True Volunteers: Women's Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Tennessee, 1903 to 1976

This study outlines the history of women's intercollegiate athletics at the University of Tennessee from its founding in 1903 until the creation of the Women's Athletics Department in 1976. This period was chosen for study due to the absence of athletic scholarships and lack of complete records. Through newspaper research, archival research, and interviews, an attempt has been made to reconstruct, insofar as is practicable, the course of events followed by women's intercollegiate athletics at Tennessee during the period. This study aims to serve as a reference work on the history of women's athletics at Tennessee during the period.

Women's intercollegiate basketball was organized at Tennessee in 1903, only to peter out in 1910 after unsuccessful campaigns. The sport was renewed, along with tennis, in 1920. Basketball continued to gain in on-court success until 1926, when nationwide hostility toward women's intercollegiate sports dealt a death blow to the Tennessee program. Intercollegiate sports were renewed quietly in 1958 with a volleyball team, and grew slowly and steadily over the next 18 years. In 1976, the Women's Athletics Department was formed, granting UT's first athletic scholarships for women's teams.