June Starr Strahl

June Starr Strahl: The Start of Women’s Athletics at Greenville College

By Keli Pennington, campus chaplain

Keli Pennington, Campus Chaplain, presents on June Starr Strahl's leadership development through women's athletics at Greenville College

One cannot talk about athletics at Greenville University without mentioning the Strahls. The Strahl Athletic Complex, home to Greenville University's football, soccer, track & field, baseball, and softball facilities, commemorates John Strahl, a well-respected coach and athletic director at Greenville College who served at the University from 1950-1990.  Although John’s name may be on the sign, athletics as we currently know it at GU would not be what it is without the contributions of both John and June Strahl. June Strahl, wife to John Strahl, played a significant role in shaping and starting women’s athletics at then Greenville College.

Part of the legacy that led to John’s memorialization in the Strahl Complex was more than just the work he accomplished at the college; he was also beloved because of his “Strahlisms.” However, credit for this term also must be shared with June. June coined the term “Strahlism” to describe John’s “sometimes witty, sometimes obvious, and always true proverbs.” Phrases such as “you live long enough, you’ll see everything three times” and “don’t judge anyone too quickly; give him a little time to grow, wait ten years or so after he gets out of college and see what he becomes,” encapsulated John’s “common-sense, easy-going lifestyle.”[1] Although the term is not typically attributed to June, she too had her own kind of “Strahlisms,” not captured in catchy sayings but in a philosophy of life and education that was committed to developing young people, particularly young women, through athletics. Her commitment to health, sportsmanship, and education created an environment where young women could thrive. As June led these young ladies in the early days of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Greenville College, she instilled in them confidence to excel, not just in sports, but in all areas of life, cultivating young, female leaders. Beyond her institutional contribution to the formation of teams and programs, June’s legacy can also be found in the female students she inspired and shaped into leaders who would go on to raise up another generation of female leaders.

June Starr was born in 1923 and raised in Lansing, Michigan in a household influenced by her father’s role as a Church of the Nazarene pastor.[2]  June attended Olivet Nazarene College (now Olivet Nazarene University, located in Bourbonnais, Illinois), as did John, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in 1946. Her senior yearbook from Olivet notes the impact she had on this college community as she participated in intramural softball and basketball teams, served as president of the women’s athletic society, known as the “O Club,” and was even listed as a physical education faculty member while still enrolled as an undergraduate student herself.  Her senior yearbook described her as a “friendly and vivacious individual who capably instructed women’s physical education classes, emphasizing skill, coordination, health, and good sportsmanship.” Her exceptional skill and leadership in the athletic realm were apparent, even at a young age. 

June’s experience with athletics and physical education while at Olivet was largely representative of what many young women would have experienced at college during this time. The growth of women’s athletics in the United States was not linear but rather faced various setbacks and was largely impacted by major cultural and historical events. The first ever collegiate basketball games in the US, for both men and women, were played at the very end of the 19thcentury, and the universities that participated banned women’s basketball just a few years after the inaugural game, halting the progress for women’s sports quickly after its inception. In the early 20thcentury, leading up to the women’s suffrage movement, women’s participation in athletics, or even physical activities of any kind, began to grow. However, during the Great Depression, women’s participation decreased as people focused their attention and time towards ensuring the basic survival and well-being of the household.  As women entered the workforce during World War II, social norms about women’s abilities began to change and women’s participation in athletics became more common, as did women’s intercollegiate athletics.[3]

While the Strahls were instrumental in advancing athletics at Greenville College, that’s not to say that athletics did not exist before their arrival. The establishment of athletics at Greenville, both intercollegiate and intramural, largely mirrored the wider culture. The Vista, Greenville’s yearbook, documents intramural sports for both men and women as early as 1912, with a women's intramural basketball team directly mentioned for the first time in 1914. Mary Alice Tenney notes Greenville’s first foray into intercollegiate athletics came in 1921 when “the Greenville board of trustees decided to experiment with a season of [men’s] varsity basketball.”[4] However, “the project was attended by disappointment and disapproval from every quarter,” including the student body and other stakeholders of the institution, namely the Free Methodist Church.[5]

