Anne Barton Townsend

Field Hockey Player

• Born: March 8, 1900
• Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Died: February 3, 1984
• Place of death: Merion, Pennsylvania

Sport: Field hockey

Early Life

Anne Barton Townsend was born on March 8, 1900, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was a wealthy banker, and Anne enjoyed a privileged childhood. The family belonged to private clubs like the Merion Cricket Club, where Anne learned many sports, including tennis and swimming, that she enjoyed all her life.

Anne was educated at Agnes Irwin, a private boarding school. There she had the opportunity to learn and compete in team sports such as lacrosse, basketball, and her first love, field hockey.

When Anne enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania following her graduation from Agnes Irwin, few American women attended college. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) did not yet govern women’s college athletics. The few women’s college teams that existed seldom played beyond their local area and rarely received any publicity. Anne was captain of both the basketball and field hockey teams at Pennsylvania. Although unknown nationally, she was the best woman athlete at the university when she graduated in 1921.

The Road to Excellence

Anne was certain that sports would always be an important part of her life. She was independently wealthy and not in need of work. Nevertheless, she took a job as field-hockey coach at her alma mater Agnes Irwin. She later coached at Shady Hill, another private school.

While passing on her love of hockey to countless young players, Anne continued to compete on the field-hockey team at the Merion Cricket Club. At that time, the best hockey teams in the United States came from clubs, not colleges. Many of the top players came from Pennsylvania, which had more than twenty women’s teams.

To help promote the sport, Anne helped organize the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) in 1922. Thanks in part to her leadership, the organization grew strong. It still governs women’s Olympic field hockey today.

In 1924, Anne was chosen for the first USFHA All-American team to travel abroad. She played the key position of center halfback on the team that played in England that fall. Although the team included the best American players, Anne’s team soon learned that the United States was far behind the English in field hockey. They lost by scores like 11-0 and 9-0. Anne and her teammates came home determined to improve their sport.

Anne became well known as an outstanding woman athlete of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Because of her outstanding manners, attractiveness, and love of sport, several women’s magazines wrote about her as an outstanding role model for young women. She was also engaged for a while to an architect named Livingston Smith, but she never married. Sports became her first love, and her teammates and the young players she coached, her family.

The Emerging Champion

Anne was a regular on the all-American hockey teams; she was named a total of seventeen times at four different positions. She was also captain of fourteen of those all-American teams, beginning in 1923.

From 1928 through 1932, she was president of the USFHA, and she was its secretary in 1932 and 1933. She also earned a national umpire’s rating in field hockey and helped promote the sport through her writing. From 1924 to 1929, Anne was field hockey contributing editor to the Sportswoman, America’s first magazine for women athletes. After her term ended in 1929, she continued to write hockey articles for the magazine.

When the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) was formed in 1933, Anne was elected president. She remained in that post through 1948. During her long years serving the IFWHA, Anne was captain of two all-American teams that competed in international tournaments. The first team competed in Denmark in 1933; the second team competed in her hometown of Philadelphia in 1936.

During the 1930’s, Anne continued her interest in other sports. Four times, she was named all-American in lacrosse. She was nationally ranked in tennis and won Pennsylvania state championships in both tennis and squash. Nevertheless, she dedicated most of her efforts to hockey. She felt it was the best team sport for girls and women because it brought out the best in sportsmanship and camaraderie.

Continuing the Story

In 1946, Anne and a longtime friend and fellow teacher May P. Fogg formed the Merstead Hockey and Lacrosse Camps at Camden, Maine. They hoped to help teach the next generation of women players. The next year, forty-seven-year-old Anne was named all-American in field hockey for the last time.

Although her hockey-playing days were over, Anne remained active. She played tennis and golf, swam, and won the U.S. senior women’s doubles squash championship at the age of fifty-seven. The next year, she began learning to bowl. Barton’s interest in writing also continued. She wrote book reviews for the Philadelphia Inquirer and was the author of two books: Field Hockey (1936) and Chapel Talks for School and Camp (1961).

For the remainder of her life, Anne retained an active interest in the sports she loved. She was an avid follower of her old team, the Merion Cricket Club, until she died in 1984, at the age of eighty-three.

Summary

Anne Barton Townsend was the most outstanding player and leader in the early years of American field hockey. She played because she loved to play, not for glory or for money, which was not available to American women athletes of her time. Anne played on her last national field-hockey team at the age of forty-seven. She remained active in sports all her life.

Anne was instrumental in founding both the USFHA and the IFWHA. She served more than twenty years as an officer of these organizations. As a writer, teacher, coach, and camp director, she helped to promote women’s field hockey and to train thousands of new players. Independently wealthy, she spent much time and money serving the sport worldwide. Thanks in no small part to Anne’s tireless and pioneering efforts, field hockey is today an Olympic sport for women.

Bibliography

Miller, Ernestine G. Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women’s Sports. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2002.

Porter, David L., ed. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Outdoor Sports. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1988.

Townsend, Anne B. Field Hockey. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936.

Westcott, Rich. A Century of Philadelphia Sports. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.