Elinor Churchill, Robinson Female Seminary’s Greatest Athlete
by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column appeared in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, May 12, 2017.
The Robinson Female Seminary’s class of 1924 prophecy had this prediction about Elinor Churchill: “I see a boxing ring surrounded by thousands of spectators. It is the end of the last round, and Elinor Churchill has thrown her opponent through the ropes. She is now being hailed as the world’s middleweight champion. I am not surprised at Elinor’s future, are you?” Elinor had challenged so many athletic stereotypes by that time that most of her fellow graduates wouldn’t have been surprised at all if she’d taken to boxing.
Elinor was born in 1903, the tenth child of Fred and Millie Churchill of 15 Union Street in Exeter. She entered the Robinson Female Seminary – Exeter’s public school for girls – in 1913, at the age of 10 in the 6th grade. She was a middling student until the Seminary introduced a required course in physical education in 1917. It was then that Elinor began to stand out.
The Seminary had always included an emphasis on physical well-being, but there was a lot of resistance to allowing girls to be athletic. Early programs included folk dancing, marching, drills with wands, Indian clubs, dumbbells and aesthetic gymnastics. These were meant to keep a young woman’s body physically fit, but did not include any competitive incentives. Young Elinor doesn’t seem to have been too keen on the other clubs offered by the Seminary – she’s not listed in Glee Club, Mandolin Club or Drama. She did join the “Traffic Squad,” an early precursor to the safety patrol that those who grew up in the 1970s may remember. The new Phys Ed program, created by a Robinson grad Marion Tyler, introduced the girls to team sports. Elinor took to basketball with a passion. When Barbara Warren took over as the physical education director in 1919, there were already many opportunities for the girls to play intramural sports including basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer.
In 1921, the Seminarian, a student publication of RFS, reported, “It was hot and sunny that Friday afternoon in June last year, but a great many of us were out on the athletic field to watch the Individual Meet.” The girls competed against one another in sprinting and basketball throw. Elinor took the day, throwing a basketball 79 feet, breaking the girls’ preparatory schools record by nine inches. “Elinor won the meet, and there were cheers and cheers that night; but they couldn’t compare with the enthusiasm we expressed the next morning when she was awarded the first “R” ever given.” Although there were no varsity sports, Churchill was the first student at RFS to gain a varsity letter.
Elinor was gifted enough to be invited to the newly created Amateur Athletic Union’s national meets in both 1922 and 1923. The Seminary, by that time, had organized hockey and basketball teams. Elinor would continue to shine as a basketball player. The Seminarian, in 1922, nominated her to the RFS Hall of Fame, “because she won the first “R” ever awarded in the Seminary, because she broke a record in basketball throw, and because she is the best sport in school.” At the AAU meets, she didn’t place first in basketball, however, her strongest event was the baseball throw. In 1922, she buried the competition. The New York Times reported, “two records were witnessed by a crowd of more than 3,000. Miss Eleanor Churchill of Robinson Female Seminary, Exeter New Hampshire, hurled the baseball 224’ 21/4” and the Valcour Club of the Bronx eclipsed the 440-relay.”She also won the javelin and basketball throws, although didn’t break any records.
The following year, Churchill again competed and the town took notice. The Exeter News-Letter reported, “Miss Elinor Churchill, a senior at Robinson Seminary, added to her notable athletic feats last Saturday afternoon, when at the national track and field championships for women of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, held at Weequahic Park, Newark, N.J., she won the baseball throw and took second place in the basketball throw. In her baseball throw of 234 feet, 5 ¾ inches, Miss Churchill made a new world’s record, beating by more than ten feet the record which she set at this meet a year ago. Her feat of last Saturday was the more remarkable, as she has this year practiced thrown little, if at all. She has this past summer paid special attention to swimming under the instruction of Mr. Waldo W. Holm, the Academy coach. Miss Churchill is likely to be sent abroad next summer to compete in the Olympic games.”
Elinor Churchill never went to the Olympics. Although she trained as a swimmer, her skills were never quite enough to make the team. She was feted in the New York Times and even in an article in Popular Science called “Records Show that Women Athletes are Running Close Second to Men.” Opportunities for women in basketball were limited to secondary and collegiate levels and Elinor didn’t attend college. Baseball, for reasons still not understood to this day, was not considered a women’s sport – even though women play it. She moved to Boston and later to Wells, Maine. There are photos of ‘Ellie,’ as her classmates called her, at the 60th and 61st RFS Class of 1924 reunions, sitting amongst her friends – still slender and fit well into her eighties.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Her column appears every other Friday and she may be reached at info@exeterhistory.org.
