Tennis

Students playing tennis by Main College Building (1950s)

Tennis was the first sport to be established at Simmons College in 1907. However, the facilities were inadequate for training and playing. It was until 1924 that the Athletic Department decided to convert the unused land behind the Main College building into two tennis courts, with four more built in the residence campus. In 1932, the college started matches that paired faculty members with students in the faculty-student mixed doubles. The two finalist pairs were Dr. Kenneth Mark and Ms. Eleanor Garland (1934), and Mr. John Fleming and Ms. Lucy Rice (1935). In the following decades, tennis maintained its popularity on campus and continued to be played within the Simmons community. However, intercollegiate matches were not played until 1965. They were scheduled every spring and Simmons went undefeated for 3 years. 

Simmons tennis player Tatiana Yugay (2016)

Unfortunately, the construction of the Science Center in 1969 threatened to remove the tennis courts and the sport was eliminated from the extracurricular fall program. It was only allowed again when Simmons students were permitted to use the Winsor School’s outdoor facilities. By 1976, Simmons College was a member of the intercollegiate tennis league alongside schools such as Babson, Wheelock, Endicott, Eastern Nazarene, and Wheaton. During the 1999-2000 season, the tennis team played in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) and Bob Rauseo was named the first GNAC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year in Simmons history in 2008.