Ivy League Sports

The years 1979 and 1980 marked a key transition in Ivy League women’s tennis. The first official Ivy championship was held on April 26-27, 1980, at Harvard University under the direction of the school’s head coach Peter Felske. Teams from every school except Barnard attended, and Princeton and Yale tied for the championship.

Each team in the tournament was named and pictured in the eight-page official program, along with a description of the tournament format, names of the previous years’ Ivy League/Seven Sisters tournament winners, and a letter from Harvard Athletic Director Jack Reardon welcoming the spectators and participants. Reardon noted that this competition was replacing the Seven Sisters Tournament held in recent years and predicted that “this weekend of competition should provide all the excitement we have come to expect from Ivy championship events.”

He was right in his expectations for this first official Ivy tennis event, but those who had participated in the 1979 tournament also had found it to be exciting. Debbie Campbell Garwood ’79, the singles champion that year and a member of Princeton’s winning team, recalls all of her teammates being “so excited to win the tournament that year” and says she still has “the funny little red t-shirt from the tournament.” Sadly, Garwood’s singles trophy has been lost over the years, so she can’t check to see what was written on it, and thus settle an intriguing question. “For some reason,” she speculates, “I think I remember only Ivy Championships or something like that. I remember thinking it was really neat and am disappointed that it has been lost.” In any event, the 1980 tournament is officially recognized as the inaugural formal Ivy League championship competition.

In addition to Princeton, participants in the final Ivy League/Seven Sisters Tournament were Barnard, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, and Yale. Kris Kinney and Ann Renfrew of Princeton were doubles champions.