The Quiet Years: the 1930s-1950s

Even though certain elements of athletics were restricted to them, the women of Wisconsin, like women all across the country, played around the rules as best they could. Play Days, for instance, are a perfect example of both women's desire to compete athletically and the oddity of the system in place. Though technically intercollegiate, the wildly popular events (participated in by 80% of schools, according to one estimate⁴⁴) were an acceptable form of competition because all the players from various schools were jumbled together and divided into color teams. The absence of school affiliation was thought to eliminate the emphasis on winning. Additionally, teams were unable to train in advance and could not be accused of catering to superstar athletes. The events were, for a time, mutually satisfying: students could try their best against large numbers of competitors, and faculty could rest assured that no one would be morally deformed by an overabundance of team spirit.

There were other loopholes in the ban on intercollegiate competition. Some sports, such as archery, bowling, and swimming, conducted telegraphic meets with distant schools. This popular technique (over half the schools polled in one study participated⁴⁵) employed telegraphs to transmit updates and scores to the competitor. The 1933 Badger reported that "intercollegiate competition is the chief attraction of the Archery Club."⁴⁶ The team competed against Smith, Sweet Briar, and Mount Holyoke, and participated in national intercollegiate tournaments. It appears that only face-to-face, team competition was the true danger.

The 1930s presented Wisconsin students with a number of coed opportunities, from mixed baseball, volleyball, tennis, and golf clubs and tournaments to the newly founded Hoofers Club. More recreational activities such as horseshoes and ping pong were instituted. In addition, a gradual shift in participation is evident, from inter-class to intramural competition. Taken together, all of these trends point toward a less serious, less competitive attitude toward sports—an attitude which was accompanied by a decrease in the visibility of women's athletics, as well as a dramatic drop in the number of participants.