According to Bridgewater College historian Dr. Francis F. Wayland, a women's athletic association started at Bridgewater College in 1904. Nearly all women who lived on campus in the early 20th century were considered members of the women's athletic association. The association was instrumental in the start of organized women's sports at Bridgewater College. They organized a tennis club for women in 1913. They organized a basketball club for women in autumn of 1914.
In autumn of 1920, the women's athletic association at Bridgewater College merged with the men's athletic association. According to Dr. Wayland, the merger emphasized equal status among male and female athletes. All Bridgewater College students were members of the association. The groups were overseen by an Athletic Council.
An official Bridgewater College Women's Athletic Association was chartered in autumn 1948. With the new Association's approval, the women's athletic association was again separate from the men's athletic association. The Women's Athletic Association again reorganized in 1950. The 1950s reorganization made the Association open only to athletes and interested parties; it no longer included all Bridgewater College female students.
Often going by its initials (WAA) the Women's Athletic Association was known, as was the men's Varsity Club, for its initiations of new members. Much like the Varsity Club's "goats," the WAA initiates were labeled "skunks" and carried Limburger Cheese. Like the male initiates they dressed in outlandish costumes. Both groups were also known to sell concessions at College sporting events.
The Association appears to have ended in the late 1990s.
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