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1972 – 1977
The ground: Women were first admitted to Notre Dame as undergraduates in 1972, and organized women's sport on the campus began at the level the era allowed: interhall, bookstore and club teams. The University Archives hold the Mary Clemency Papers for those years — Clemency, a member of the class of 1976, was a co-captain of the club basketball team — and the papers include a petition for varsity status, the document trail of the push from club to varsity.
The club team: A club team first represented Notre Dame against outside competition in 1974–75, playing seven games, and club teams played again in 1975–76 and 1976–77. Those seasons stand outside the varsity record the university keeps — the program dates its own history from 1977 — but they are the program's documented beginning, and the varsity team that followed was built directly out of them.
Varsity status: It came for the 1977–78 season. The first varsity team is the subject of the next entry; the fact to carry is the speed of the thing — five years from the first women undergraduates to a varsity team, and twenty-four years from varsity status to a national championship.
Sources:
- University of Notre Dame Archives, Mary Clemency Papers — the club teams of 1974–77, Clemency's co-captaincy, the petition for varsity status.
- University record — the admission of women as undergraduates in 1972; varsity status for women's basketball in 1977–78.