In the early 1950s, a group of talented, ambitious Palmyra High School girls ignored the memo that said women shouldn’t play sports or have a career.
Under the tutelage of field hockey coach Mary Ann Porter, an integrated squad of players defied societal norms and crashed through two glass ceilings by playing with poise, skill and team chemistry.
The 1952-’53 field hockey team played hard and finished with a perfect 12-0 record, winning the first girls’ sports championship in the school’s history by beating teams from Burlington, Gloucester and Camden counties.
Team captain Yvonne “Vonnie” Gros encouraged her teammates to play their best, and they answered with one of the greatest seasons ever for any team. The players included Barbara Evert Whitbred, Connie Evert Bring, Jeannette Lowe Chase, Yvonne Scott Borroughs, Mary Austin Holloway, Mary Witherow Hannan, Carol Erickson Ingram and Faye Wilson.
Gros died on Feb. 28 having spent a lifetime crashing through glass ceilings with grace and confidence as an athlete and a coach. The Riverton native was 90. Details of a planned May memorial celebration in her adopted hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania, are still being finalized.
The Palmyra High athletics department posted the following statement on Facebook:
“We are saddened to learn of the passing of one of Palmyra High School’s all-time great student-athletes, Vonnie Gros. The 1953 grad was a star on the field hockey field, basketball court and softball field at Palmyra High School and she was Palmyra’s (first) 1,000-point scorer on the basketball court for the boys or girls.
“The Hall of Famer became an instrumental coach for the U.S. Field Hockey Team, winning the bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics,” the statement added. “She was an inspiration to so many student-athletes and she will be deeply missed! Go Pals!”
“A pioneer for women’s athletics long before Title IX attempted to equal the playing field for women, Gros left an indelible mark on the athletic world in both South Jersey and Chester County, Pennsylvania,” her obit read.
After graduation from Palmyra, Gros continued to excel at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where she was an All-American in both field hockey and lacrosse and a national champion as a player and coach. She played on the U.S. National Field Hockey team for 13 years, then coached it to a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics.
Gros became the head coach of both the field hockey and lacrosse teams at West Chester University in 1964. The Golden Rams hockey team won two Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships during her tenure, with an overall record of 100-7-16. The lacrosse team posted a record of 37-5-4.
Gros went on to teach and coach at her alma mater. She is enshrined in the Palmyra High hall of fame, the U.S. Field Hockey Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, among others. She was named one of Burlington County’s top 100 athletes of the century in 2000.
“I enjoyed bringing new things to the game,” Gros said in a past interview with the magazine at Ursinus. “Some people I played with didn’t always appreciate what I did because we were coached a certain way. When I watch (pickup) games, the players make up their own game.
“I used to make up my own game.”
“She is a true pioneer of women’s athletics, and she cleared a path for many after her,” said Ursinus staffer Laura Moliken in the same magazine article. “There are others, of course, who also cleared paths, broke through barriers and changed the perception of what women could do in athletics.
“With each person like Vonnie, strength and courage are passed on to the next generation of advocates.”
