| Chapter 1: | H’Doubler on H’Doubler |
She was in charge of the department and was a remarkable person. She really did serve as the Dean of Women for the whole university. And she did so much through her department in contacting students and being their advisor. In my third year of teaching, [1912–1913] she was called to China to establish women’s physical education in the YWCA over there. And there, Miss Trilling came in. You are probably familiar with that name because it is her portrait that is up in the library [the then department library in Lathrop Hall]. Then I taught with her for two years; that would be the end of my fifth year [spring of 1916]. Then I wanted to go on and study philosophy. So I went to Columbia University. Oh, yes, I must tell you. Do you know what my hobby was in athletics? Basketball!
And Miss Trilling realized that I wanted to study and go on, and she wanted me to look into the dance situation, and then come back and teach dance. I just nearly fainted. I said, “Teach dance? I don’t know anything about it—I don’t even know that I like it.” And I said, “Give up basketball? I couldn’t give up basketball.”
Well, in those years, campus life was not as complex as it is for young girls now. So really—Oh, yes, by that time, Lathrop Hall was built and finished; my senior year—that would be 1910—second semester, 1909–1910, and we had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in basketball [records from the Daily Cardinal—a Wisconsin student newspaper—indicate there was standing room only at some of the women’s basketball games]. And then Miss Trilling came and asked me to give up basketball; even tears came to my eyes. “Well,” I said, “I won’t do that.” She said, “Well, if you get everyone to dance like you’ve gotten everyone to play basketball, you’ll not have time to do both.”