Bowling Green State University Athletics
Title IX: A Look Back at Swan Club
October 13, 2022 | General
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, BGSU athletics is taking a look at the history of women's sports throughout the years. The information in this series was lifted from the book 'Forward Falcons: Women's Sports at Bowling Green State University' written by Janet B. Parks, Ann Bowers, and Adelia Hostetler Muti. Forward Falcons documents and preserves the history of Bowling Green State University women's sports from 1914 through 1982. During these pre-NCAA years, women coached most of the teams, and organizations composed primarily of women set the program standards.
To read the entire book, you can go to:Â https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bgsu_books/3/
This series will also include some of our Heritage Sports and current teams.
Swan Club/Synchronized Swimming
Swan Club was initiated in December of 1939, when Jean Drake invited 32 students from her swimming classes "to practice water formations for a swim pageant, as part of the [natatorium] dedication program" (Bee Gee News, Dec. 6, 1939, p. 4). Although there is no verifiable record of their having performed at the dedication, the creation of this group, originally known as the "Rhythmic Swimmers," marks the first time that synchronized swimming was organized at BGSU. In 1940, Drake selected 18 charter members of "Swan Club," who then tested prospective members (aka pledges) on speed, form, distance swimming, and diving.
In 1941, Gertrude Eppler, the newly hired head of women's HPE, began the first of her four years as director of Swan Club. For two nights in April 1942, the natatorium was packed for "Aqua-fiesta," an aquatic show with a Latin American theme. The same year, the Swans also put on formation swimming demonstrations at several of the intercollegiate swim meets, for physical education teachers at a convention held on campus, and for the Bowling Green Woman's Club.
In 1942-43, Kathryn Ruh, the physical education critic in the Bowling Green public schools, served as Eppler's assistant. By 1944, there were three sponsors of Swan Club—Eppler, Ruh, and the new dance teacher, Jane Shoemaker. The narrator of the show was Eva Marie Saint, who later became an Academy Award winning star of the silver screen.
For 30 years, her Swan Club shows were a campus tradition that generated enormous interest and served as a point of pride on the BGSU campus. These shows were extravaganzas in every sense of the word. Bearing titles such as Scentimental Journey (featuring numbers such as Shalimar, White Shoulders, and Tabu), Aqua Carousel, and Sands of Time, each show had a theme around which all the numbers were coordinated. Swan Club shows featured complicated and dramatic aquatic routines set to music and often accompanied by dancers, campus vocal groups, and members of the men's swim team, who were affectionately nicknamed the "Drakes." Several shows offered the additional flair of dramatic readings and living statuary.
As early as the 1940s, Swan Club entered synchronized swimming meets. As the 1946 Key reported, "The club took on a competitive aspect this year and vied its form and speed with that of clubs from other campuses." Many years later, Coach Jean Campbell explained the difference between show swimming and competitive synchronized swimming: "Competitive synchronized has no relation to show swimming…What is involved is the performing of figures, similar to figure skating. Scoring is done similarly to that done in diving. As a leader in synchronized swimming programs for college women, the BGSU Swan Club sponsored Ohio's first synchronized swimming workshop in April 1948. Representatives of colleges in Ohio and Michigan attended the event, and soon thereafter, Bowling Green was competing with schools across the Midwest and beyond.
As winners of the 1954 AAU meet in Detroit, and the Intercollegiate Meets held at BG in 1955 and Miami University in 1957, the BG Swans distinguished themselves in intercollegiate. In 1960, BG hosted the Intercollegiate Women's Synchronized Swimming Meet for the second time. Between 1951 and 1971, Andrews made the Swan Club a known power by capturing an amazing 20 consecutive Midwest team championships.Â
Jean Campbell, who was coaching the swimming and diving team at the time, accepted the additional challenge of directing Swan Club and coaching the synchronized swimming team. Campbell continued the high standards for the annual show and competition that had come to be expected of BG's synchronized swimmers. In her first year, BG competed well against schools such as Ohio State, Michigan, Western Michigan, Western Illinois, and Miami. After one year of coaching both speed and synchronized swimming as well as producing the water show titled The Taming of the Shrew, Campbell decided to retire as swimming and diving coach to devote her full attention to the synchronized swimmers.
