Leah Levenhagen, History 250: The Historian Craft, Spring 2023

Mabel Lee, known around campus as simply Miss Lee, was a leader in the women’s physical education department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1924 until her retirement in 1952. She was known around the country as a pioneer for women’s physical education and athletics, but having a strict doctrine of what women should and should not do for physical education made some disagree with her and even target her. Lee thought that all women should have the opportunity to be involved in athletics and physical education, but under no circumstances should they compete in athletic competitions. This non-competitive idea came from her belief that competition could lead to unhealthy, unladylike rivalries, and could negatively impact women's health and reproduction. While that made some female students respect and admire her, other students and faculty members felt stifled and mistreated. Before, during, and after her time at UNL, Mabel Lee strove to leave a positive impact on women’s physical education and athletics, and while that is partially true, some of her impacts hurt the female athletes’ place at the University and set them back.

Mabel Lee, born August 18, 1886, grew up in small-town Iowa and adopted an immediate love of sports and physical education. She and the children of her neighborhood took part in a plethora of games, activities, and sports, all without harsh competition or keeping score. She was never the fastest runner or the best player on the team and did not enjoy any competition that became too rough. That mindset from such an early age influenced her ideas about women’s physical education and athletics on the collegiate level; keeping score or permitting any harsh competition or rivalry would create barbaric and almost manly female athletes. As Lee grew up, she heard about the newly invented game of basketball, and single-handedly introduced it to her high school. Her love of basketball would continue throughout her collegiate years, and into her teaching era.[1]

After graduating high school in 1904 and Coe College in 1908, Lee began taking classes at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, as it was one of the few schools that would train female students to teach physical education and was a leader in the field. After having a rough start, she made friends and colleagues that would stay with her for the rest of her career. She again enjoyed playing sports such as basketball and field hockey while at BSNG, and was again not the best player on the teams. Her doctrine for women’s athletics started to really take shape while at BSNG, as she was taught not only about physical education, but also about how to be a respectable, gentle, and properly dressed lady of the time. After graduating from BSNG in 1910, she landed her first job and returned to Coe College as the director of women’s physical education. As the director, she used her coy, ladylike persona to get things done, instead of the aggressive stance she thought other female educators took to get what they want. That belief and pattern she followed to get things done continued through her long career. Also at Coe, her deep-rooted hatred for men’s intercollegiate sports, especially football, started to grow. Lee saw the privileges, special treatment, and better facilities that the men had and was understandably outraged.[2]

Basketball also followed Lee to Coe College, but not in the way she envisioned it. While supervising local high school girls’ basketball games near Coe and witnessing the competitiveness of the players, she immediately tried contacting parents, coaches, and some players to cease their games, but to no avail. The non-competitive sports ideas that were sewn into her at BSNG were being challenged, a common theme in the later years of her career. Not only did she believe competitive, aggressive female athletes would lead to un-ladylike and unhealthy women, she also thought the athletes would be exploited by male coaches and team owners who only cared about making money for their teams. In her mind, the good players received all the attention and praise, while the mediocre or less-talented players, like Lee herself, would be cast aside. Because of this, she was not very popular around the local high school girls’ or intercollegiate women’s basketball teams.[3]

After eight years at Coe with seemingly no recognition or advancements for women’s physical education, Mabel Lee had a short stint at Oregon Agricultural College in 1918 as a full-time professor. Due to issues with her predecessor, faculty, and students, she only stayed at OAC for one school year, and accepted a position at Beloit College in 1920. Lee’s predecessor at Beloit had set up the perfect situation for Lee; female athletes and other faculty members were disappointed in her predecessor’s treatment of the less-talented women’s varsity athletes and the intercollegiate women’s sports program altogether. While Lee had complete control of the department, she was still challenged by groups of male students who claimed she had perpetuated radical innovations such as letting women wear knickers on a hiking trip. During her time at Beloit, she also spoke at several conferences pushing her case that intramural sports were better for women than intercollegiate athletics due to the non-competitive and friendly nature of intramurals. To further the support of her ideas, Lee innovated what she called “play days” at Beloit, where girls from area schools would come together to play sports and do different activities during the day, with no competitiveness or championships in sight. The friendly play encouraged all girls, whether varsity athletes or not, to participate, which was exactly what Lee hoped to achieve.[4]

Mabel Lee joined the UNL Physical Education staff in 1924 after the urging of then-Chancellor Avery. Her appointment caused some stir because of the pattern of UNL alumni hires that she broke. It was a common theme during this time for UNL to hire alumni for many positions, which made Lee feel like somewhat of an outsider for most of her time at the University. Upon arriving, she was shocked to find her department as messy as it was. The women’s physical education department had very limited available classes and staff members to teach said classes. For the first couple of years at UNL, Lee worked under Dr. Clapp, the men’s physical education director, before becoming women’s physical education director. She did not enjoy working under the direction of a man, as well as the lack of seriousness from her male pupils. Female students in the department studied hard to be trained to teach physical education, while their male counterparts majored in physical education to avoid harder classes. Lee, wanting to separate class sections to only female and only male, got her way by failing several male students in her classes. She continued working hard to create a hardworking group of young women who took her classes seriously and wanted to become physical education instructors themselves. She did not appreciate varsity athletes in her program, as they tended not to aspire to be physical education teachers, but to continue playing competitive sports into adulthood, something Lee did not approve of.[5]

