Sydney University Women's Sports Association (1910 - )

The Sydney University Women's Sports Association (SUWSA) was established on August 5, 1910 when twenty-four women committed to 'further the interests of sport among University women' by becoming 'full active members during the season 1911'. The action was prompted by the continual refusal of the Sydney University (men's) Sports Union, founded in 1890, to admit the women rowers, tennis and hockey players, to their membership.

Effectively, this meant that the women had no access to facilities, including University playing fields; the men did not want any 'Newtown Tarts' using the Sports Union's Oval. Consequently, the concerned women undergraduates, who included Jessie Lillingston (Street) amongst their number, decided that a united body of sportswomen, speaking as one, would have a louder voice and therefore more chance of acquiring the facilities they needed. Once incorporated, the organisation received received moral and financial support from senior women in the University and some interested men amongst the lecturing staff.

From these beginnings, the SUSWA grew in membership and effectiveness, always retaining its underlying aims of :

• providing women with a democratic, balanced schedule of physical activity,
• responding to the needs of its members,
• providing facilities and equipment to support all women, not just elit athletes,
• creating opportunities for all students to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Changing social, political and economic contexts that accompanied the new millennium made it difficult for the SUWSA to continue in its historic form. The year 2002 marked the end of the SUSWA and the beginning of a new era for Sport at Sydney University. In a meeting on 3 September 2002, members agreed to combine with the Sydney University Sports Union to create a new body called Sydney University Sport. Said the Executive Director at the time, Ann Mitchell, 'some may have had regrets [about the decision] but combining reseources was seen as the best way forward.'

• Sydney University Sport (2003 - )

Director

• Mitchell, Ann (1945 - )

President

• Dive, Mollie (1913 - 1997)

  Mollie Dive was president of the Sydney University Women's Sport Association in the 1960s, after being a member since the eatly 1930s. She was an Honorary Life Member of the Association.

  [1963 - 1974]

• Peden, Margaret Elizabeth Maynard (1905 - 1981)

  Margaret Peden was president of the SUSWA in the early 1930s.

  [1933 - 1935]

• Street, Jessie Mary Grey (1889 - 1970)

  Jessie Street was a founding member of the Sydney University Women's Sports Association. She was president in the mid 1920s.

  [1925 - 1926]

SUWSA blue

• Dive, Mollie (1913 - 1997)

  Mollie Dive received 'blues' (the highest level of sporting achievement recogisned by the Sydney University Women's Sports Assocation) in both hockey and cricket.

  [1933]

Related People

• Dalton, Karen

  Karen Dalton is one of the most famous sportswomen to have come from Sydney University

Books

• Lilienthal, Sonja, Newtown Tarts: A history of the Sydney University Women's Sports Association 1910-1995, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1997. [ Details... ]