Women’s Athletics at Dartmouth are proudly presented by Ledyard National Bank
By: Justin Lafleur
Cinda Fernald '79 has experience breaking barriers in the academic, athletic and professional realms.
"I became a litigator when I graduated from law school and viewed it as very similar to athletics," she said. "You had teamwork within the law firm and then competition with other lawyers.
"I felt at home in that environment."
Fernald felt at home because of foundational principles set in her time at Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth — which had both just gone co-educational.
"There were not a lot of women lawyers at the time," said Fernald. "It was a very similar process [of integrating] at my law firm as at Exeter and Dartmouth, and I felt well-prepared for it."
In law, Fernald admits you need to have "bearings, toughness and thick skin" to launch into a litigation practice. She showed all those attributes in her time at Dartmouth.
No stranger to college campuses, Fernald's father was a college professor.
"I grew up at Cornell and Bowdoin, and lived in Wellesley, Massachusetts when my dad taught there," she said. "I went to visit Dartmouth in the summer. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful campus… I just had very good vibes. I went to Yale and it was a grey, cloudy day with all those grey buildings.
"I wouldn't say that it was as informed a decision about college as my daughter would a generation later," Fernald continued. "A lot of things 'felt' right, and it was not athletics that drew me there."
Fernald came to Hanover for reasons other than athletics, but athletics would become an important part of her student-athlete experience. Coming in, Fernald knew she wanted to play lacrosse, but ended up playing an important role in the beginning stages of two other sports.
"I arrived in the fall of 1975 and out of the sports I would end up playing at Dartmouth, only lacrosse had varsity status when I arrived," said Fernald. "We were coached by Aggie Kurtz, who was just a tremendous, inspirational coach. She wrote the first book on women's lacrosse."
As a freshman, Fernald began playing on the club women's ice hockey team.
"I wouldn't consider myself a founder," she said. "I got in early on the ground floor, but that club already existed and was moving along."
Fernald was a founder for soccer, which didn't exist until Fernald's junior year.
1978 Dartmouth Women's Soccer Team
"I used the phones in the athletics office to call other schools to see if they would play us," said Fernald. "Every player supplied her own green shirt, so we all had the same color green, but they were all different Dartmouth logos depending on where they were from. We wore matching green socks because my dad donated those. Our soccer balls were basically leftovers from my family when my dad had coached my younger brother."
During Fernald's junior fall, student Mark "Lou" Panella '78 served as head coach. He was assisted by Peter Marlette '80.
"We didn't practice on an official athletic field," said Fernald. "It was up at the medical school.
"We made do."
As her time at Dartmouth progressed, Fernald continued to play three sports — soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse.
"For soccer, I want to credit Paula Ness '80, who made the pitch to Athletics Director Seaver Peters that soccer should become a varsity sport," said Fernald. "As I was graduating in June of 1979, the college gave both soccer and ice hockey varsity status."
Fernald believes the formation of the team was inevitable, regardless of her efforts, due to the growth of soccer locally and nationally.
But it was her efforts, among several, that got the ball rolling.
The sport of soccer had gained momentum in Fernald's life within the previous few years, and it translated to Dartmouth.
"I had been my father's assistant coach of my younger brother's team," she said. "Coming from Wellesley, there was all kinds of boys' soccer, but there wasn't any girls' soccer until my dad started a girls' team for my two younger sisters."
Fernald transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy for her senior year, where she decided to play. From playing soccer in physical education, Fernald was asked if she wanted to play junior varsity, which she agreed to.
"I was a substitute on junior varsity for the first game," said Fernald. "Then the last game against our archrival Andover, I started for varsity. I had learned the game strategy and some ball skills as an assistant coach from my dad."
While at Dartmouth, Fernald was inspired by the ice hockey team, which led to thoughts of a soccer team.
"I don't really remember the conversations and all that went into it, but one of our soccer teammates had actually played field hockey in high school and at Dartmouth," said Fernald. "When we started a soccer team, she switched to soccer.
"There was a spirit of entrepreneurship, as you would expect, among women at a newly co-educational school."
