Hoffman, Sims Uphold the Standards of Femina Perfecta

By Jim Joanos

“Kitty” Blood was the Captain of Florida State’s volleyball and baseball “Evens” teams in the early 1930’s. Alice Bennett was a seven time All-American in track and field at Florida State in the early 1980’s. Both will be honored by their grateful alma mater this fall.

FSU’s annual “Champions Beyond the Game Brunch” will be held this year on Oct. 2. The event takes place every year to “honor the past, celebrate the present and promote the future” of women’s athletics at FSU. The brunch is among the biggest athletic highlights of the year at Florida State.

A feature of the event each year is to honor two Florida State graduates for the lifetime successes that they have attained following their experiences as Florida State athletes. At the event each year, one former graduate is selected from the pre-scholarship era and one from the post-scholarship period of Florida State’s athletic history as “Champions Beyond the Game.”

Katherine Blood Hoffman, class of 1936, and Alice Bennett Sims, class of 1984, will be this year’s honorees.

Katherine Blood Hoffman

Katherine Blood Hoffman

When Kitty Blood played volleyball and baseball at Florida State College for Women in the thirties, women students were not permitted to participate in intercollegiate athletics. That does not mean that the school did not take athletics seriously. A competitive athletics program was at the very center of the college’s activities. The college’s official motto was “Femina Perfecta.” Translated it meant the “Complete Woman.”

The “complete woman” was expected to possess the traits of Vires (Strength), Artes (Knowledge) and Mores (Tradition) symbolized by the three torches of the school’s seal. In short, FSCW women were expected to have sound minds in sound bodies.

Athletics were viewed as essential in developing both. Every student was required to participate in some sport each year. For athletic competition in a number of sports, the school was divided into two groups. The students in the two classes scheduled to graduate in even numbered years were “Evens” while the other two classes scheduled to graduate in odd years were the “Odds.”

Fierce competition took place each year between the Odds and Evens in basketball, volleyball, field hockey, swimming, tennis, and baseball. Such confrontations called “field days” in which the two groups went head to head in competition were viewed by the students with the same kind of anticipation and spirit that in present day is bestowed upon intercollegiate events in which FSU competes against its major rivals. You might compare it to an FSU-Miami or FSU-Florida football game as far as the spirit level was concerned.

Perhaps, at FSCW, it was even more important to win as the victors would be entitled to “lord it over” the losing group on almost a daily basis thereafter until the next field day. Players who excelled as members of the athletics teams were awarded varsity letters and became members of the school’s letter winner’s club, the “F Club.”

Kitty Blood felt very honored to be a member of the F Club. That membership was among many special honors that she attained at FSCW, which also included being the student body president and memberships in Mortar Board (leadership-scholarship honorary), Estern (the leadership honorary for Even students) as well as Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s highest academic honor for students in Arts and Sciences programs.

Needless to say, Kitty fit the Femina Perfecta requirements in every way. In the 1936 school yearbook, the superlative section honored the students best exemplifying the personal characteristics of beauty, dignity, intellect, charm, originality, personality, sportsmanship and wit. There is a wonderful picture of Kitty in the book exemplifying “charm.” Those that know her agree that it is a very fitting designation.

Kitty’s undergraduate accomplishments served as signs of what was to come thereafter. She graduated from Florida State in May of 1936 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Bacteriology. She qualified for entry into Duke University’s medical school. Despite her dreams to become a physician, she refused to attend out of principle. She would have had to sign a written promise not to marry until after graduation while “male students were not required to make such a pledge.”

Instead she chose to enter Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons studying Bacteriology. In the spring of 1938, she was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Chemistry from Columbia. Shortly thereafter she married her childhood sweetheart, Harold H. Hoffman of Winter Haven.

In 1940, the Hoffmans moved to Tallahassee where Kitty returned to the Florida State College for Women, this time as a member of the faculty. Since then, she has taught chemistry to hundreds of Florida State students. She was categorized as an “instructor” until 1959, when she was promoted to “full professor.” She also served FSU as Dean of Women from 1967 to 1970. In that capacity, she did away with a lot of the “old fashioned vestiges” of an earlier day.

Among her dean accomplishments was to remove the old curfew restraints upon women students. She also removed many of the dress restrictions involving women on campus. One of her foremost accomplishments was to do away with her own position, “Dean of Women,” as she felt that there was no reason in a modern university to have separate deans based on gender.

After her stint as an administrator, she returned to teaching students. In 1964, she was awarded FSU’s Coyle E. Moore, Jr., Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 1978, FSU’s Ross Oglesby Award for service and leadership. The Hoffman Teaching Laboratory on the campus was named for her in 1984. Kitty retired from full time teaching at FSU in 1984, but to this day continues to be an active alum and very supportive of all things FSU.

In 1995, Kitty and her husband, a former Florida Assistant Agriculture Commissioner, endowed a major scholarship in chemistry at the university.

In 1994 when the FSU Alumni Association first created its honored “FSU Circle of Gold Award” to recognize those who have, through their service and achievements personified FSU’s “tradition of excellence,” Kitty Hoffman was among the charter class of eight honorees.

In 1996, the alumni association honored Kitty as that year’s winner of the Bernard F. Sliger Award, the association’s highest honor for service to the university.

Kitty, a widow now, recently turned 91. She still lives independently, maintaining two homes, one in town and one on the Wakulla River. When fishing on the river, she rows her boat for exercise, whether alone or with others. Her son was recently embarrassed when some onlookers criticized him for doing the fishing while his elderly mother rowed. Little did they know that she insisted on it.

