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The Early Years of Averett Varsity Basketball

Although Averett College had existed, under one name or another, since the late 1850s, the students did not engage in intercollegiate competition until roughly 1920 (although early information is spotty and a few precursor contests may be lost to history).

In its early decades, Averett had a required exercise program, but it wasn’t until the early 1900s that the school began to give students the option of replacing ‘formal exercise’ with participation in sports clubs – typically basketball, tennis, swimming, and hiking.  Thru the 1919-20 school year, such sports appear to have been entirely intramural, with the seniors playing the juniors, one literary society playing the other, and occasionally a team of students taking on a team of faculty.

From fall 1920 to possibly as late as the spring of 1930, basketball – always the campus’ favorite sport – was briefly elevated to the level of intercollegiate competition.

In the early years, this amounted to nothing more than a team of Averett’s best players taking on the cross-town institution Randolph-Macon Institute (which would eventually become known as Stratford College).  In the 1920-21 and 1921-22 academic years, R.M.I obliterated Averett in both games: although the score of the first game is unknown, the R.M.I. yearbook describes it as an "easy victory"; the second game was a 50 to 2 rout.

It is perhaps unsurprising that there was no game in 1922-23.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Averett spent the next four years building up its program from one intercollegiate game per year to a total of five, and going on an unexpected run of 8 wins and only 3 losses.  The significant improvement in Averett's level of play is clear in their re-established competitions with R.M.I.  Although Averett had been handily defeated in their previous two contests, Averett's women won all of the next five, outscoring R.M.I. by a total of 164 to 78 (including a 45 to 4 thrashing in the spring of 1926).

Averett's four seasons of intercollegiate success divide neatly into two halves.

The first two years, under coach Frances Shumate (1923-25), were the warm-up act.  The only intercollegiate game each year was a win against R.M.I.

In the latter two years, under coach Inez Hood (1925-27), a significant increase in activity is evident.  Between four and five intercollegiate games were played each season.  Both teams were led by their captain, Forward Frances Chappell (pictured alone to the left, and with the 1926-27 team to the right).  Hood's teams put together a two-year record of 6-3 despite a significant increase in the level of competition.

Over the course of these four seasons Averett’s varsity team outclassed almost all their competitors, going undefeated against both R.M.I. and Concord College, and splitting a pair of games with Blackstone College.  Aside from getting destroyed twice by the State Teachers’ College women from Farmville, Averett was nearly unstoppable on the court during these seasons.

Despite this early success, Averett’s intercollegiate aspirations seem to have immediately fallen apart.  Although a ‘varsity’ team remains pictured occasionally in yearbooks, they are not known to have played any outside competition other than Danville’s own George Washington High School team between fall of 1927 and spring of 1935.  While it is not known what caused such a sudden drop-off in varsity competition at Averett, it is plausible that the Great Depression (which took hold during the summer and fall of 1929) was a key factor in most of those years.  A national movement against women's college athletics was also beginning to take hold in the late 1920s and may also have been an influence on the sudden cessation of intercollegiate competition.

By the time Averett began fielding a varsity basketball team again, it was as part of a newly developed “Inter-City League” during the 1935-36 school year, which included Averett, George Washington High School, the recently renamed Stratford College, and the local YWCA.

Known Averett College Varsity Basketball games between 1920 and 1927 (home team, when known, in bold)