It is hard to imagine that Ellen Mohan had time to compete in athletics let alone excel in them.
During her entire four-year undergraduate career, she was a member of the student council. Then, her junior and senior years, she was elected class president, while she was also the student council president her senior year. Mohan was also a junior senate member.
With all these activities, she still found time to be an outstanding athlete.
It began her freshman year when Mohan was a member of six class teams — basketball, volleyball, fist ball, softball, field hockey and lacrosse As a sophomore, she competed again in these six sports but her leadership ability shone forth as she captained both the field hockey and softball teams.
She retained her captaincy of the field hockey and softball teams her junior year and added basketball to the two. She also continued to compete in volleyball, fist ball and lacrosse. Finally, as a senior, she captained both the basketball and volleyball teams, while she also played fist ball and was a student assistant on the softball team.
Her activities were also well rounded at Sargent Camp where she was a member of the softball and basketball teams all three years, serving as captain for two years. In addition, she played lacrosse at Sargent, participated in golf and tennis tournaments, and was a leader in marching competition.
Perhaps the most noteworthy of Mohan's accomplishments, aside from her student council involvement, her excellence on the athletic fields and her selection to Scarlet Key, is that she was valedictorian of her class. With all that she did, she graduated number one in the Class of 1952.
"Ellen had outstanding athletic ability," wrote Hall of Famer Mary Pratt. "She was unable to participate in interscholastic and intercollegiate athletic competition due to policies that existed. Competition during her collegiate years was limited to her class games in all sports for which she was awarded her class numerals and class pin."
