University of Virginia Library

XXXVII. Athletics

Jefferson, in his famous Rockfish Gap Report, failed to
recommend that provision should be made for instruction
in gymnastics as one of the departments to be set
up in the projected University, and yet, in that report,
he candidly acknowledged that it was a "proper object
of attention" for every institution devoted to the education
of youth. The explanation of his omitting to advise
a course in physical culture was apparently the fact
that the prevailing system of athletics bore no direct relation
to the character of modern weapons, or to the modern
methods of warfare. In ancient times, the weapon
and the method alike called for athletic skill of the highest
order. Wellington, it will be remembered, expressed

the conviction that the Battle of Waterloo was really
won on the cricket field of Eton, by which he meant that
the soldierly qualities of his officers at least had received
their earliest training on that ground of physical and
moral endurance and competition. It was the indirect,
and not the direct, influence that he was thinking of most.
Jefferson declared himself in favor of lessons in manual
exercises, military manoeuvres, and tactics, in preference
to lessons in athletics, simply because the former, and not
the latter, would equip the students for the duty of
national defense; he seemed to take it for granted that
athletics were of no particular importance so far as they
afforded only an increase in the individual's power of
self-protection; and yet, as we know, two gymnasia
formed a conspicuous feature of his general scheme of
buildings. Why did he add them to his architectural
scheme? Because he thought that they would be useful
in strengthening the health of the students; and above all,
because he considered that they would be indispensable
when instruction came to be given in the military courses
of study.

In October, 1824, five months before the lecture-halls
were first used, these two apartments, which were situated
next to the basement of the Rotunda, on its south
front, and were known as the Eastern and Western gymnasiums,
were, at Jefferson's instance, dedicated to the
"gymnastic exercises and games" of the students. They
were long low structures covered with flat roofs that were
converted into a public walk. The flooring of both, at
first, consisted altogether of an uneven mass of red clay,
which even during the collegiate career of Professor John
B. Minor, were, as he said, "sometimes wet and always
filthy." The roofs had begun to leak after heavy rains
in the spring of 1827. In April of the previous year,

before this condition arose, the military tutor, Mr.
Matthews, had been permitted to use these apartments
in giving instruction in military science. The only other
purpose which they seemed to have served at this time
was of banqueting halls, for, here on July 4, 1826, the
students celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence with a public dinner. It was plainly not
known at the time when this dinner was in progress, or
during the delivery of the ensuing oration, that Jefferson
was then dying, or even lay dead in his chamber at
Monticello. So empty did the gymnasia remain, so unserviceable
were they for at least the athletic exercises
which were expected to be held in them, that, in July,
1830, the Visitors decided to turn them into public halls;
and the Faculty was asked to submit a plan for their
alteration at the Board's annual meeting twelve months
afterwards. That body apparently reported then in
favor of converting one of the apartments into a large
lecture-room, and the other into two small rooms of the
same character; but as the cost of the proposed change
was found to be fifteen hundred dollars, the project was
abandoned. How useless for gymnastic exercises the two
were considered to be in 1835, was shown by the action
of one of the teachers of athletics at that time in petitioning
the Board to build an entirely new and independent
hall for his pupils' convenience; and this request was not
complied with only because there were no funds in the
University treasury which could be expended upon such
a structure.

As late as 1839, Cocke, in a letter to Cabell, refers,
with unrepressed impatience, to "the present worthless
gymnasia." As there was still an acute need for more
lecture-rooms, he urged that the two should be converted
into several apartments for this purpose. "The want

that has always existed," said he, "cannot be supplied
by any other plan that will not involve double, if not
treble, the expense. Last year (1838), this measure
was postponed for want of funds. The improvement,
according to Mr. Spooner's estimates, will cost five thousand
dollars."

