Valvrojenski, Senda
Born: Mar 19, 1868 AD
Died: 1954 AD, at 85 years of age.
Nationality:
American
Categories:
Educators
1868 - Born on March 19th in Butryrmantsy, Russian Empire. American educator and sportswoman who created and successfully promoted a form of women's basketball played in schools for nearly three-quarters of a century.
1875 - The Valvrojenski family immigrated to the United States, adopting the name Berenson and settling in Boston.
1890 - She entered the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics and soon found her physical condition much improved.
1892 - She joined the staff of Smith College as a teacher of physical training.
- Berenson's major contribution to women's physical education, however, was her devising of women's basketball, a modified version of the men's game that she introduced at Smith after reading of James Naismith's invention of the game in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts.
1895 - Her teaching emphasized the Swedish gymnastics she had learned at the Boston school and fencing.
1897 - She studied advanced fencing at the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm.
1901 - She initiated the introduction of field hockey at Smith.
1911 - Berenson left Smith upon her marriage to Herbert V. Abbott, a professor of English.
1921 - She was director of physical education at a private girls' school until this year.
1954 - Died on February 16th in Santa Barbara, California.
Page last updated: 12:51am, 18th Aug '07