Women’s Basketball, 1928 – ECU Chronicles: Our History

1928 Women's Basketball team. Image Source: The Tecoan, 1929

With the Great Depression, many North Carolina families came to view ECTC as an inexpensive option for their sons, especially compared to UNC and N.C. State College, both men’s schools. As a result, ECTC’s campus culture became decidedly more masculinized as the steady flow of men on campus in the 1930s soon led to men’s programs in baseball, football, and basketball, plus a new athletic identity, the Pirate, supplanting the earlier standard, “The Teachers.”

However, in the fall of 1928, one year before the infamous Wall Street Crash and the onset of the Depression, ECTC athletics consisted of female students, still the vast majority on campus, playing intramurally. Pictured here is one of the winning teams, the “Senior Normal” team, from the 1928 basketball tournament held at Thanksgiving.

In 1928, ECTC had a four-year degree program awarding the highest level of teacher certification, the “A” certificate, and a bachelor’s degree. However, the school continued to offer its so-called “Normal” curriculum consisting of a two-year program for the “B” certificate. As of the 1928-1929, there were 489 Normal students, making it the most well-enrolled curriculum on the 750-student campus. First year Normal students were called “C” or “Junior Normal” students, and second year, “D” or “Senior Normal.” In addition to competition between the class teams in the four-year “College” program, the annual Thanksgiving tournament featured competition between the “C” and “D” teams for the championship loving cup. Since Normal students were the vast majority on campus, the Normal competition was often the most spirited.

Athletics in 1928 were modest, including tennis, volleyball, and basketball clubs as well as cross-country walking. There was no competition with outside institutions. Still, ECTC recognized that “much good … derived through the friendly contests held on campus.” Overall, sports were “encouraged not only for the physical training” gained through them, but “for the contributions which they make toward character-building. On the athletic field the student gains the power of self-control – a most valuable asset to every person who expects to become a teacher.”

The 1928 Normal competition was exciting because the “D” team had, the year before, when playing as the “Junior Normal” or “C” team, upset their elders, the “D” team, 35-19. In 1929, the “Senior Normal” team won a second Thanksgiving championship game, establishing itself as one of the most consistently victorious teams fielded in ECTC intramural play of the 1920s.

The Senior Normal team included, as forward, Lucille Kilpatrick (1909-2000), a graduate of Kinston High School where she also played basketball. At ECTC, Kilpatrick (front left) was active in the Lenoir County Club, the Lanier Society, the YWCA, and the Athletic Association. In addition to earning a monogram awarded by the ECTC Athletic Association, Kilpatrick was a cheerleader her senior year. A popular student, Kilpatrick was voted “Cutest” in her class.

After completing her teaching certificate, Kilpatrick embarked on a 45-year career in education including stints at elementary schools in Mount Olive, Goldsboro, and Kinston before joining, in 1965, Parrott Academy (now Arendell Parrott), a private school in Kinston, as a charter faculty. Kilpatrick retired in 1975, having established herself as one of ECTC’s most dedicated educators.

The Senior Normal team captain, Louise Gurley (1909-1980), is pictured in the center, holding the game basketball. A native of Goldsboro, Gurley was active in the Poe Society, the Athletic Association, and served on the Tecoan staff. Like Kilpatrick and Tilghman, Gurley earned a college monogram for basketball. Her senior year, Gurley was voted “Most Athletic.” After ECTC, she taught in the Wayne County Public Schools before becoming a nurse and then a nurse supervisor at the Duke University Hospital in Durham.

Another forward, Willie Mae White (1909-1987), a native of La Grange, was active in the Emerson Society, serving as its vice president her senior year. White (front right) was also a member of the YWCA and the Lenoir County Club. Her senior year, While was vice president of the Athletic Association and on the Teco Echo staff.

Team guards included Mary Lassiter (1909-1997), a native of Milwaukee, NC. Lassiter (back left), was active in the Emerson Society, the Athletic Association, and the Northampton County Club. Another guard, Louise Thompson (1909-1972), was active in the Emerson Society and the Athletic Association. A native of Hallsboro, Thompson (back, second from left) also served as president of the Columbia County Club.

Esther Mae Tilghman (1908-1988), a native of Kinston, was active in the Lanier Society, the YWCA, and the Athletic Association. Tilghman (back, second from the right) also earned a monogram. Tilghman and Kilpatrick, incidentally, had been teammates at Kinston High, making their ECTC years a continuation of their longstanding partnership on the court.

Doris Nettie Batson (1909-1997) a native of Wilmington, was also a guard. Batson (back right) was active in the Poe Society, the YWCA, the Athletic Association, the Student Council, and the New Hanover County Club. Batson also earned a college monogram for basketball.

Not pictured in the Tecoan photograph are guards Mary Louise McCormac and Sarah Hart Faircloth. McCormac, a native of Rowland, was active in the Poe Society, the YWCA, the Athletic Association, the Robeson County Club, and was a cheerleader her senior year. Faircloth (1910-1987), also a native of Rowland, was active in the Poe Society, the YWCA, the Athletic Association, and the Robeson County Club. Faircloth also earned a college monogram.

Considering the gender transformation of campus that began in the 1930s and continued thereafter this moment in ECTC athletic history seems charming but antiquated. Yet it remains significant insofar as it reveals the extent to which the later rise of men’s sports was made possible by foundations laid by women’s athletics in the first decade of the teachers college.

Sources

“Athletics.” Nineteenth Annual Catalogue of the East Carolina Teachers College, 1928-1929. P. 16. University Archives #UA50-02, East Carolina University Catalogs, 1909-2009, Box 1. Joyner Library. Greenville, NC.
“Classification of Students.” Nineteenth Annual Catalogue of the East Carolina Teachers College, 1928-1929. P. 16. University Archives #UA50-02, East Carolina University Catalogs, 1909-2009, Box 1. Joyner Library. Greenville, NC.
“Doris Nettie Batson.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 89. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Dorothy Louise Thompson.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 110. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Ellen Louise Gurley.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 97. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Esta Mae Tilghman.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 110. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Girls’ Basketball Team.” 1925 Kinston High School Yearbook. P. 65.
“Lenoir County Club.” 1928 Tecoan. P. 184. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Lucile Kilpatrick.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 100. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Lucile Kilpatrick Obituary.” News and Observer. March 25, 2000. P. 35.
“Mary Cornelia Lassiter.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 101. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Mary Louise McCormac.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 103. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Miss Louise Gurley Weds W. W. Sutton.” News and Observer. August 19, 1938. P. 6.
“Requirements for Admission and Graduation and Outline of Courses.” Nineteenth Annual Catalogue of the East Carolina Teachers College, 1928-1929. Pp. 26-28. University Archives #UA50-02, East Carolina University Catalogs, 1909-2009, Box 1. Joyner Library. Greenville, NC.
“Sara Hart Faircloth.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 95. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Senior Normal Statistics.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 119. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Sophs and C’s Win Thanksgiving Games. Teco Echo. December 8, 1927. University Archives # 50.05.02.v3n6. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37839
“Willie Mae White.” 1929 Tecoan. P. 112. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334
“Winning Basketball Teams.” 1929 Tecoan. University Archives # 50.01.1929. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, NC. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15334