Illinois H.S.toric

Girls' volleyball is one of the most popular sports offered by the Illinois High School Association. In 1973, the big year in which the IHSA introduced girls' sports competition, its board voted to allow girls to participate in interscholastic volleyball competition. After rapid growth in the next two years the first state volleyball tournament was held at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston. Wilmette (New Trier East) defeated Park Forest (Rich South) for the title, 15-10, 6-15, 15-3, in the first title game. In 1977 the first two-class tournament was played. Volleyball, however, had a long pedigree in the high schools prior to its sponsorship by the IHSA. For many decades volleyball was one of the most popular intramural sports in the high schools, and in the private schools—the Catholic schools in particular—it was also a popular interscholastic sport. In the 1920s, there was a brief moment in time, during 1925-26, when some Chicago public high schools played interschool volleyball matches. Volleyball as an interscholastic activity was far from robust in the early years, but it existed and deserves to be examined.

Volleyball was invented in the YMCAs in the 1890s, and there the sport originally flourished as both a men's and a women's game. But during the 1920s in Chicago, volleyball was primarily a women's and girls' sport. The girls played with a myriad of amateur teams from the settlement houses, parks, playgrounds, and YMCAs. The Amateur Athletic Federation conducted volleyball tournaments during the winter and drew school-age girls' teams throughout the Chicago area. Rapidly colleges and high schools adopted volleyball as an activity for girls; the growth of Girls Athletic Associations in the high schools during the decade fueled the formation of intramural teams. By 1925, there were nearly 32,000 girls in the Chicago public high schools engaged in intramural sports, usually conducted among the four classes. In terms of numbers, volleyball ranked second in popularity to softball (indoor baseball) with some 431 teams and 5,934 participants. Girls found the sport exciting, and in most of the high schools volleyball soon replaced a staid form of girls' basketball (which was already staid) called captain basketball.

Because interschool contests in the Chicago public schools were only permitted in golf, tennis, and swimming, the girls playing volleyball chaffed over their inability to compete with other schools. They apparently considered interclass contests a poor substitute for interschool contests. A Parker High girl complained of the lack of participation of seniors in the annual interclass volleyball contests. Trying to put her finger on the reason why, she noted, “Do our girls grow more individualistic as they grow to womanhood or is the fault of the training? Girls trained in our public playgrounds are much more dependable—better sports.” In the public parks and playgrounds, the girls competed vigorously in outside games, and this greater competitiveness apparently made the difference in their interest in the game.

Hyde Park 1926 volleyball team that defeated Fenger and Bowen.

This competitive fire engendered by volleyball, however, led some girls during the 1925 and 1926 seasons to look for competition with teams from other schools. There would not be a full slate of competition with other schools, but rather one or two contests a year between the representative teams. For example, the Parker High girls' volleyball team on April 9, 1925, played a game with the nearby Normal Teachers College girls' team, besting them 43 to 31. The following year, the Parker girls beat the Normal girls 35 to 23 in a game in early May. The games were reported in the school newspaper and apparently the girls were unaware that such games were not allowed. They may have considered the games a form of training by competing against an older more veteran team. In inter-high school competition, Hyde Park High after its regular season of interclass contests fielded a school team that played two outside games, beating first Fenger, 30 to 27, and then Bowen, 29 to 19. The Hyde Park-Fenger contest held sometime in late winter probably constitutes the first interscholastic girls volleyball game in Illinois that we have on record. These interschool contests would not continue.

By the 1926-27 season, Chicago school authorities were clamping down on interschool competition by girls. One reason was to bring the league into conformity with the Illinois High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), whose bylaws included an outright ban on all girls' interscholastic athletics. The Chicago public schools were entering the IHSAA that year to participate in the state basketball tournament and the track and field, tennis, and golf tournaments. The three spring sports had been under sole sponsorship of the University of Illinois up to 1926, but thereafter the IHSAA assumed joint sponsorship with the University. Thus, the Chicago Public Schools Athletic League desiring that its schools join the IHSAA not only ended the previously legally sponsored competition in golf, tennis, and swimming, but also began vigorously enforcing its the previous ban on interschool contests in volleyball, as well as in basketball and softball. In 1927, the high school yearbooks reported only intramural volleyball activity.

Hyde Park 1931 intramural volleyball team at practice.

For the next several decades, intramural volleyball prevailed in the Chicago public schools. The game engaged some of the finest female athletes to come out of the Chicago schools during the 1920s and early 1930s. In 1928, the Schurz senior volleyball team was led by Captain Nan Gindele, a future track and field champion and Olympian. In 1934, the Schurz senior team featured Elaine Bogda, who became a world class speedskater and eventually entered the Speedskating Hall of Fame. The Schurz 1934 team pushed the envelope a bit that year, playing two outsides games with the American College girls, a first team and a second team game on March 28.

The Schurz-American College game of 1934 appeared to be the last outside volleyball game played by a Chicago public high school until the 1970s. However, among the Catholic schools, who were not yet members of the state high school association, volleyball developed as an interscholastic sport by 1940. That year, the Catholic girls schools of Lourdes, Loretto High, Loretto Academy, St, Martin, and Mercy competed in a tournament. Also participating in the tournament, was Chicago Christian, a Dutch Reform private school. In 1944, the Catholic Youth Organization began sponsoring an annual girls' tournament among the Chicago Archdiocese schools. The tournament was divided into grade school and high school divisions, and championships were awarded in April each year. One Chicago high school, St. Mary's of Perpetual Help, conducted an annual volleyball march between the school's girls' varsity team and a team of senior boys.

While the girls in the private schools were engaged in interschool contests, the girls in the public schools from the 1930s to the early 1970s participated in outside amateur leagues, such as the Chicago Park District League and the Kiwanis Volleyball League. In the early 1970s, with changes in the United States society, the ideology of physical educators had evolved from the need to ban all intercollegiate and interscholastic sports to acceptance of women's capabilities and natures to engage in competitive athletics. The Illinois High School Association recognized these changes at this time and vigorously adopted a program of interscholastic competition during the early 1970s, among them volleyball.