Women's Basketball: A Ouachita Legacy

Organized women’s basketball began to take shape at Ouachita largely thanks to a sophomore from Crossett, Ark., who came to college on a choir scholarship.

Carolyn Moffatt spent most nights shooting hoops with friends from Cone-Bottoms who had played high school basketball. Gradually, under the humming incandescent lights of the old Walton Gym, an unofficial team evolved.

They snuck out of the dorm to play together for the first time in a game that required them to be out past curfew. Within a year, they officially accepted an invitation to compete in the Arkansas AAU tournament and asked Coach Bill Vining to go with them.

In 1955, Moffatt was an honorary coach for her teammates in their first year as a Ouachita-sanctioned squad. There was no money for uniforms, so they played in hand-me-down suits from a team sponsored by a local café. But the logo on those suits didn’t matter so much.

This young squad found its identity in a sisterhood that had been established at Ouachita in 1907, when popular medical advice deemed basketball unhealthy and too aggressive an activity for women. Intercollegiate rules prohibited them from playing off campus; the Amateur Athletic Union opposed them playing basketball in public at all. It would be more than 20 years before women’s basketball was an Olympic sport.

If this was meant to slow the progress of collegiate women’s basketball, there were 12 players at Ouachita who were too busy to notice. According to the 1907 Ouachitonian, they provided “examples of what girls can do in Athletics” — playing “the fastest ball and more of it than any team in South Arkansas.”

Ouachita’s earliest women’s teams practiced and played outside because there was no gym on campus. For years they played high school or company sponsored teams — even scrimmaged against each other — just for the opportunity to compete. They had to catch rides to games. Call their games and clear the court when men’s games started. Play without benefit of basketball scholarships to help pay for school.

Still, this sisterhood kept bringing its unmistakable roar and undeniable love for the game. And their perseverance paid off, shaping women’s Tiger basketball today. When Moffatt returned in 1965 as head coach of the Ouachita College Tigerettes, she began a 20-year run that ushered the team into national prominence and set the stage for players and coaches who would come after her to continue elevating the program.

Scroll through the pictorial history captured in the images below which provide the backdrop for a permanent display titled, "Ouachita Women's Basketball: Honoring a history of athletic achievement." Visit Sturgis Physical Education Complex to see the display, housed in the lobby of Bill Vining Arena.

It is to the sisterhood of women Tigers and those who have supported them in establishing their place in Ouachita’s proud athletics tradition that the display is dedicated.

View History and records