One of Lee’s objectives during her first years at UNL was to make physical education a requirement for all female students. She thought that even if girls did not enjoy physical education, they needed it to stay healthy both physically and mentally (while not overdoing it too much as to injure themselves, as stated above). She was shocked to find that so many women at the University had doctor’s notes written excusing them from physical education classes. After speaking at a conference in Lincoln and with the University Health Service, she was able to get most women enrolled in gym classes. She was also successful in building up the catalog of classes offered in the physical education department; what once was two gymnastics classes turned into field hockey, tennis, basketball, dancing, and swimming, among others. Lee also made improvements in the female students’ gym class attire, retiring the old, faded, and out of style costumes. The improvements to class variety and uniform made the experience of women’s physical education more worthwhile, thanks to Lee. Her crowning achievement, in her eyes, was how well she transitioned her female athletes from intercollegiate competition to intramurals. She would often recount that when she arrived at the University in 1924 that only three percent of female students were involved in intramural activities, and when she retired, that percentage had risen to over eighty percent.[6]

The non-competitive philosophy that Lee held led her to dislike many things dealing with women’s physical education and athletics at professional and competitive levels. From her time in college and early in her career, she ardently opposed the idea of women’s spectator sports. She believed that if any man wanted to watch women play a sport, like basketball, they were only there to drool over the female athletes and objectify them. During her time at UNL, Lee made it so no women’s basketball games could coincide with men’s basketball games to prevent men from watching the women. To further this idea, she also opposed female professional athletes, claiming that any male coach or team owner a woman athlete played under was just trying to exploit the players for more spectators, and therefore more money. To put this in practice, she banned any involvement of commercialism or admission charges at women’s basketball games at UNL, as well as encouraging all publicity to highlight the team in full and avoid singling out any players for recognition.[7]

To build off of her opposition of female professional athletes, women competing in the Olympics was a sore spot for Lee. At the 1922 Olympics in Paris, women were allowed to compete in track and field for the first time. Lee and her supporters were outraged, as they believed track and field was unladylike and low class. Their anger grew when the Amateur Athletic Union chose UNL to host their pre-Olympic trials, which included women’s track and 6 field. Lee pleaded with the AAU, but was unsuccessful in barring women from track and field. She and her colleagues traveled to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, California to see it for themselves. Lee particularly disliked Mildred ‘Babe’ Didrikson because of Didrikson’s “bad manners, social ineptness, and poor sportsmanship.” Later in life, Lee began to attack Title IX, which requires equal funding and facilities for women and men. She was retired from UNL by the time Title IX was enacted at the University, but that didn’t stop her from speaking out against it. She believed that female athletes wanted equal opportunities to play their own games, not equal opportunities to play the same games as male athletes. She was also against awarding athletic scholarships to women, claiming that women wanted an education in college, not just to be paid to play a sport. Whether it was spectator sports, female professional and Olympic athletes, or Title IX, Lee can be seen doing one action consistently through her opposition to these ideas: stifling female athletes to better fit her idea of what it meant to be a proper athlete and woman.[8]

With views such as Lee’s on women’s physical education, there was bound to be opposition to her ideas. Most of the opposition came from a female colleague at UNL, Louise Pound. Pound had graduated from the University in 1892, earned her Master’s degree in 1895, and became a professor in the English department. From her youth and all through college, Pound excelled in athletics and was a player, co-captain, and manager of the University’s intercollegiate women’s basketball team for a decade. Pound’s view of athletics was the exact opposite of Lee’s; Pound was all about competition and believed below-average athletes did not deserve a spot on any team. Even as an English professor, she continued to be heavily involved in the intercollegiate basketball team. That all changed when Mabel Lee arrived at UNL in 1924. After Pound realized Lee’s views were nowhere near her own, she dropped all politeness and started going around campus bad-mouthing Lee, her supporters, and her doctrine.[9]

To add to their feud, Lee had begun to change how Pound’s precious basketball team was run. Lee had read up on different women’s basketball rules, and was not fond of the rules Pound’s game subscribed to, as she thought they were far too rough for female athletes. In addition to changing the rules to a more mellow game, she added a series of restrictions to women’s basketball games, making them less competitive and strenuous, as well as restricting the amount of spectators and commercialization. Lee and Pound’s brawl continued, especially after Lee’s blueprints for a new women’s physical education facility were replaced with blueprints made up by Pound and her supporters. Louise Pound and her supporters continued to harass Lee with insults and pranks, with Lee saying in her autobiography, “She had been more cordial at first, in fact embarrassingly so, but she later developed into my severest critic, becoming a thorn in my flesh for all the rest of my tenure at the university, even past her [Pound] retirement to the time of her death.”[10]

