“The object of the intervening guards is to intercept the ball before it can reach the basemen at their rear, and to throw it in turn to their own basemen at the rear of the opposite court, over the heads of the intervening opponents.”
Captain Ball.—“The main object of the game is for the basemen of a team to pass the ball from one to another, each pass successfully made scoring for the team, as described under ‘Score.’
“The object of the guards is to intercept the passage of the ball and send it back to their own basemen for similar play.” For the rules and details see Official Handbook of the League.
Basket Ball.—The Spalding Athletic Library rules for the line game are used.
Punch Ball.—For this the league rules as set forth in Official Handbook. “The object of the batter is to hit the ball into the field in such a way that it may not be caught by the fielders, and to run to first base. The object of the fielders is to return the ball to their catcher, who shall stand on the home plate and hold the ball before the batter reaches first base. If the fielders muff the ball and are slow in returning it to home plate, the batter who has reached first may continue on to second or third base, or as far as in her judgement she can get before the ball reaches home plate. The player running the bases may always advance a base whenever the opportunity occurs and the ball is in play. The final object of the player running to the bases is to touch each base and to reach the home plate without being put out, thus scoring one run for her side.”
Besides these team games, the league sanctions the following activities, which are conducted according to rules and regulations set forth in the Official Handbook: Folk Dancing, Walking, Swimming, Horseback Riding, Ice and Roller Skating, Rope Skipping, Bicycling, Coasting, Golf, Lawn Tennis, Hand Tennis, Heavy Gymnastics, Track and Field Events, Field Hockey, Volley Ball, Newcomb and Pin Ball.
Intercollegiate Alumnae Athletic Association
By Miss Lillian Schoedler,
Originator and Honorary President of the Intercollegiate A. A. A.; Chairman of the Alumnae Committee on Athletics of Barnard College.
New York witnessed the establishment of the first Intercollegiate Alumnæ Athletic Association the world has known. And its organization proves beyond a doubt the strong grip that athletics are getting on the modern woman.
In 1913 a group of twenty-five alumnæ from Barnard College, which met for swimming and basket ball, sowed the seed for the present association. That seed grew so quickly that by 1916 there had been 974 enrollments for the athletic work which the Alumnae Committee on Athletics of Barnard College had originated, and the activities had grown until they included, besides basket ball and swimming, social, folk and æsthetic dancing, bowling, hand ball, gymnasium work, indoor and outdoor horseback riding, with drill work, polo and basket ball on horseback, field hockey, base ball, tennis, tramping, summer boat and trolley trips, swimming parties, and college picnics of all kinds.
Three factors have contributed to the success of the alumnæ athletic movement in New York. In the first place, its activities have been carried on outside of business hours—in evenings, or during week-ends—so that college women who work, as well as their more leisurely sisters, could enjoy the fun. In the second place, the social end as well as the athletic has been provided for in the making of all plans, and as a result alumnæ athletics, through their informality and atmosphere of “camaraderie,” are serving to bring together college individuals and groups as nothing else can. And, in the third place, everything has been planned as simply and inexpensively as possible, as witness the fact that horses are secured at one of the best New York academies for sixty-three cents an hour, including instruction, and that members who have no habits ride in middy blouses and bloomers. There is no pretense at “style,” but every emphasis on fun.