Calisthenics and Drills: the Dawn of Regimented Exercise

Women's athletics had its biggest boost to date when Clara E.S. Ballard arrived from the Boston's Allen School of Gymnastics in 1889. She convinced the Board of Regents to allow her space in Ladies' Hall to conduct voluntary classes in physical culture, as it was then called. Because she was not affiliated with the university, Ballard was required to provide all of her own equipment and received no salary, but she did charge students a fee to participate.

Physical education at the time was synonymous with gymnastics and calisthenics; classes consisted of drills and exercises using equipment such as dumb-bells, Indian clubs (objects resembling bowling pins), wands, and various arrangements of bars, usually performed to live piano accompaniment. The setup in Ladies' Hall was less than desirable: the room was shared with music classes, so equipment and furniture had to be moved at the beginning and end of each session. Dressing rooms consisted of a curtained 4'x6' space with a basin for sponge baths. Ballard's classes were popular enough that the next year the university purchased her equipment and hired her on at a salary of $250. Gym class became a requirement for freshmen and the following year her salary doubled.

Interest in activities outside the gymnasium increased with the creation of a pedestrian club in 1892 and the popularity of seasonal activities such as sleigh riding and boating; female students also joined together to build a lawn tennis court. There were coed cycling and tennis clubs, and from 1896 to 1900, men and women presented a joint gymnastics exhibition.

By the end of the century, men's intercollegiate athletics were well established, in no small part due to the support of President Adams, as well as the increasing popularity of football, which Merle Curti and Vernon Carstensen dubbed the "common denominator of student interest."⁹ They were also becoming more organized, as evidenced by the formation of the precursor to the Big Ten Conference. Women, on the other hand, were still fighting for the physical space needed to perform their exercises.