Bowdoin College
Library / George J. Mitchell Dept. of Special Collections & Archives

A Men’s College with Women? Over 50 Years of Women’s Leadership and Education at Bowdoin

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Academics, Faculty, and Staff

Coaches

Coaches
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Sally LaPointe (1934-2007) was a central figure in the establishment of women’s athletics at Bowdoin. She was hired as the first woman coach in 1972 after she voluntarily coached Bowdoin’s first women’s sport, field hockey, in 1971. She coached women’s field hockey for twenty years. In the spring of 1974, she founded the women's lacrosse team, which she coached for nineteen years. She also coached the women's basketball team for their first season in 1974. LaPointe supervised the entire women’s athletic department (field hockey, basketball, squash, tennis, volleyball, and badminton) and was inducted into Bowdoin’s Athletic Hall of Honor in 2006 for her integral role in the development of the women’s athletic department.

Sally LaPointe with lacrosse coach Mortimer LaPointe, photograph, circa 1975

Listen to excerpts of an interview with Cafferty, conducted by Skyler Walley ’12

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George J. Mitchell Department of
Special Collection & Archives
Bowdoin College Library
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