As the public opinion of athletics became more favorable across the United States, including in Greenville, and as Greenville looked to boost enrollment during the WWII era, the question of offering intercollegiate athletics was raised again on campus.  However, the Free Methodist Church had a provision in the Book of Discipline that prohibited Free Methodist colleges from having “varsity” level teams play other teams of alumni, other college, or non-college related teams. Between 1940-1943, then Greenville College President, H.J. Long, worked with former GC President and then Bishop within the Free Methodist Church, Leslie Marston, towards an alternative “interpretation” of this policy, ultimately offering a compelling philosophical argument for how intercollegiate athletics complimented and added to a Christian, liberal arts education.[6]

In the 1943 General Conference of the Free Methodist Church, held in LaDue Auditorium on Greenville College’s campus, the issue of allowing intercollegiate athletics at Free Methodist colleges came to a vote. The vote was contentious, with concerns that joining intercollegiate athletics might lead the college “to become like the world.” John Strahl recounted an anecdote about how one man stated on the floor how he was at another Free Methodist college for a revival meeting that started well early in the week, but after the intramural track meet on Saturday, the services didn’t go well on Sunday. He attributed the poor attendance and participation to the track meet and the worldly distraction it offered. Although the vote was close, it passed, and Greenville began offering men’s intercollegiate athletics just a few months later in the fall of 1943.[7]

While women were actively involved in intramural athletics at this time- the 1941 Vista noted that “nearly every girl has played in some organized sport during [that] year”- women were not included in intercollegiate athletics once teams began to form at GC. This topic was taken up by the faculty assembly on campus, and it was recommended in the fall of 1945 by an all-male, interdisciplinary faculty committee that women were not approved to participate in intercollegiate athletics as the “permission the church gave should not be applied to young ladies.”[8]  Despite this, women continued to participate in a variety of intramural activities, including tennis, field hockey, basketball, archery, volleyball, tumbling, and softball.[9]

The conversation about women’s participation in intercollegiate athletics was raised again when John and June Strahl arrived on Greenville’s campus in the fall of 1950. Since graduating from Olivet, June and John had married (1947) and had continued their education, coached, and taught at Taylor College (now, Taylor University, located in Upland, Indiana). June and John were the first professionally educated physical education faculty at Greenville College.[10] Their expertise and experience allowed them to start making an impact at GC quickly and heralded a transformative era for women’s athletics.

June’s impact on women’s sports was immediately felt. The 1951 Vista noted that “women’s athletics had a genuine rejuvenating this year under the leadership of Mrs. Strahl.” Then, it was in 1953 that women’s intercollegiate sports began as June developed and coached the first women’s intercollegiate basketball team at GC. While this was a positive development for women, the basketball they played looked very different than women’s intercollegiate basketball today. Emily Chalker, a member of the inaugural varsity women’s basketball team, shared this memory in a letter to her classmates years later:       

“we actually played two other schools that [first] year! I’m embarrassed to tell anyone about the rules. Can you imagine- only two dribbles- and stay in your own court! That Burritt gym was so tiny and then to have those restrictive rules. But we had fun anyway!” [11]

June coached the women’s basketball team at GC for eight years, ending with a record of 35-15. During the ten years June served at Greenville, she played an instrumental role in teaching, coaching, and leading both intramural and intercollegiate sports, helping to create a robust environment for women’s athletics.

