Legendary Ursinus College coach Eleanor Frost Snell & Jen Shillingford, former director of athletics and physical education at Bryn Maw College.

Dear Women in Coaching Blog Readers:
This upcoming weekend, the Centennial Conference will host the 13th annual Snell-Shillingford Symposium. Female athlete representatives and coaches from the conference’s member schools, including Bryn Mawr, Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg, Johns Hopkins, McDaniel, Muhlenberg, Swarthmore, Ursinus, and Washington College, will converge on Haverford College to participate in sessions designed to empower women in the coaching profession and to encourage them to take up the legacy of those who have gone before them.
The symposium honors the contributions and commitment of two of the most influential women in the coaching profession, Eleanor Frost Snell and Jen Shillingford. Miss Snell, as she was known to her students, served Ursinus College as a professor of health and physical education, coach, and head of the women’s physical education department for four decades, from 1931 to 1971. In keeping with the program’s emphasis on mentoring and passing on the education of coaches from one generation to the next, the symposium also bears the name of Snell’s student and mentee, Jen Shillingford, who served as field hockey coach and athletic director for over 20 years at Bryn Mawr and president of the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) .
          Participants in the symposium will learn about the remarkable accomplishments of the legendary and iconic Eleanor Snell, who inspired generations of young women who called themselves “Snell’s Belles”. Described by her former players as a woman well ahead of her time in outlook and aspiration, she was possessed of a quiet intensity and competitive spirit that permeated a program of women’s sport unique in its time. Conventional wisdom during the decades she coached encouraged polite and restrained engagement in athletic pursuits for women. Under Snell, Ursinus women cultivated more expansive dreams of athletic excellence, dreams that would lead two of her former athletes to take up the mantle of head coach of the U.S. Women’s Field Hockey team and countless others making an impact throughout the athletic world as competitors, coaches, officials, physical educators, administrators, and academics.
In commenting on the influence Eleanor Snell had on their lives, a former player noted, “Anyone who investigates the breadth and depth of women’s sports at Ursinus must be prepared to stand in awe and respect before Eleanor Snell. She not only towers over the whole, but she is there in the midst….one of Ursinus; one of the finest examples of devotion to a task and dedication to the students put under her charge.” That dedication to task resulted in one of the most astounding achievements in college sport history, with an overall lifetime record of 674 wins, 194 losses, and 42 ties across the four sports that she coached (field hockey, basketball, softball, and tennis). In field hockey, her teams had six unbeaten seasons and lost only six games during one 10 year span of time. In 1971, the Ursinus field hockey team outscored opponents 35 – 1. Ursinus produced more All-American field hockey players than any other college or university in the United States. In softball, during one ten year span of time, her teams lost only one game.
The esteem and regard Snell continues to command from her former students and through them, the extended legion of Snell’s Belles, emerges from her abiding belief in the young women she worked with and the selfless dedication she had to teaching. She passed that commitment to students along to Jen Shillingford, who has left her own indelible mark on the women of Bryn Mawr College, the Centennial Conference, and national sport organizations such as the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) and the NCAA to name only a few. An accomplished field hockey player who was a member of the 1951-1952 U.S. Field Hockey team, Jen has thus far served higher education and athletics for over 50 years as a teacher, coach, voice of reason, official, author, and athletics administrator. After retiring from Bryn Mawr, she served as the Snell Professor of Health and Physical Education at Ursinus College, where she established the framework and the foundation for the symposium. She was recognized by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) as Administrator of the Year. In 2003, NACWAA also honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS) named her a Pathfinder Award winner and the Pennsylvania AAHPERD presented her with the Heritage Award. She is also a member of the Southeast Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
A few weeks ago I had a chance to speak with Jen about the impact the symposium has had on the women who have participated. Since the first symposium in 1999, women athletes have taken up the call and joined the coaching ranks. This upcoming weekend promises to deliver a few more to the profession, energized and enthusiastic to carry on the tradition and lend their own unique talents to the cause.  I look forward to witnessing how they write their own chapter of women’s coaching history.
Kindest regards – Ellen, Ursinus Class of 1977, daughter of Elizabeth Keyser Staurowsky, Class of 1951, one of Snell’s Belles
Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D., Professor, Department of Sport Management, Drexel University, ejs95@drexel.edu
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