During a time when education for women was hotly debated, delegates at the South Carolina Methodist Conference agreed that women should have an opportunity to pursue higher education.  They established a women’s college in February 1854, which was chartered as Columbia Female College by the South Carolina General Assembly in December of the same year.  The new college was met with adversity from its beginning – after several construction delays, it opened for classes on its Plain Street – now Hampton Street – campus in 1859 only to close again from 1865 until 1873 during the Civil War and reconstruction.  While the Columbia College campus escaped the fiery wrath of the Union army, it partially burned thirty years later in 1895.  In 1905, the College relocated to its current home in the Eau Claire community and dropped the word Female from its name.  The brand new campus was completely destroyed by fire in 1909 but classes were moved to the old Hampton Street campus and the doors remained open. 

The Eau Claire campus was restored for fall classes in 1910.  Old Main, as the new building was affectionately called, housed most of the campus functions including dormitories, classrooms, administrative offices and a swimming pool.  Fire struck a third time in 1964 and destroyed Old Main, leaving only the columns on the front of the building.  The columns became a symbol of strength and determination for the College and were replicated in the new Johnnie Cordell Breed Leadership Building that was completed in 1993.

Over the past one hundred and fifty years, Columbia College has maintained its commitment to providing opportunities for young women to pursue higher education despite financial pressures that resulted in many women’s colleges accepting men.  Currently, the undergraduate day program consists of close to 900 students, 500 of whom live on campus, and the coeducational evening college and graduate school programs enroll 298 and 304, respectively.   The College offers 40 majors and a premedical program to undergraduates, and two graduate programs.   With an endowment under $20 million, however, the College pays 78% of its nearly $24 million in yearly operating expenses through student tuition revenue.  As a result, we rely heavily on our enrollment numbers and gift revenue to help us close the gap on spending.

Columbia College Athletics

In 1973, the College decided to add a physical education major to its academic degree programs.  The major had three emphases:  generalist, primarily for those interested in teaching and coaching; recreation; and dance.  As was true of most colleges in the early 70’s, the addition of an athletic program seemed a logical outgrowth of the new physical education major.  Basketball and tennis emerged as the first two sports offered for the new athletic program and began competing in 1974 within the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).  In February 1975, the first Columbia College basketball coach, Becky Ryder, who also taught physical education courses, was interviewed by the Columbia College Record, a quarterly publication distributed by the Alumnae Office.  In the article, entitled “Bouncing Beginning,” she made it clear that “the physical education staff does not want to develop the [intercollegiate] program into a money-making proposition, as many coeducational institutions do.”  She went on to say that, “we’d like to devote more money to intramural sports because it involves more students.  Intercollegiate sports are great as a rallying point for school spirit.  But in our case, they also give the physical education majors real experience in coaching and officiating that right now they’re learning only from books.”  Although Ryder only coached one season, her view of intercollegiate athletics at Columbia College took hold.

By fall 1975, the basketball team had a new coach at the helm.  Don Patenaude brought to Columbia College a love for the sport of basketball and a desire to coach his young team to a state title.  His competitive spirit was quickly embodied by his team, who went on to win the first nine of their 21-game schedule, including a huge upset win against the Clemson University Tigerettes.  They beat Furman University in the first round of the SCAIAW tournament and ended the season 14-7.  In the spring of 1976, Columbia College celebrated the success of its young athletic program with a contest to adopt a mascot.  According to Patenaude, the Koala was selected because it was “cute and cuddly” yet “fierce if provoked.”

The 1976-77 academic year began with great energy on campus – the fighting Koalas added volleyball to their intercollegiate sport offerings.  The athletic department was proud of their accomplishments, so they began to publicize their success through press releases that coaches sent to players’ hometown newspapers and local papers.  The administration also created athletic scholarships which were awarded for the first time in the school’s history in 1976.  Excitement was building for the new program, which, in conjunction with scholarships, made recruiting top quality athletes a reality.  The volleyball program fueled the fire with a 17-11 win/loss record in its first season.  Invigorated by their success, the Columbia College coaches began looking to the future of their athletic programs.  Concerns were raised about facilities – the concrete gym floor needed to be replaced, the tennis courts needed wind screens, an athletic training position should be added to care for athletes’ injuries.  It seemed that members of the athletic department were poised and ready for growth into a full-fledged, competitive intercollegiate program. 