Women’s intercollegiate athletics grew within the next 10 years to include tennis (1960) and field hockey (1963). Under John Strahl's leadership as athletic director, and recognizing June’s significant impact, the athletic program at Greenville College experienced substantial growth. Together, John and June expanded GC’s intercollegiate offerings, adding four men’s sports and five women’s sports during their tenure. The expansion of women’s sports at Greenville came during a period marked by social change within the wider culture, including the Civil Rights movement and Second Wave Feminism. For the college community, the expansion was not merely a response to social pressures but a genuine commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for all athletes. The 1965 Vista noted that “Greenville students refuse to let athletics be limited to one sex and, especially in intercollegiate contests, women are doing their part in furthering the competitive tradition of the orange and black.” This philosophy was present at GU almost a decade before the introduction of Title IX in 1972, which mandated equal funding and opportunities for men and women in athletics. The groundwork laid by the Strahls in the preceding decades had cultivated a philosophy of physical education that built upon President Long’s work and was rooted in the sacred worth of all people that allowed for athletics to flourish for both men and women on campus. Both June and John were inducted into the Greenville Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989 as the first-ever inductees for their significant contributions.[12]

June Starr Strahl’s legacy is emblematic of the pioneering spirit that defined the establishment of women’s athletics at Greenville College. Described as “self-confident, yet free of conceit” and an "idealistic, inscrutable thinker” with "bewildering insight," June used these skills to demonstrate that women could not only participate in sports but could also lead and inspire others through athletics.[13] One of the students she coached at GC, Phyllis Holmes, continued this tradition, fostering leadership among young women in sports and ensuring the continuation of June's vision not only on Greenville’s campus, but on the national stage as well. It was under Holmes’s leadership that Greenville continued to add new women‘s athletic teams, and later, the nation saw the first-ever intercollegiate women’s national basketball tournament.

The work of June Strahl and the women she inspired continues to resonate, paving the way for future generations of female athletes on Greenville’s campus. There are currently 13 women’s athletic teams, including three co-ed offerings at Greenville University, with over 200 female athletes participating, nearly one-quarter of the entire on-campus undergraduate student population. Women’s athletics has become a critical part of the life of the institution. Through this recognition of June’s role in starting what is today a vibrant program, we honor not only her legacy but also the countless women who have shaped the athletic history of Greenville College. By acknowledging these contributions, we can recognize how their stories are integral to understanding the full scope of the college’s history and the vital role women have played in it.

Works Cited

Bell, Richard C. “A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX.” The Sport Journal. March 14, 2008.
In Memory: June Strahl, GU Hall of Fame Inductee and Beloved Coach; Greenville University website; November 20, 2021.
“P. June Strahl Obituary”, WGEL; Greenville, IL; November 28, 2021.
Stephens, W. Richard. President H.J. Long: Intercollegiate Athletics at Greenville College.  N.d.
Strahl, John. Box M119. Greenville University Archives; Greenville, IL.
Strahl, June. Box M6. Greenville University Archives; Greenville, IL.
Tenney, Mary Alice. Still Abides the Memory; Greenville, IL, 1942.

[1] Strahl, John. Essay, Chapter 6 “Strahlisms”-- A Philosophy of Life. Unknown. N.d. M119. Greenville University Archives; Greenville, IL.
[2] “P. June Strahl Obituary”, WGEL; Greenville, IL; November 2021.
[3] Bell, Richard C. “A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX.” The Sport Journal. March 14, 2008.
[4] Tenney, Mary Alice. Still Abides the Memory, Greenville, Ill, 1942, p. 235.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Stephens, W. Richard, President H.J. Long: Intercollegiate Athletics at Greenville College.  N.d.
[7] Strahl, John. Interview with Homer Cunningham on Intercollegiate program history. N.d. M119.
[8] Stephens, 12-13.
[9] Greenville College, 1941 Vista Yearbook.
[10] Stephens, 13.
[11] Strahl, June. ”Memories of Greenville College by the Class of 1954“ 2004. Box M6. Greenville University Archives; Greenville, IL.
[12] In Memory: June Strahl, GU Hall of Fame Inductee and Beloved Coach; Greenville University website; November 20, 2021.
[13] Starr, June. The Aurora, Olivet Nazarene College yearbook; 1946; Greenville University Archives; Greenville, IL.