Smith Pioneers

From Hoopedia

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters. Smith is also a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Basketball

Smith College's basketball team is called the Pioneers. Smith's athletic teams have been known as the Pioneers since 1986. The name expresses the spirit of Smith's students and the college's leadership role in women's athletics (the first women's basketball game was played at Smith in 1893).

Smith College does not have college colors in the usual sense. Its official color is white, trimmed with gold, but the official college logo is currently blue and yellow (a previous logo was burgundy and white). NCAA athletic teams have competed in blue and white (or blue and yellow, in the case of the soccer, crew, swimming, and squash teams) uniforms since the 1970s, and selected Pioneers as the official name and mascot in 1986. Popular club sports are free to choose their own colors and mascot; both Rugby and Fencing have chosen red and black.

Smith college is often called the "birthplace of Women's basketball". Smith College physical education director and Hall of Famer Senda Berenson Abbott revised Dr. James Naismith's rules for women's play in 1893.