Ella Sime

Hamline Women’s Cross Country Alumni from left to right: Mary Howell Langlie, Sue Klappa and Allyson Hartle are seen laughing and enjoying the conversation at the 50 year celebration luncheon for Women’s Cross Country on Oct. 31.

Fifty years ago, a small but committed group of women laced up their running shoes and created history at Hamline University. After decades of hard work, determination and camaraderie, the Women’s Cross Country team has blossomed into a mainstream part of the Hamline University athletic department society.

Sue Klappa, Allyson Hartle and Mary Howell Langlie were three of the big names as part of the humble beginnings. Coming from athletic backgrounds and growing up playing sports such as track and field, tennis and swimming, all three women knew they wanted to continue their athletic journeys once they came to Hamline.

Although it may not have been cross country that brought these women to Hamline, it was cross country where they really made their mark.

“I chose Hamline because it had a strong science program and it had the women’s swim program going, and it was just getting started. I loved swimming, but I also wanted to do more. I heard about track starting and Mary Howell Langlie and I thought, well, let’s go out for track,” Klappa said.

After putting a pin in the track season, going home for the summer and returning the next academic year, the girls realized they loved running long distance and knew they were going to do whatever they could to get a cross country team started at Hamline.

Starting a program from scratch means you have no budget for equipment, facilities or really anything. It requires you to build from the ground up and come up with everything that you may possibly need. The girls found that their biggest challenge was finding gear.

“We actually did a sit-in at one point in the president’s office because it was the basketball uniforms they were going to have us wear,” Howell Langlie said.

Meeting after meeting, they were finally told by Hamline’s administration at the time that they would be granted uniforms. The catch, though, was that they were not able to get “their own” uniforms.

“We were eventually outfitted in the tennis team’s all white uniforms. All white hoodies and sweatpants. We would have to go out and do our winter running and winter training dressed in all white. We blended in perfectly with the snowbanks,” Hartle said.

Despite being given the hand-me-down uniforms, they served their purpose. However, there were still many things that needed to be established. Their persistent efforts started to pay off as they became more recognized as a team.

One of the ways this was reflected was the acknowledgement from the men’s teams that the women also needed to be able to use the weight room equipment.

“There was this little weight room in the bowels of the fieldhouse, and at one point, they were going to redo it. I had Bob Fletcher (Hamline Class of ’77 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee 1998) come up to me and ask, ‘Sue, for women, what kinds of equipment would you like?’ so that was kind of cool to be recognized by a guy that was a year ahead of us,” Klappa said.

Another way this was reflected was in terms of equality. All the women wanted to do the same things the men were doing, and wanted to be treated equally.

“We all wanted to be as equal with the men. We saw the guys doing stuff and would think to ourselves that we could do the same thing, and have fun doing it. We thought it would be more fun than anything,” Howell Langlie said.

In terms of practices, the girls were able to use the track on campus. When they needed more precise and specific training, they would go off campus to locations around the Hamline-Midway area.

“Our coach would drive us to Lake Nokomis, and we would have to do intervals there. To this day, if I am riding [my bike] and we come up from the south of the river, I still have PTSD of running intervals,” Hartle said.

Back in the 70’s, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) was not developed yet for women, so they would compete in the Association for Collegiate Athletic Women (AIAW). In the AIAW, there were no division one, two or three schools. Instead, everybody would compete against everybody.

Now having a place for strength training, as well as having regimens for distance training, the girls were set for competition. Klappa reflected on what she remembers about her first competition meet on the Hamline University Women’s Cross Country team.

“It was really cool. You get nervous, and then the gun goes off and you are ready to go. It was really cool to be standing on that starting line with this team of women. You think to yourself, let’s do well and let’s do this,” Klappa said.

Since the first shotgun start, the evolution of women’s cross country at Hamline has exploded. In fifty years of history, Hamline has had multiple conference championships, several athletes have made appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regional and national championships and many runners have been inducted into the Hamline Hall of Fame. Though none of this would have been possible without the dedication of these three trailblazers.

“Women’s cross country came about not because we wanted this vision to happen, but it came about because we just enjoyed what we did and we wanted to do things with each other. And we were an impressive group of women,” Klappa said.