There were two reasons why the alteration suggested
by Cocke had been so long deferred,—one, the lack of
money, to which we have already alluded; the other, the
fear that the symmetrical beauty of the Rotunda, and its
immediate environment, would be seriously marred by
the proposed elevation of the roofs. When the money
was ultimately found, however, this apprehension was
put aside. In 1840, the executive committee was instructed
to report, at the next meeting of the Board, upon
the proper assignment of the lecture-rooms into which
they had decided to divide the gymnasia. A plan of alteration
had already been submitted by Cocke, which was
adopted in the form recommended by him. The work
began at once, and by the beginning of the session of
1841–2, the changes seem to have been completed. They
apparently embraced the addition of new roofs as well
as the reconstruction of the interior partitions. Thus
was permanently altered the original purpose for which
these two front wings of the Rotunda had been built, but
which, even while they remained in their first condition,
they had never subserved, except so far as to afford an
area for military exercises,—which too, in time, were discontinued.

Three branches of athletics,—boxing, fencing and single
stick,—were taught at the University almost from
the very start. In 1828, Ferron was granted a room in
Hotel D on East Range, which had been vacated by
Spotswood; and here he was soon employed in giving lessons

in the several arts in which he was so great an
expert. This room was named by him somewhat pretentiously
"salle d'armes." At one time, as we have
mentioned, he excited the Faculty's displeasure by drawing
away pupils from Blaettermann's classes to his own
private French school; but when this was stopped, they
offered no objection to his giving elementary courses in
the French and Latin tongues to the small boys of the
University community. He was required, however, to
vacate the room in Hotel D, as the entire building was
now assigned to Colonel Colonna, the tutor in modern
languages. Ferron rented instead a school-house situated
near East Range and on the Lynchburg Road; but
he continued to teach the arts of self-defense within the
precincts. A dormitory on West Range was reserved
for him and his pupils, and the noise made by them in
practising raised many complaints. His charges seem
to have been moderate,—the fees were eight dollars for
a course of boxing, fifteen for a course of fencing, and
twenty-five for a course of quarter-staff. His profits were
increased by the sale of gloves, swords, and masks; the
price of a pair of boxing gloves ranged from two dollars
and a half to three dollars, and a sword and mask from
five to six. In 1833, the Faculty, under provocation, decided
again to deprive him of the room in which he had
resumed his lessons; but they do not seem to have revoked
his license.

A rival to Ferron appeared, this year, in the person
of Alexander A. Penci, a Corsican by birth and a major
in rank. Penci was authorized to give lessons in boxing,
fencing and quarter-staff; and in addition, he conducted
a gymnasium, the subscription fee of which was
six dollars. This establishment, as the proctor's accounts
reveal, had a large number of patrons among the students.

The first apartment which he occupied for this
purpose was unsuitable, and, in 1834, he asked for more
ample accommodations. He told the Faculty that, during
the warm season, he could not teach gymnastics
properly unless he resided within the precincts,—perhaps,
because, during this part of the session, he gave his
lessons at night. A large room in the upper story of
Hotel F was assigned him as a domicile. He was now
known as the Instructor in Gymnastics and Fencing.
He seems to have given satisfaction professionally and
personally, for, in September, 1835, the whole of the
upper apartments of the southeast hotel were reserved
for the use of his family. He finally withdrew from the
University, in the hope of recovering his health, which
had been shattered by consumption. The esteem in which
he was held was clearly manifested by the contributions
of the professors and students in defrayment of the expense
of his journey to Havana, where he remained until
his death. His wife, who was afflicted with the same
disease, died soon after in the house which they had occupied
within the University precincts; their little daughter,
Beatrice, was adopted by Mrs. Fitch, the wife of
the proprietor of the hotel of that name in Charlottesville;
but at the age of seven returned to her kinsfolk in
Italy; and in time so entirely forgot the language of her
birthplace, that she was unable to converse with a citizen
of Albemarle, Mr. S. W. Ficklin, who visited her in
1849.

Penci was succeeded by Christopher Grimme, whose
series of lessons embraced quarter-staff, fencing, broadsword
sparring, and gymnastics. His terms for instruction
in the last were three dollars for an entire session.
Like Penci, he was granted the use of an apartment, which
was known as the Gymnasium. This room, no doubt,

was fully equipped with the more simple athletic appliances.

There is no evidence that athletics, in any form,
aroused, during the first seventeen sessions, any interest
except among a few students, embracing (1) those who
looked upon fencing and boxing as gentlemanly accomplishments;
and (2) those who turned to gymnastics as a
method of preserving health while following a sedentary
life within the college precincts.