In December 1977 for reasons unspecified, the athletic director resigned his position and was not replaced.  The athletic program continued for two years with no clear direction until a faculty member was hired and given the additional responsibility of athletic coordinator.  Job duties included developing a policies and procedures manual for athletics and planning activities that would increase campus involvement in athletic events, particularly volleyball and tennis.  While the program did not seem to make forward progress to resolve coaches’ concerns about facilities, athlete safety or sports information, the department stabilized; the teams banked several winning seasons and qualified regularly for regional play-offs. 

In 1982, after over ten years of women’s sports competition, the end of the AIAW was eminent, forcing Columbia College to find membership in another athletic association.  Columbia College joined the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and competed as an independent in District 6. 

The 1988-89 academic year was bittersweet for Columbia College athletics – the department welcomed a new club softball team but lost its most popular performer when the basketball program was cut.  The administration sited lack of participation and lack of interest from the campus as reasons for the program’s demise.  When the physical education major was cut in 1993, the athletic department staff once again revisited the future of the athletic program.  Some felt the program needed to move to NCAA Division II or III instead of maintaining its affiliation with the NAIA; some were interested in adding a cross country program and possibly reinstating the basketball team.  A committee was formed to weigh the options and present its findings to the administration.  No action was taken and the College continued competing in tennis and volleyball as an independent within the NAIA.

In 1997, the College welcomed its first female president who brought with her an appreciation for women’s athletics.  She took notice when the athletic director presented the committee’s findings; she not only approved plans to join the NCAA but jumpstarted the process by adding intercollegiate cross country and a club soccer team in fall 1998.  The soccer team was moved to intercollegiate status in 1999 and plans were underway to add a basketball program by fall 2000.  Although the new programs created buzz on campus, there was no change in operating budgets, no plans to build a regulation soccer field, nor was there a concrete plan for addressing the issues raised by coaches for the past 20 years:  installing a new floor in the gymnasium, adding an athletic training position, and adding a sports information director.   By 2000, however, Columbia College had a new interim president and a new athletic director who were both wary of our fit within the NCAA.  Our athletic director was also not in favor of sponsoring a basketball team without additional funding for sports across the board, significant facility upgrades, and sufficient start-up funds for the new team.  The most important change for athletics, though, was a change in reporting structure.  The new athletic director, who was also the athletic trainer and held the first full-time position within the athletic department, reported directly to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs instead of to the chair of the physical education department.  In 2000-2001, she added a second full-time position within the athletic department when she hired an assistant athletic director. 

One of the major projects undertaken within the athletic department during the 1999-2000 academic year was establishing a golf tournament as the department’s annual fundraiser.  The athletic staff gathered names of many former student-athletes, local community leaders, and athletic supporters to create a mailing list for the event.  The department raised $5,000 in its first year and a total of $40,000 in subsequent years.  Funds raised through the golf tournament were used to install a new flooring system in the gymnasium to benefit our volleyball team, and it allowed the creation of a basketball team, which competed in the 2004-2005 season for the first time since 1989. 

By 2002, the athletic department was once again generating excitement and poised for growth.  This time, our new president was fully prepared to support women’s athletics.  When she restructured the College’s administration, she moved athletics under a Vice President for Enrollment Management to better support recruiting efforts.  By 2003, we had three full-time positions and three part-time positions, including a half-time trainer; and our soccer team competed on our new soccer field, which is the first phase of our new athletic complex.  The complex will eventually include new tennis courts and a softball field.  Additionally, we added a full-time coaching position within the athletic department when we combined the assistant athletic director position and tennis coaching duties. 

In 2004, we added two additional full-time positions – a head basketball coach/recruiting coordinator and a head athletic trainer/fitness center coordinator.  As a result of a generous donation from an alumna, the athletic department was able to renovate classroom space within our building to accommodate our new fitness equipment.  

In an effort to improve the quality of the student-athletes’ experience, the athletic department and College administration agreed that we should seek conference membership for 2005-2006.  The conference that most closely aligns with our values and offers the best competition is the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).  Conference members include: 

:: Auburn University, Montgomery; Montgomery, Alabama
:: Berry College; Rome, Georgia
:: Brenau University; Gainesville, Georgia
:: Emmanuel College; Franklin Springs, Georgia
:: Faulkner, University; Montgomery, Alabama
:: Georgia Southwestern State University; Americus, Georgia
:: Lee University; Cleveland, Tennessee
:: Reinhardt College; Waleska, Georgia
:: Shorter College; Rome, Georgia
:: Southern Polytechnic University; Marietta, Georgia
:: Southern Wesleyan University; Central, South Carolina

Conference membership will provide competition with schools of relatively similar values, an equal opportunity for postseason competition and eligibility for student-athlete honors, but it also creates a need for comparable budgets, scholarship allocations and facility upgrades.