After the 1978 season, synchronized swimming was dropped as a varsity sport, and the Swans began to function as a club team under the leadership of assistant swim coach Sandy Cox. In the 1979 AIAW National Synchronized Swimming Championships, Margo Humphrey and Kris Humphries were named All-Americans as they led Bowling Green to a second consecutive 6th place finish.
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To read the entire book, you can go to:Â https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bgsu_books/3/
This series will also include some of our Heritage Sports and current teams.
Swan Club/Synchronized Swimming
Swan Club was initiated in December of 1939, when Jean Drake invited 32 students from her swimming classes "to practice water formations for a swim pageant, as part of the [natatorium] dedication program" (Bee Gee News, Dec. 6, 1939, p. 4). Although there is no verifiable record of their having performed at the dedication, the creation of this group, originally known as the "Rhythmic Swimmers," marks the first time that synchronized swimming was organized at BGSU. In 1940, Drake selected 18 charter members of "Swan Club," who then tested prospective members (aka pledges) on speed, form, distance swimming, and diving.
In 1941, Gertrude Eppler, the newly hired head of women's HPE, began the first of her four years as director of Swan Club. For two nights in April 1942, the natatorium was packed for "Aqua-fiesta," an aquatic show with a Latin American theme. The same year, the Swans also put on formation swimming demonstrations at several of the intercollegiate swim meets, for physical education teachers at a convention held on campus, and for the Bowling Green Woman's Club.
In 1942-43, Kathryn Ruh, the physical education critic in the Bowling Green public schools, served as Eppler's assistant. By 1944, there were three sponsors of Swan Club—Eppler, Ruh, and the new dance teacher, Jane Shoemaker. The narrator of the show was Eva Marie Saint, who later became an Academy Award winning star of the silver screen.
For 30 years, her Swan Club shows were a campus tradition that generated enormous interest and served as a point of pride on the BGSU campus. These shows were extravaganzas in every sense of the word. Bearing titles such as Scentimental Journey (featuring numbers such as Shalimar, White Shoulders, and Tabu), Aqua Carousel, and Sands of Time, each show had a theme around which all the numbers were coordinated. Swan Club shows featured complicated and dramatic aquatic routines set to music and often accompanied by dancers, campus vocal groups, and members of the men's swim team, who were affectionately nicknamed the "Drakes." Several shows offered the additional flair of dramatic readings and living statuary.
As early as the 1940s, Swan Club entered synchronized swimming meets. As the 1946 Key reported, "The club took on a competitive aspect this year and vied its form and speed with that of clubs from other campuses." Many years later, Coach Jean Campbell explained the difference between show swimming and competitive synchronized swimming: "Competitive synchronized has no relation to show swimming…What is involved is the performing of figures, similar to figure skating. Scoring is done similarly to that done in diving. As a leader in synchronized swimming programs for college women, the BGSU Swan Club sponsored Ohio's first synchronized swimming workshop in April 1948. Representatives of colleges in Ohio and Michigan attended the event, and soon thereafter, Bowling Green was competing with schools across the Midwest and beyond.
As winners of the 1954 AAU meet in Detroit, and the Intercollegiate Meets held at BG in 1955 and Miami University in 1957, the BG Swans distinguished themselves in intercollegiate. In 1960, BG hosted the Intercollegiate Women's Synchronized Swimming Meet for the second time. Between 1951 and 1971, Andrews made the Swan Club a known power by capturing an amazing 20 consecutive Midwest team championships.Â
Jean Campbell, who was coaching the swimming and diving team at the time, accepted the additional challenge of directing Swan Club and coaching the synchronized swimming team. Campbell continued the high standards for the annual show and competition that had come to be expected of BG's synchronized swimmers. In her first year, BG competed well against schools such as Ohio State, Michigan, Western Michigan, Western Illinois, and Miami. After one year of coaching both speed and synchronized swimming as well as producing the water show titled The Taming of the Shrew, Campbell decided to retire as swimming and diving coach to devote her full attention to the synchronized swimmers.
After the 1978 season, synchronized swimming was dropped as a varsity sport, and the Swans began to function as a club team under the leadership of assistant swim coach Sandy Cox. In the 1979 AIAW National Synchronized Swimming Championships, Margo Humphrey and Kris Humphries were named All-Americans as they led Bowling Green to a second consecutive 6th place finish.
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