The Women’s Athletic Association (WAA), originally called the Athletic Association, started at the Maryland State Normal School in 1922. It was a campus organization made up of the entire female student body that planned and participated in the program of recreational sports and activities offered to all women students. It operated in cooperation with the Women’s Physical Education Department, and was created to sponsor extracurricular activities for women students and to promote interest in women’s athletics. It was governed by an Executive Board, consisting of officers elected by the women of the student body and managers appointed by the Board, whose main functions included determining the organization’s budget and acting in an administrative capacity over all of the organization’s activities.

The association sponsored an elective program of physical education activities, which was entirely voluntary and informal, and available to every female student. Each student was a member of the association by payment of the athletic fee, but only participation made them an active member. A variety of athletic-related activities were offered, including team sports and/or individual activities. All activities were informal, with a student manager supervising those activities with the aid of a faculty member, usually from the Physical Education Department. Some of those activities included soccer, field hockey, badminton, swimming, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, softball, and dancing.

These activities, which included intramural and extramural games, offered an opportunity for those women wishing to learn the basic skills of the chosen sport(s). A point system of awards was offered for attendance, and participants could earn class numerals, letters, and stars. The WAA was an active member of the Maryland Athletic and Recreation Federation of College Women (MARFCW), an organization that followed the national model (ARFCW), in which governance was primarily the responsibility of student leaders with the chief purpose of furthering athletic interests and activities for women.

In 1968, a Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics was proposed to serve as the official interpreter of the men’s and women’s intercollegiate program, and the WAA strongly opposed the adoption of the committee, citing that it would lead to the demise of the association by removing the responsibilities for women’s athletics from the Physical Education Department, as well as the WAA. By the early 1970s, the new name of Women’s Athletic and Recreation Association (WARA) had been adopted. As well, around this time, the organization appears to have experienced a decrease in interest by the student population.

By the mid-1970s, experimental changes took place concerning the operational structure of the association with the appointment of a coordinator, who working in cooperation with the coordinator of Men’s Intramurals, was to assist women interested in participating in intramurals, recreational and co-educational activities. It is unclear when and why the organization ceased to operate, but it appears that around the mid-1970s, the WAA becomes defunct possibly due to the new education amendments of Title IX. At Towson State College, the new regulations brought forth structural and organization changes to the Physical Education Department, which became one single department, instead of the previously separate men’s and women’s departments.