Stars of Yesterday: Anne Harwick

By Jim Joanos

Anne Harwick

With the Olympics just around the corner and the other world wide spornets activities being televised every day, much of our attention during these summer months is focused on international athletics competition. It seems like an appropriat time to write about what I consider to have been one of Florida State's most interesting international athletes. Her name was Anne Louise Harwick.

From 1905 to 1947, the institution now named "Florida State University" bore the title "Florida State College for Women" and was an all-women's college. During that time, while intercollegiate athletics competition was limited, a strong emphasis was placed on intramural and inter-class sports competition. Among the big events of the school years were "Field Days" when the women athletes would compete in an array of athletic contests. Harwick was a "star" among those who competed in the Field Days of 1921 and 22. During her last two years at FSCW, Harwick performed outstandingly in a number of Field Days events including the shot put, javelin throw, high jump, hurdles, baseball throw and the 100 yard dash. Her performance in the javelin throw was especially great and set a record.

Consequently, Harwick and four other FSCW athletes were invited to go to New York City and try out for the American Women's Track Team being assembled to participate in the International Track and Field Meet to take place in Paris in the summer of 1922. Of the five, Harwick was the only one to make it to compete in New York.

Harwick was successful at the New York meet, winning the javelin throw, with a heave of 127' 10". As a result, she made the team and was even selected as "Vice-Captain." However, in order to make the trip to Paris, travel expenses were needed. FSCW, being quite proud of Harwick and her accomplishments, got to work and ultimately through a number of activities raised what has been reported as $1,500 to make the trip. Harwick, herself, put on a special javelin throw exhibition to display her ability. The money came from various sources including a basketball game between the students who lived in Bryan and Reynolds Halls, donations from Chamber of Commerce organizations around the state of Florida, the City of Tallahassee, and candy sales at a Tallahassee drug store.

In Paris, although, because of illness, she could not participate in the javelin throw, her best event, she did compete in the 300 meter dash and won a medal in the baseball throw, an exhibition event. Consequently, Anne Harwick, as a matter of history, was among the earliest, perhaps the first, of Florida State athletes to compete internationally. There have been many since then. A few have even won Gold Medals at the Olympic games in various years. Those are stories for another day.

After her graduation from FSCW in 1922, Harwick briefly extended her interest in sports as an athletics program assistant at a New York school, then went into business. In time, she worked as an assistant supervisor in the WPA depression recovery program and obtained a Master's degree in Social Work from Tulane University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Later she worked as a social worker in Virginia. She also became a writer and authored a novel entitled Possum Trot which has received some acclaim. The book is about a Florida sharecropper. She died in 1974.

If you would like to read more about Anne Harwick, I would refer you to a couple of the sources that I relied upon in drafting this column: Robin Jeanne Sellers' Femina Perfecta, (1995) and Martee Wills' and Joan Morris' Seminole History (1987).