First Image: Elinor Churchill in 1924 – her graduation photo from the Robinson Female Seminary. Fellow students remembered her for her smile and laugh and propensity for ‘fooling.’
Second Image: Elinor Churchill in 1922, in her gym uniform at the Robinson Female Seminary – this photo accompanied the brief write up in the Seminarian nominating her to the “Hall of Fame” (which didn’t really exist, but it was nice of them to write her up). My guess is that this is the best picture of Elinor as she would have like to see herself. In the basketball team photos she always looks a bit like she’s being held hostage.
This "Historically Speaking" column appeared in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, May 12, 2017.
Elinor was born in 1903, the tenth child of Fred and Millie Churchill of 15 Union Street in Exeter. She entered the Robinson Female Seminary – Exeter’s public school for girls – in 1913, at the age of 10 in the 6th grade. She was a middling student until the Seminary introduced a required course in physical education in 1917. It was then that Elinor began to stand out.
The Seminary had always included an emphasis on physical well-being, but there was a lot of resistance to allowing girls to be athletic. Early programs included folk dancing, marching, drills with wands, Indian clubs, dumbbells and aesthetic gymnastics. These were meant to keep a young woman’s body physically fit, but did not include any competitive incentives. Young Elinor doesn’t seem to have been too keen on the other clubs offered by the Seminary – she’s not listed in Glee Club, Mandolin Club or Drama. She did join the “Traffic Squad,” an early precursor to the safety patrol that those who grew up in the 1970s may remember. The new Phys Ed program, created by a Robinson grad Marion Tyler, introduced the girls to team sports. Elinor took to basketball with a passion. When Barbara Warren took over as the physical education director in 1919, there were already many opportunities for the girls to play intramural sports including basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer.
In 1921, the Seminarian, a student publication of RFS, reported, “It was hot and sunny that Friday afternoon in June last year, but a great many of us were out on the athletic field to watch the Individual Meet.” The girls competed against one another in sprinting and basketball throw. Elinor took the day, throwing a basketball 79 feet, breaking the girls’ preparatory schools record by nine inches. “Elinor won the meet, and there were cheers and cheers that night; but they couldn’t compare with the enthusiasm we expressed the next morning when she was awarded the first “R” ever given.” Although there were no varsity sports, Churchill was the first student at RFS to gain a varsity letter.
The following year, Churchill again competed and the town took notice. The Exeter News-Letter reported, “Miss Elinor Churchill, a senior at Robinson Seminary, added to her notable athletic feats last Saturday afternoon, when at the national track and field championships for women of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, held at Weequahic Park, Newark, N.J., she won the baseball throw and took second place in the basketball throw. In her baseball throw of 234 feet, 5 ¾ inches, Miss Churchill made a new world’s record, beating by more than ten feet the record which she set at this meet a year ago. Her feat of last Saturday was the more remarkable, as she has this year practiced thrown little, if at all. She has this past summer paid special attention to swimming under the instruction of Mr. Waldo W. Holm, the Academy coach. Miss Churchill is likely to be sent abroad next summer to compete in the Olympic games.”
Elinor Churchill never went to the Olympics. Although she trained as a swimmer, her skills were never quite enough to make the team. She was feted in the New York Times and even in an article in Popular Science called “Records Show that Women Athletes are Running Close Second to Men.” Opportunities for women in basketball were limited to secondary and collegiate levels and Elinor didn’t attend college. Baseball, for reasons still not understood to this day, was not considered a women’s sport – even though women play it. She moved to Boston and later to Wells, Maine. There are photos of ‘Ellie,’ as her classmates called her, at the 60th and 61st RFS Class of 1924 reunions, sitting amongst her friends – still slender and fit well into her eighties.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Her column appears every other Friday and she may be reached at info@exeterhistory.org.
First Image: Elinor Churchill in 1924 – her graduation photo from the Robinson Female Seminary. Fellow students remembered her for her smile and laugh and propensity for ‘fooling.’
Second Image: Elinor Churchill in 1922, in her gym uniform at the Robinson Female Seminary – this photo accompanied the brief write up in the Seminarian nominating her to the “Hall of Fame” (which didn’t really exist, but it was nice of them to write her up). My guess is that this is the best picture of Elinor as she would have like to see herself. In the basketball team photos she always looks a bit like she’s being held hostage.
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