Ann Bee Berrigan was not just the only girl on Loyola’s varsity tennis team in 1958.

She was also the only female in the entire athletic department.

Berrigan, who was the first woman in the university’s history to be awarded an athletic letter, will be inducted into the Loyola Sports Hall of Fame on Feb. 19 during the halftime ceremony of the Loyola-LSU Shreveport men’s basketball game scheduled for 5 p.m.

Berrigan, whose maiden name is Bee, came to New Orleans from her home in Augusta, Ga., where she was already recognized as an accomplished tennis player. She won several awards throughout her teenage years, including the title “Augusta Women’s Champion.”

The fall of her freshman year at Loyola, she lived with 28 girls in a renovated mansion on St. Charles Avenue, which was the only women’s housing before there were female dorms.

“We were wedged in there like sardines,” Berrigan said.

In order to escape the cramped living conditions, she took the streetcar and the bus to City Park to play tennis every weekend.

After class, Berrigan would sometimes go watch the men’s tennis team practice. Since Loyola did not have a women’s team at the time, she decided to speak with one of the priests on campus about joining the team and requested a tryout.

The matter was then brought up to the dean, and eventually it was decided that there was no reason why she couldn’t try out for the team. She tried out for Coach Tom Oberst and won a position on the men’s varsity team for spring competition in 1958.

Berrigan, despite her talent, did not win most of her matches because she often was matched up with the best players on the opposing teams. Each team feared the “embarrassment” of losing to a girl. Berrigan said this never bothered her.

“I just wanted to play,” she said.

Despite the disrespect she endured from the male players on other teams, Berrigan said her teammates were accepting and treated her like any other teammate.

“The boys were very good to me,” she said. “They were gentlemen.”

Berrigan broke a barrier by being the first female to play tennis on an all-male team, not only at Loyola, but also in most of the South. A lot of publications in the area took notice of Berrigan and wrote articles about her.

“It seemed like there was a newspaper clip every week,” she said.

Berrigan was featured in the April 1958 issue of Sports Illustrated in the special “Pat on the Back” section, which chronicled unique sports stories from all over the country.

She continued to play throughout the spring and fall seasons of 1958 and the spring of 1959. In the fall of 1959 at the beginning of her junior year and what would have been her fourth season of varsity tennis, Loyola appointed a new athletic director.

He called Berrigan into his office before the season began. He told her it wasn’t “proper” for a woman to be playing on a men’s team and brought her tennis career at Loyola to an abrupt end.

She said she was disappointed at first but accepted his decision. She said she was just glad to play while she had the chance.

At the end of her junior year, Bee married Joe Berrigan, who she met at Loyola. They have been married for more than 45 years, have five children and now reside in Athens, Ga.

Her husband, children and grandchildren will all attend her Hall of Fame induction.

Berrigan said she still finds time to play tennis whenever she can. She said she is disappointed to hear that Loyola no longer has a tennis team but hopes the university can establish one in the near future.

Nicole Wroten can be [email protected].