Lee retired from UNL in 1952, but that did not slow her down from her career pursuits. She continued teaching the summer after her retirement as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Soon after that, Lee accepted a position as a Fulbright Professor and Consultant on Physical Education in the Iraq Ministry of Education in Baghdad for the 1952-1953 school year. While there, she helped Iraq establish training for female physical education teachers. After her travels, she spent her time speaking at conferences, revising textbooks, and writing her autobiographies, Memories of a Bloomer Girl (1977) and Memories Beyond Bloomers (1978), as well as receiving many awards and honors for her achievements. Lee received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Beloit College, was inducted in 8 the Coe College Sports Hall of Fame, and had the former Women’s Physical Education Building at UNL renamed ‘Mabel Lee Hall’ in her honor, all in 1977. Mabel Lee continued living an active life even into her eighties and nineties. Mabel Lee passed away on December 3, 1985 in Guthrie Center, Iowa at the age of 99.[11]

Mabel Lee was considered a pioneer in women’s physical education and athletics. In some ways, that was and still is true. She made it a requirement for all girls to take physical education classes, offered a variety of classes, revamped the physical education uniforms, and increased the percentage of female students who participated in intramural activities. The textbooks and pamphlets she wrote brought others to learn more about women’s physical education, and helped women and girls in Iraq become physical education teachers. While Lee was doing all that good, however, she was stifling other female athletes and barring their advancements to equality. Her disdain of varsity athletes stopped some women from advancing professionally, and her opposition to commercialism and spectator sports made the University miss out on what could have been large financial benefits. Her childhood experience of being the smallest and slowest player led her to support female athletes like her and swept more-talented athletes under the rug. Before, during, and after her time at UNL, Mabel Lee strove to leave a positive impact on women’s physical education and athletics, and while that is partially true, some of her impacts hurt the female athletes’ place at the University and set them back.

Notes

1. Lee, Mabel. Memories of a Bloomer Girl. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1977.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
2. Lee, Mabel. Memories of a Bloomer Girl. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1977.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
3. Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
4. Lee, Mabel. Memories of a Bloomer Girl. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1977.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
5. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.; Knoll, Robert E. Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
6. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999; Knoll, Robert E. Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
7. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
8. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999; Anderson, Shannon. "Lee speaks out on sports." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), August 31, 1979, 8. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1979-08-31/ed-1/seq-8/#words=Lee+out+speak s+sports.
9. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999; Knoll, Robert E. Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.; Casaccio, E.K. "The incredible 'Miss Lee' in a continuing story." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), November 18, 1977, sec. B, 6.
10. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.
11. Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.; Casaccio, E.K. "The incredible 'Miss Lee' in a continuing story." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), November 18, 1977, sec. B, 6. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1977-11-18/ed-1/seq-18/#words=continuing+inc redible+Lee+Miss+story.; Carothers, Anne. "Women's PE building is now Mabel Lee Hall." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), January 27, 1977, 6. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1977-01-27/ed-1/seq-6/. ; The Lincoln Star. "Services Friday for Mabel Lee, Pioneer in Physical Education- Newspaper Clipping." December 5, 1985. RG 23-28-02, Box 2, Folder 2. Physical Education for Women Faculty Records- Mabel Lee. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.

Bibliography

• Anderson, Shannon. "Lee speaks out on sports." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), August 31, 1979, 8. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1979-08-31/ed-1/seq-8/#words=Lee+out +speaks+sports.
• Carothers, Anne. "Women's PE building is now Mabel Lee Hall." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), January 27, 1977, 6. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1977-01-27/ed-1/seq-6/.
• Casaccio, E.K. "The incredible 'Miss Lee' in a continuing story." Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States), November 18, 1977, sec. B, 6. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn96080312/1977-11-18/ed-1/seq-18/#words=continu ing+incredible+Lee+Miss+story.
• Knoll, Robert E. Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
• Lee, Mabel. Memories Beyond Bloomers, 1924-1954. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1978.
• Lee, Mabel. Memories of a Bloomer Girl. Washington, D.C.: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1977.
• The Lincoln Star. "Services Friday for Mabel Lee, Pioneer in Physical Education- Newspaper Clipping." December 5, 1985. RG 23-18-02, Box 2, Folder 2. Physical Education for Women Faculty Records- Mabel Lee. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.
• Lowenthal, Kristi. "Mabel Lee and Louise Pound: The University of Nebraska's Battle Over Women's Intercollegiate Athletics." Master's thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999.

Photo Captions:

Mabel Lee during Her First Professorship, Coe College, 1914. 1914. Photograph. RG 23-18-02, Box 2, Folder 6. Physical Education for Women Faculty Records- Mabel Lee. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives and Special Collections, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.

Mabel Lee, 1939. 1939. Photograph. RG 23-18-02, Box 2, Folder 1. Physical Education for Women Faculty Records- Mabel Lee. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives and Special Collections, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.

Mabel Lee at 'Mabel Lee Hall' Building Dedication, 1977. 1977. Photograph. RG 23-18-02, Box 2, Folder 6. Physical Education for Women Faculty Records- Mabel Lee. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives and Special Collections, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States.