After unpacking suitcases in their dorms on the Hill in September 1973, newly registered girl athletes lugged their gym bags into the basement of Cooley House. There the girls' gear stayed, in makeshift lockers, until 1978, when shoestring repairs to the boys' facilities allowed the girls to move next door to Memorial Gym. The renovations were totally inadequate--"disgraceful"-- according to one Abbot alumna. "The merger has occurred everywhere except in the athletic program," she complained.

Joe Wennik '52, athletic director at the time, recounted his frustration in getting the trustees to recognize the need for adequate gym facilities for girls when he spoke in November at "An Evening of Remembrance Honoring Joe Wennik." Sponsored by the Brace Center, it was part of a series of events focusing on the 25th anniversary of coeducation at Andover. Wennik was cited for his contribution to coeducation through his role in transforming the athletic program following the merger.

In January 1978 the school was preparing to make renovations to Commons even though the girls' athletic facilities were still woefully inadequate, said Wennik, who thought Andover had its priorities wrong. In a letter to then-headmaster Ted Sizer, he laid his cards on the table: "We are currently running a tacky, shabby operation, one far below the level of other areas of PA life. . . . It reflects dismally upon the sincerity of our commitment to coeducation."

Furthermore, Wennik remembers, the girls "didn't have enough." Enough coaching, enough transportation, enough uniforms, enough equipment. Also, there was no JV athletic program for girls.

When a girls' and women's locker room and the new Abbot wing of the gym were finally built in 1979, funded by the Bicentennial Campaign and donations from Abbot alumnae, Wennik felt the Andover community had united to "pull off the most exciting and meaningful building project in Andover's recent history." Everyone was involved, even the students. Girls from one dorm proposed lockers be set up in a horseshoe shape, a departure from the traditional row-on-row arrangement the boys had, permitting them to socialize freely as they prepared for games and practices.

Reactions by alumni and faculty to the advent of Andover girls' sports teams varied from supportive to downright hostile. One coach remembered how positive it was for male athletes to watch strong girl players in action. But when some of the girls' teams had great initial success, a few alums worried they were outshining the boys, which prompted angry calls and letters claiming coeducation was destroying boys' athletics.

There were internal problems and adjustments as well. The school's first certified woman athletic trainer once was told she couldn't get on a bus with male athletes. There were squabbles among coaches of girls' and boys' teams as to who got the best practice times. Some male coaches struggled to learn new coaching methods and metaphors that wouldn't be offensive to girls. Wennik himself had to quit his habit of yelling out "attaboy! attaboy!" when he watched girls' contests.

Wennik says it took a while for these problems to go away, but the strongest force in their elimination was that the Andover community went about its work with integrity to make coeducation the best it could possibly be. "Eventually people got it. It was great," he says.