Kitty also spends lots of time in the woods planting trees and looking after her forest acreage. She is a very successful tree farmer. She also continues to be most active in FSU activities and attends her share of FSU football games and other athletic events.

Alice Bennett Sims

Alice Bennett Sims

By the time that Alice Bennett entered Florida State in the fall of 1979, the “Femina Perfecta” motto no longer appeared on the school seal as it had in the days when it was a “women only” institution. That did not mean that Florida State was no longer in the “femina perfecta” business of developing “complete women.”

Alice provides evidence of that.

Alice grew up in Sanford, Florida, where she was a three-sport (track, basketball, and volleyball) star at Seminole High School. In addition, she was the head majorette for the high school band. Several colleges recruited her for basketball and track but none offered her an athletic scholarship. She had several friends at Florida State so she came to Tallahassee for a visit. She liked what she saw and believed that FSU was “a good fit for her.”

She had already decided that she wanted to major in physical education so she visited the FSU College of Education. She said she “immediately liked the physical education professors.” They apparently liked her also as a couple of partial academic scholarships became available.

Alice entered FSU, thanks to the partials. She had not forgotten her love for track and field and walked on to the track team. She was instantly successful. By her second year at FSU, she had earned a track and field scholarship. During her tenure at FSU, she attained All-American status no less than seven times as a track and field athlete in her specialties as a sprinter and a long jumper.

She was a valuable member of two national championship relay teams in 1981, the indoor 800-meter relay, and the outdoor 400-meter relay. She excelled in the classroom also, and in 1984 earned her Bachelor of Science degree in physical education.

She describes her experience at FSU by saying that “it was just awesome.” She reports that through FSU athletics, she “learned about teamwork and established great relationships.” She is especially proud to have competed with some of FSU’s greatest women track and field athletes, which included among others fellow All Americans Marita Payne, Esmeralda Garcia, Randy Givens, Angela Wright and Tonya Brown. Alice describes their track coach at the time, Gary Winkler as a “wonderful guy.” She stays in touch with a number of her former teammates and is proud of the many accomplishments that they have obtained through the years.

In the spring of her junior year, Alice decided to attend a Fellowship of Christian Athletes function at FSU. It turned out to be a most important event in her life. At the activity, a football player friend of hers, Lee Paige, introduced her to another football player, Ernie Sims, Jr., who had just completed his fourth and final season at FSU. Alice describes her relationship with Ernie as “instant love.” The “instant love” later blossomed into marriage. They have now been married for more than 22 years.

Since graduation from FSU, Alice, with the support of husband, Ernie, has spent her career serving the youth of Florida. She worked briefly as an after-school program director for the East Hill Baptist Church in Tallahassee and then became the assistant center supervisor for the Walker-Ford Community Center, also in Tallahassee, where she worked for four years. From 1989 to 1993, she served as a delinquency case management counselor for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. From 1993 to 1995, she managed a mentor program from the Leon County School Board. She then directed several mentor programs for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice from 1995-97. From 1997-2001, she coordinated some statewide programs for the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services. She then worked briefly for The Community Trust Corporation as a contract manager in 2001 before becoming a committee administrative assistant to The Florida House of Representatives from 2002-04. Since 2004, she has served as an analyst to the Governor’s Office of Policy and Budget in the Public Safety Unit in Florida’s capitol.

During her life's work, she has developed and implemented prevention, early intervention, mentoring, and tutoring programs for at risk and delinquent children. She has designed and developed the Firefighters Intervening to Reclaim and Educate Academy that matched professional firefighters with at-risk youths in a role model capacity.

She also established the Agency Intervention Mentoring Program with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, which matched state workers with children at risk. She had a major role in the development in the Saving Teens from Entering Prison Program for incarcerated juveniles at the Leon Regional Juvenile Detention Center. She coached high school track and field at North Florida Christian School in Tallahassee for more than 10 years.

Currently, Sims, in addition to her fulltime job in the Governor’s office, works with husband, Ernie, in serving as the Assistant Director of the Winning America's Youth (W.A.Y.) Ministries, which is a non-profit youth outreach organization involved with children ages 5-19. As a part of this program, boys and girls can compete in a track and field club called the Capital City Christian Cruisers. The Cruisers travel to 8-10 track field meets each summer. Many of the kids from the program have gone on to attend colleges and universities throughout the country.

Alice has received numerous community honors including a 1995 Women of Distinction Award, a 1995 Leon County Juvenile Justice Community Achievement Award, a 1997 USA Track and Field Youth Development Achievement Award, a 1998 Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Excellence in Volunteer and Internship Program Award, a 1999 Gulf Winds Track Club Michael Caldwell Advancement of the Sport Award, a 2000 Tallahassee Community College Outstanding Women of Today Award, a 2002 Kids Incorporated “Champion for Children” Award, a 2004 Florida Commission on the status of Women Outstanding Achievement Award, and a 2004 WCTV Television “She’s Got Game” designation.

Alice and Ernie have two children and the entire family is very athletic. One of their children, Ernie Sims, III, is now a star on the FSU football team. Their other son, Marcus, is a senior at North Florida Christian School in Tallahassee, where he excels in several sports. Alice enjoys watching Ernie III play linebacker at FSU. She describes her emotions as “ecstatic” and says it gives her “such a great feeling to see her son playing in Garnet and Gold as I did.”

When asked what advice she would give to today’s athletes, Alice, speaking from a great deal of experience suggests that “you set your goals and keep your eyes on those goals; don’t let anything distract you from those goals.”

She credits that point of view as having given her the strength to succeed as a student as well as in her adult life. It sounds like good advice to me.