#yearbooks

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Girls’ Sports Before Title IX

Title IX, which expanded opportunities for women in athletics and many other fields, turns 50 this year. Thanks in part to Title IX, girls’ sports were thriving in local high schools by the late 1970s. Before 1972, girls’ athletic options in schools often centered around one organization – the Girls’ Athletic Association.

The G.A.A., as it was known, was a common fixture in high schools nationwide from the early 1900s. Students who joined the G.A.A. would compete against each other in a variety of intramural sports. In Minneapolis, G.A.A. sports often included basketball, baseball, bowling, swimming, tennis, and skating. Some schools offered such varied options as horseback riding, “walking clubs,” and first aid classes.

Girls who participated in G.A.A. could often earn school letters. Like the Washburn High School “W-wearers” pictured above, G.A.A. members would earn points for participating in club events. Enough points would earn you a letter. In many schools, G.A.A. or cheerleading were the only letter opportunities for girls.

By the late 1960s and 1970s, local G.A.A. clubs began to disappear. In 1969, the Minnesota State High School League officially amended its bylaws to include the administration of girls sports. Through the 1970s, more and more Hennepin County high schools began to field girls’ sports teams for interschool competition and the role of the G.A.A. decreased. By the 1980s, none of the yearbooks in our Hennepin County Library Yearbook Collection mention an active Girls’ Athletic Association.

Explore these and other images of local G.A.A. activities through the years in the Hennepin County Library Yearbook Collection.

Hundreds of New Yearbooks

Special Collections recently purchased over 225 Hennepin County yearbooks from a local yearbook collector. The acquisition mostly fills gaps for schools already a part of our yearbook collection, but also includes yearbooks from about twenty schools new to our collection–like Edina’s Concord and Cornelia Elementary Schools, Bloomington’s Penn and Oak Grove Jr. Highs, Richfield East and West Jr. High, Plymouth Jr. High, and more. Elementary, middle/junior high, and high school yearbooks are all included as are public and private schools. The acquisition is particularly strong for schools in Hennepin County suburbs including Bloomington, Edina, Hopkins, Mound, Osseo, Plymouth, and Richfield, but also includes several Minneapolis elementary and junior highs.

Yearbooks in our collection from 1988 and earlier are digitized and available to view in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections. All newly acquired yearbooks published before 1989 will be digitized and available online later this year. To see yearbooks in print, visit Special Collections at Minneapolis Central Library.

Have a yearbook you’d like to donate to the collection? Contact us!