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Dan O’Brien, Hamline’s Athletic Director, stressed the importance of this event.

“We need to honor the contributions that our women make to Hamline University. It is important that we recognize their efforts, because there was a point in time when womens athletics wasn’t recognized as important or equal to mens,” O’Brien said. “Our position here at Hamline is that it is.”

This is evident in the history of Hamline sports. Womens basketball started keeping records of their games in 1974, but the Piper team existed well before that year. Womens volleyball has been around since 1987. The Piper gymnastics team has women making the All-American team starting in 1982. Contrasting this evidence, though, is the history of the womens hockey team, which was the last team to join the MIAC. Hamline added their women’s hockey players into the MIAC conference in 2000. Still, Hamline has a rich history in womens sports, and has established itself as a school that stands behind its women athletes.

And so, on Monday night, 160 female student athletes were honored for their hard work and dedication to sports. Eleven different teams and groups were honored at the event, including Hamline‘s cheerleaders, basketball team, student trainer staff, hockey team, and the rest of the women’s teams.

All of the groups, who sported matching outfits, were announced to the audience and walked around the circumference of the court, carrying the gift bags they received as part of the event. The gift bags included a green “National Girls & Women in Sports Day” bracelet, a Piper bobblehead, and a note from Hamline’s women athlete alumni. The women athletes were greeted by applause, enthusiastic cheers, and even high-fives from a group of young girls basketball players in attendance. After all the female athletes lined the edges of the court, they received a large ovation by those in attendance. After the applause, the athletes handed out the white boxes they had been carrying along with their gift bags to the young girls in the stands. The boxes, happily received by the young ladies, contained the same Piper bobbleheads the Hamline athletes had received.

The womens sports coaches were also honored at the event. The ten coaches each received a $250 grant at the athletic department meeting on Tuesday of this week. The funding for the grants and for the Women in Sports event came from the women athlete alumni on campus at Hamline. This group of women holds fund raisers (this year they held a very successful wine tasting event) to bring in money for women athletics. Their efforts greatly contribute to womens athletics and the greater Hamline athletic community.

After the women athletes and coaches were recognized and the gym floor cleared, the Piper men’s basketball team ran off with the second win of the night, beating Augsburg 87-74. Both women and men had much to celebrate Monday night at Hutton arena.