Carthage College Athletics

From Mount Morris, Ill., Bernice Hightower Ihlenfeld was Carthage’s first women’s tennis star. The Little 19 Conference actually sponsored one women’s sport during the 1930s—women’s tennis. Ihlenfeld was the conference singles runner-up in 1932, and she won league titles in both 1933 and 1934.

There were no varsity sports for women, as we now know them, in that era. State universities and small colleges, including Carthage, typically sponsored “sports days” for female athletes. The first such “sports day” on the old Carthage campus was conducted during the 1937-38 academic year and included Carthage, Augustana College (Ill.), Knox College, MacMurray College, Monmouth College and Western Illinois University. The six schools competed in both basketball and badminton. These day-long events continued, periodically until 1958 when they became a more-regular occurrence. In the 1950s and 1960s, Carthage would often travel to Illinois State University, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Eastern Illinois University and nearby Western Illinois University. Millikin University was well known for its annual spring tennis invitational.

During a winter “sports day” for basketball, each team might play three games on a Saturday against three different teams. The first team for the universities was their best team, and since they had many majors who wanted to play, they had multiple teams. There was never an overall winner in team sports, just compete and do your best to win. Tennis and badminton were played as tournaments with winners for both singles and doubles.

When a school invited Carthage to a “sports day,” the teams would practice for several weeks prior to the event. There was never a “season” with daily practice and multiple dates of competition. The concept carried over to the late 1970s, as the Carthage women’s basketball team was still playing multiple games on the same day as late as the 1979-80 season.

Ihlenfeld, whose father, Clarence Hightower, was a 1910 Carthage graduate, went on to serve as director of the park district tennis program in Fargo, Ind., and as a physical education teacher in Fargo Public School system.  She celebrated her 100th birthday on Nov. 18, 2012.