roughness is deemed necessary to bring out the manliness in our young men. Surely rough play can have no possible excuse in our young women."
Basket Ball for Women | june 1899
"I know an unusually fine man and splendid teacher who was thrown out of a college mainly because he would not pass foot ball men who did bad academic work. Shall we allow these most undesirable factors to come into women's athletics in the face of what men have experienced?"
Together with formal gym ... | ca. 1892 - 1920
"Americans have forgotten how to play. We take life seriously, hard, dismally ... whatever we do we do it in order to win."
Working Girls | ca. 1892 - 1920
"It is a stupid truism today that so much of the success of life depends on our well-being ~ yet how few appreciate the dire necessity of working for health."
The Ideal of Physical Training | ca. 1892 - 1920
"The great evil in our athletics today is that we lose sight of all things except the desire to win—to win by fair means or foul—to beat the other side. Hence the importance of the recreation side—the joy in playing—is entirely lost."
Athletics for Women | ca. 1892 - 1920
"A sound body will do more to create a sane, normal, joyous aspect toward life than sermons and philosophy."
Examination of Children | ca. 1892 - 1920
"Of all times and places the summer and a camp are most ideal for the playing of games. It is then one can catch the spirit of play ~ one can then play all day with a clear conscience."
Basket Ball for Girls' Camp | june 1915
"Worry is the great uglifier of the body and soul. Seek after cheerfulness—laugh and grow fat—put all the brightness into life that is possible."
The Importance of Sleep | ca. 1892 - 1920
for further reading about Senda Berenson Abbott:
curated with care by Kathleen Murray {september 2014}
Senda introduces basketball at Smith
After modifying James Naismith's rules for basketball to suit the social expectations of women of her day, Senda started teaching the game to her gymnastics students. She eventually published her rules and was the authority on the game for decades.
Fuzzy Images | CC-BY 2.0 | https://www.flickr.com/photos/67144010@N05/7002852197
Smith College Women's Basketball
The Class of 1902 Smith College basketball team, coached by Senda. The game had been played at Smith for 10 years by the time these women would graduate.
Churchh | public domain | http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith-College-Class-1902-basketball-team.jpg
Wrong Guarding at Wall
A picture of a girl incorrectly guarding another player on the court, from Spalding's annual Official Basket Ball Guide for Women {1916-17}, which Senda edited when she resigned from Smith after her marriage to professor Herbert Vaughn Abbott, an English professor at the college.
Elizabeth Richards {Smith College} | PD-US