STARTERS
NEWS
PRESIDENT
FEATURE
ARTICLES
ALUMNI
In the Scotlight
1930s
A decade after competitive sports entered the scene at Gordon, the Athletic Association continues recruiting new members, with a primary focus on exercise as a way of improving the academic experience. “Weary brains are thoroughly aired by morning jaunts in the Fenway and by brisk hikes down Ruggles Street,” notes a 1930 Hypernikon. Competitions always begin with prayer, and a high value is placed on sportsmanship. As a 1933 Hypernikon explains, “We have met with victories and defeats, successes and disappointments, but through it all true sportsmanship and fair play have held high the name of Gordon.” Donning new uniforms and with part-time help from a Harvard coach, the Men’s Basketball team wins the Inter-Seminary Athletic Association that year despite many tight games. In 1932, we see the first recorded—and twice victorious—competitions with Providence Bible Institute (P.B.I., which would later become Barrington College and merge with Gordon in 1985). The Men’s Basketball team also beats them in 1936 and 1937. Less is recorded for the Women’s Basketball team, although
they have a more winning record than the men’s team in 1934 and function under the motto “Win, or die in the attempt.” Competition against P.B.I. commences at end of the decade for the women’s team. Interclass basketball games become a tradition in the ’30s. Inviting both varsity and recreational athletes, the games attract dozens of players. Winners have their class numerals placed on a large banner in the “Game Room,” a recreation hub housed in a new addition to Frost Hall. In 1933, a relay track team is assembled and competes against Brown University, Tufts University and Boston University at the Boston Garden. The following year, a social chairman is added to the Athletic Association leadership team to promote more events and organized activities, including a field day and a trip to P.B.I. Hiking, chess and baseball all enter the scene in the ’30s. “Basketball held the limelight all winter but we must not fail to mention the fact that the lightning moves of our chess masters and the skillful activity of our ping pong experts came in for their share of attention,” notes the Hypernikon.
Isabella Taylor Ravenell ’35 The College Archives don’t reveal much about Isabella Taylor Ravenell’s basketball-playing years at Gordon, but articles from The Boston Globe paint a picture of the life she had after college—when she returned to her hometown of Dorchester, MA, to help her new husband lead the community at Ebenezer Baptist Church. After two decades of raising children and pouring herself into the church, Ravenell got a master’s degree in education from Boston State College. She began her teaching career in 1959 and later became a respected principal throughout the Dorchester region and beyond. In 1979, Ravenell was awarded the Sojourner Truth Award by the City of Boston, and the mayor dedicated a whole day to her in “recognition of her contributions to the community in the areas of interracial goodwill and cultural activities.” For years, she’d strived to make local officials aware of the racial inequality that existed in Boston’s public school system. In 1969, she was one of the teachers chosen to fill the gaps in a history curriculum that overlooked important aspects of the Black experience in the United States. The history guides she helped create were used by 350 local schoolteachers and 13,000 junior high and high school students each year.
