W. Golf the latest chapter in Penn's long athletics history

Penn won its first national championship, in any sport, in 1895 -- a full 104 years before the inception of a women's golf program at the University.

The Quakers' football team was that first Penn national championship team. The Red and Blue were crowned by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the National Collegiate Foundation in the still-fledgling sport.

But as time has passed, the University has evolved into an elite athletic program, one that now boasts 33 interscholastic programs. The memories of the archaic football-prominent school of the 19th century have long since been forgotten.

In the fall of 1999, in accordance to its advancement with the times, Penn welcomed its most recent athletic newcomer -- the women's golf team -- to its roster of varsity athletics.

The team had previously participated as a member of the mixed team for the Penn golf program, but it was ineligible to compete for the Ivy League title under this format.

Springboarded by a $250,000 donation in 1998 from 1968 Wharton graduate James Pappas, the dream of a women's golf team began to become a reality.

Title IX, the monumental 1972 amendment that required gender equity in both academic and athletic fields of participation, also played a major role in assuring the women's golf team's varsity status.

Yet the grunt work coach Francis Vaughn did and his negotiations with Penn's athletic department served as the true backbone of making the women's golf team a reality in July of 1999.

But Vaughn doesn't take the credit.

"It was really an interest of young ladies who want to play golf on campus," Vaughn said.

Despite the new status of the team as a varsity sport, Penn has quickly acclimated itself to the Quakers sports scene.

"It's been great to see how the team's improved and gotten recruits," senior Rachel Slosburg said.

Slosburg joined the team three years ago, in its inaugural season as a varsity sport, and has watched the team grow from its infancy.

"The girls worked really hard in the first year, and Francis had a big part in making sure the team took off," Slosburg said.

Improvement has been evident even after the team's first tournament of the year. Last week in the Yale Invitational, the team was 15th overall, with a score that was 40 strokes better than last year's finish.

With the realization that the women's golf team is intact for the long run, the squad will travel to the Princeton Invitational at the Springdale Golf Club this weekend for its second major invitational of the season.

The two-day competition will feature 25 teams from around the country, including four Ancient Eight schools -- Penn, Princeton, Brown, and Yale.

"I'm pretty confident," Vaughn said. "The ladies have played well there, and we have continued to improve."

Like other teams at Penn, the fact that they will be playing Princeton will create an extra mystique and sense of motivation for the Quakers.

"We will probably go out there with more fight and desire to do well," Slosburg said. "We want to do well anyway, but Princeton being [at the Invitational] provides extra incentive."

This weekend, the Tigers -- last year's Ivy champs -- will feature sophomore Esty Dwek in the competitive field. She finished second in the Ivy League Championship last year, behind only her now-graduated teammate, Julia Allison.

As Penn begins to prepare for its encounter on a familiar course, now might be the time to look back at the progress the program has made up to this point.

While the women's golf team won't have a plaque emblazoned next to Locust Walk's compass any time in the near future, it intends to remain in the history of Penn as long as Ben Franklin continues to sit on his bench.

Both seem to be quite content where they sit at the moment.

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