Lois Smithwick Female Athletes of the Year

Since 1998, the Lois Smithwick Award has been presented by the Lewis & Clark Athletics Department to recognize the most outstanding individual performance by a Pioneer female athlete. The top male athlete is honored with the Joe Huston Athlete of the Year award.

Lois Smithwick, the namesake for this award, served as an associate professor of health and physical education at Lewis & Clark from 1957 to 1980. Smithwick herself graduated from Lewis & Clark with a Bachelors of Science in 1947 and a Masters of Education in 1950. One of Lois' greatest passions as a teacher and a coach was "furthering a healthy interest in women's intercollegiate sports competition." In October of 1964, Smithwick helped to establish the Women's Conference of Independent Colleges and served as this organization's president from 1966-68. Creation of the WCIC was the first major step in establishing intercollegiate competition for women at Lewis & Clark.