The grandmother of Cornell women’s athletics

Before there was Title IX, there was Mary MacLeod. 

Seventy years prior to the federal law that opened women’s access to athletics, MacLeod established a culture of greater acceptance and popularity for women’s athletics at Cornell College. 

After earning degrees from Cornell (1892) and the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, she returned as director of physical training for women from 1901–1920. Under her leadership intercollegiate women’s athletics began with a win over Coe College in basketball in 1902. Although just one intercollegiate game was held that year, the yearbook noted there were 60 to 70 women in a tennis club, 25 in golf, 22 in field hockey, and two volleyball teams. 

According to “Memories of a Bloomer Girl” by Mable Lee (1977), MacLeod was the first professionally trained physical education teacher at an Iowa college. In 1905 she also became dean of women.

Read about the impact of 50 years of Title IX at Cornell College.