Skidmore College Athletics

Long before there was a formally recognized competitive athletics program at Skidmore, there were students like "Jorie” Wendel Keenoy '44, who, as a sophomore, became a championship golfer. The winner of a city tournament in her hometown of Dayton, OH in 1941, she also competed in the first women's intercollegiate golf tournament, held in Columbus at the Ohio State course. In 1951, she reclaimed the Dayton city tournament championship.  

Keenoy, who had played golf on a high school boys' team (there wasn't a team for girls), recalls taking a bus from Skidmore's former downtown campus to the grounds of the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs Spa State Park, where she and another classmate were coached by pro Bob Cheshire. Since then, she has never strayed far from the greens for long.

A longtime competitor in Ohio State and North South Senior tournaments, she accompanied a group of alumni led by Tim Brown to Scotland in 1999, where they sampled some of the best courses in the British Isles and spent two days at the British Open.