Five player women's basketball was not instituted at the College until 1969. Basketball, like most other women's sports at the time, was not readily accepted at Dickinson College, or throughout the nation. As popularity grew initially in the early 1970s for women's basketball, so too did the success of the team and MAC play began in 1976. By the end of the 1970s, however, success began to fluctuate as participation and interest started to fall. As noted above, the team shown in this picture marked one of the high points in the history of women's basketball at Dickinson College. Not only was the team a success, but they were led by two of the greatest players in the history of women's basketball at the College. Led primarily by Nancy Oppenheimer, who would go on to score over 1,000 points in her Dickinson career and Kathy Weir, the 1982 team exceeded all the expectations they had at the beginning of the year. Oppenheimer and Weir led Dickinson in scoring, rebounds, and assists.
1982 marked only the second year in which Dickinson College basketball teams played in the Kline Center, which was opened in 1980. This new campus building housed an olympic pool and diving area, weight room, seven basketball courts, and courts for squash, racquetball, badminton, tennis, and volleyball. Other winter sports such as indoor track were able to compete in the Kline Center as well. The previous site of winter sporting events at the College, basketball in particular, was the Alumni Gymnasium, which had served since January, 1929.
Seth Jacobsen
Sources:
Alumni Gymnasium Prospectus
1983 Dickinson College Microcosm
The Dickinsonian, 1982-83