Kennewick High Students Honored in Historic First
For the first time in the school's history, the girls' basketball team received varsity-style emblems alongside their male peers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The close of the second semester saw excellent records made by a number of the high school students, thirty-one of them being excused from all examinations due to their high averages. In addition to academic recognition, an exhibit of work from the manual training and domestic art departments was held in the gymnasium, accompanied by a parent-teachers’ association meeting. A significant milestone was reached as the girls' basketball team was honored for the first time in the history of the school by receiving athletic emblems identical to those awarded to the boys. The girls so honored were Katherine Rosswog, Kate Larson, Bernice Fans, Dora Williams, Ruth Huntington, Audrey Graham, Fern Johnson and Elsie Hunt.
“For the first time in the history of the school, too, the members of the girls' basketball team were honored by receiving from Mr. Meikle emblems which matched the ones received by the boys.”
While Title IX would not codify gender equity in sports for another several decades, this 1916 account captures a local moment of recognition for female student-athletes in Kennewick. It serves as a reminder that the struggle for parity on the field has deep roots in local school board and athletic department culture.
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