Hall of Fame
As an undergraduate, Marie Parkes was a member of University College Basketball and Ice Hockey teams for four years, and U.C. representative on the Toronto University Athletic League Executive for two years. She was also an editorial writer for the student newspaper The Varsity.
Following graduation, she assisted in preparing the constitution for the new Women's Athletic Association Directorate and was appointed WAA Secretary-Treasurer in 1922. She had been named Associate Secretary of the U of T Students' Administrative Council in 192O, and she continued in both positions until her retirement in 1959.
Parkes played a key role in the organization of women's Interfaculty sports, served for 39 years as the U of T representative to the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union and was manager and chaperon for all Varsity women's intercollegiate teams for more than 25 years. In 1928 she was manager of Canada's first women's Olympics team. She was Secretary of the Women's Building Committee from 1922-59 and was the prime mover in the lengthy struggle to gain a women's athletics building. From 1941-45 she was Commandant of the Women's Service Training Detachment, Canadian Red Cross Corps, which was the women's equivalent to the COTC at the University and was financed by the Women's Athletic Directorate. In 1961 she published "The Development of Women's Athletics at the University of Toronto".
The Women's T-Holders' Association presented the Marie Parkes Trophy for women's Intramural competition in 1959 and the Marie Parkes Scholarship was created in 1973 to recognize annually the outstanding contribution by a female student to the University's athletics and recreation programs.
Died 1973
