Female Football Classic

The Pi Beta Phi team, left to right: Gwyneth Bales, Jean Cummings, Betty Paul, Arline Campbell, Eugenia (Penny) Penick, Eloise Watt, unidentified watergirl, Betty Jo Jeppson, Marjorie Harman

Ready for some football? Well, it appears co-eds at the University of Idaho in the fall of 1939 certainly were. On the lawn of the University’s Administration Building, “Idaho’s first female football classic,” as it was described in the 1940 Gem of the Mountains, the UI yearbook, was held. Little did the writer know that the “first female football classic” would be the only “female football classic.” The opposing teams were composed of members of two sororities, the Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Moscow resident, and long-time Historical Society member and volunteer, Jean Cummings Rudolph was on the quarterback for the Pi Beta Phi team. She recalls that quite a large crowd gathered on the lawn to watch the spectacle which, if their photo is indication, the Pi Beta Phi’s took very seriously. Where in the world did they get those helmets and jerseys?

The Kappa Kappa Gamma team, left to right: Mary Lou Fahrenwald, Joyce Kenworthy, Mary Frances Marshall

The hard-fought game ended in a tie, but the “first female football classic” became the only female football classic once the Dean of Women, Beatrice Olson, after recovering from the shock that young women would deport themselves in such a manner, put an end to the competition.

Wonder what Dean Olson would make of the Williams sisters?

Return to Our Stories...