Dartmouth Begins Year-Long Celebration of 50 Years of Women’s Sports

The athletic department will honor the women, coaches and pioneers that have enriched Dartmouth Athletics in women’s sports

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth Athletics Department is excited to announce a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s athletics at Dartmouth College in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Title IX. The Big Green will honor the women, coaches and pioneers that have enriched Dartmouth Athletics in women’s sports through the end of the 2022 calendar year and into the next as well.

“The inclusion of women’s athletics has served to strengthen the college and our athletic department,” said Interim Director of Athletics and Recreation Peter Roby ’79. “Their accomplishments are a source of pride, and I’m excited by this year-long campaign to highlight their contributions.”

The celebration begins with the launch of the website that already contains a timeline of Big Green women’s sports and will include feature stories, photo galleries and a list of events as they become available. A new Instagram handle — @50yrsofwomeningreen — has also gone live that will contain images to highlight women’s athletics, athletes and coaches from the past 50 years at Dartmouth.

All athletic competitions for the next year will make note of the celebration through a public address announcement to the fans in attendance, and every Big Green varsity team — beginning with spring season — will wear a patch of the commemorative logo on its uniforms for the celebration.

On Feb. 9, Dartmouth, which has secured Ledyard Bank to be the official sponsor of Dartmouth women’s athletics, will partner with the Student-Athletic Advisory Council to host an event for National Girls & Women in Sports Day with Big Green female athletes visiting local schools.

March is National Women’s History Month, and Dartmouth will host a virtual panel for all alumnae and current student-athletes on the topic, “A Look at 50 Years of Women’s Athletics at Dartmouth: Past, Present and Future.” In addition, the Big Green social media outlets will feature an alumna or coach every day of the month who made a significant impact on Dartmouth athletics.

Various reunions will take place in the spring for sports such as squash, field hockey, softball, lacrosse and sailing. There will also be an alumnae virtual mentoring event that is still being finalized along with a #ForHer game designated for each sport with promotional activities around the celebration.

The big summer event will be an Alumnae Harbor Cruise in Boston on June 23, the exact date of the signing of the Title IX law 50 years ago.

When the 2022-23 year kicks off in late August, the patches will return on the uniforms of the fall and winter teams as will the #ForHer games for each sport in those seasons. There will also be a Fall Women’s Weekend, an in-person event on a date that is expected to be finalized within a couple weeks.

“I am excited to be at Dartmouth College at a time when we are celebrating 50 years of women’s participation in athletics,” said Tiffani Sykes, the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Varsity Sports and the Senior Woman Administrator. “I am looking forward to honoring this important milestone, during which we recognize the accomplishments of our former athletes, rally around our current ones and tell a story that encourages young athletes to want to be a part of the Dartmouth College community in the future.”