The daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Sandra Berenson, born in a shetl in Vilna as Senda Valvrojenski, came to Boston, Massachusetts at age seven. Emigrating in 1874, her father (Albert) a peddler, changed the family name to Berenson. Berenson attended the Boston Latin School and the Boston Normal School for Gymnastics, where her health improved, and she became interested in gymnastics. Berenson invented basketball for women modifying the men’s game.
In 1892, Berenson became the Director of Physical Training at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts at the new Alumnae Gymnasium. Berenson observed Dr. James Naismith’s new game of basketball at Springfield College and then organized the first women’s basketball game in 1892 at Smith College. Known as the “Mother of Women’s Basketball,” Berenson remarked in her speech, “Basketball for Women,” that “in January, 1892 - Smith College introduced it,” and from “that day to this it has been by far the most popular game in that college.” The first official game pitted the Smith sophomores against the freshman at Alumnae Gymnasium on March 22, 1893. To avoid the roughness of the men’s game, Berenson adapted the rules for women: dividing the court into zones, prohibiting snatching the ball from another player, allowing five to ten players on a team, and emphasizing teamwork. In June, 1899 at the Physical Training Conference to draw up modified rules for women’s basketball, participants selected Berenson to author the official rules. Berenson edited Spalding’s Athletic Library Basket Ball for Women in 1901, explaining the women’s game avoided “undue physical exertion.” Berenson chaired the U.S. Women’s Basketball Committee from 1905-1917, popularizing women’s basketball throughout the country at colleges, schools, YMCA’s and YWHA’s. Retiring from Smith in 1911, Berenson married Herbert Abbott on January 15, 1911. After leaving Smith, she chaired the Physical Education Department at Burnham School in Northampton until 1921.
As the pioneer of women’s basketball, Sandra Berenson Abbott became one of the first three women to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame on July 1, 1985. Berenson Abbott became the first Jewish woman to receive this honor when she was elected as a Contributor to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984.