The overall environment for Fernald was positive. It was a time of change on campus.
"You had different people reacting in different ways," she said. "When I arrived at Dartmouth, the school had just decided to cut wrestling, and I for one felt really bad because I had a classmate from high school who went to Dartmouth to wrestle. He got there and there wasn't a team. It wasn't my fault, but I still felt bad. We knew there was a calibration between men's sports and women's sports, and this was how the chips fell.
"My friend did not hold it against me or other women," Fernald continued. "He was very disappointed, but he was very supportive of women's sports."
On the club teams Fernald played, she was always coached by male students.
"And they were incredibly supportive," she said.
There were a couple instances when there wasn't quite the same level of support.
"My freshman year, I wanted to play a little more ice hockey than the opportunity provided with the women's club team, so I thought I would like to play intramural hockey as well," said Fernald. "I wanted to play on a dorm team of all men. I don't remember the exact process, but I had to apply to the intramural board to see if I could play on their team and the board said no. There was some avenue for appeal, so I showed up and there were a few male students sitting around in a meeting and eventually they said I could play.
"I think it was an example of hesitation and lack of experience or connection with women's sports, but then a willingness to be open-minded in the case of a person sitting across the table."
Fernald is proud to have been part of the beginning for multiple Dartmouth women's sports, and serving as one of many female trailblazers.
"I feel really fortunate to have had that opportunity to participate in a huge change," she said. "When I went back to Hanover for a Pioneers in Women's Soccer dinner several years ago with Paula Ness, I had the chance to think about the shift to co-education from the perspective of the administration, and I thought about what a huge, huge change that was.
"I feel tons of sympathy for them with all the challenges they were facing," Fernald continued. "We were all figuring it out. Out of all challenges come resilience and new skills.
"There's not a minute of the experience that I would give away."
The environment at Dartmouth helped inspire Fernald to get involved, which has led to a lifetime of learning… and activity.
"I will say that if I hadn't had those sports at that time, I worry I might have been a couch potato," she said.
Fernald has turned into anything but.
"I really like learning and trying new things," she said. "I'm learning Arabic right now, inspired in part from my daughter. I really like new experiences."
In many ways, Fernald's desire to learn Arabic correlates to her college days, when she wasn't content with just playing lacrosse, but also played ice hockey and soccer.
"Soccer is big in Seattle [where I now live], so I played co-ed adult soccer for years after graduation," she said. "I did mountain climbing, summiting three 10-thousand-foot mountains. In law school, I unofficially ran the Boston Marathon as a jumper-in. I don't know if I ever would have done that if I hadn't played sports at Dartmouth."
Fernald running the Boston Marathon
Fernald's list of activities goes on.
"I think I'm a much healthier individual today, and well-rounded heading into my golden years, than I would have been if I hadn't gone to Dartmouth," she said.
Fernald is set up for success professionally as well, which also stems back to her Dartmouth education.
"I went to law school at Harvard and then moved to Seattle," she said. "I joined a law firm and am still with the law firm 39 years later. I've played different roles in the law firm, serving as the firm's general counsel from 2008 to 2022. That's a position I stepped down from last March. I'm now of counsel to the firm and doing pro-bono work."
A word that describes Fernald's story, and impact, is opportunity.
Opportunity is something Dartmouth provided to Fernald and that's what she took advantage of. Today, she is reaping the benefits of those opportunities, as are the many lives she has touched in a direct or indirect way.
The Lucinda Fernald Cup, an annual Big Green team award, was established in 1984 by a gift from the Edward Tuck '50 family in honor of Fernald. It is presented to the player who best displays dedication to the Dartmouth women's soccer program and displays the DWS values of cohesion, appreciation and humility, as selected by the coaching staff and teammates.
"Dartmouth was a place, and time, of great opportunity," she said. "I was very, very lucky to attend Dartmouth when I did because Title IX created a lot of opportunity.
"It was a very exciting and energizing time for girls and women in sports."
Fernald has seized her opportunity, broken barriers and created a lasting legacy.
