Stolls support women’s athletics with SAW gift

Sheryl Atkinson Stoll ’70 never played sports at Cornell, but athletics and sharing sports memories were a big part of her life growing up because of her mother. 

This long-time Cornell College Trustee and her late husband and honorary alumnus William (Bill) Stoll honored her mother’s memory and her love for Cornell with a gift of $200,000 for the Stoll Women’s Locker Room in the Richard and Norma Small Athletic and Wellness Center (the SAW). 

“Being on the board for 18 years, it was clear that a new facility was needed,” Stoll said. “The plans were just extraordinary.” 

Stoll was especially thrilled that her gift would support women’s athletics, which have come a long way since she was a student on the Hilltop.

“I saw that the Women’s Locker Room was available as a naming opportunity, and it resonated because of my mother’s basketball team experience,” Stoll said. “I wasn’t an athlete myself in 1970 because Title IX was not passed until 1972. There were very few women in high school or college sports. But my mother loved sports and played everything available to girls at her high school in the 1930s.” 

Stoll grew up hearing the stories about her mother’s legendary high school basketball team, which inspired the words on the donor plaque outside the locker room: 

In loving memory of Sheryl’s mother, Maxine Hand Atkinson, and the undefeated Collins, Iowa, high school girls basketball team of 1933. 

In the 1930s girls played three-court basketball with two players in each section. Stoll’s mother was the jump center. Also, girls were limited to only two dribbles because the sport was considered too strenuous on women. 

But perhaps the biggest story was that of the state tournament of 1933. Everyone thought the Collins team was one of the best in the state. However, in the days leading up to the state tournament, the superintendent of the school made the decision to keep the team from going because it would be too hard on the young women.

“I still feel sad when I tell the story. It was clearly one of the greatest disappointments of my mother’s life, and she couldn’t do anything about it. They were devastated.” Stoll said. “I would like all of our Cornell athletes to understand how far women have come in the world of athletics, especially after Title IX. After that, Cornell started adding many women’s sports, and look where we are today.”

Stoll was in attendance to see the dedication of the SAW on Homecoming Weekend, funded as part of the Greater > Than Campaign, and to see the sign that honors her mother outside the Women’s Locker Room. 

“Sheryl’s enduring leadership and generosity continue to impress me, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without her support as well as from her dear late husband Bill,” President Jonathan Brand said. “Sheryl and Bill have stepped up over and over to make the college a better place, and it’s fitting that we honor her mother’s legacy and story in this building that means so much to the future of Cornell.”

The Stolls gave to numerous priorities of the college, including the Science Facilities Project, the Stoll Endowed Program for Law and Society, the Thomas Commons Renovation, and the Garner President’s House–just to name a few. 

“Hopefully, this gift will help Cornell continue to recruit and enroll record numbers of students so this outstanding liberal arts college will thrive for years to come,” Stoll said.