University of Virginia Library

XXXII. General Athletic Association

During the first years subsequent to the close of the
war, each of the sports just described was pursued by
separate clubs, which were held together by no association

with admitted authority over them all. Very frequently,
in the course of one session, there was more
than one football club; more than one baseball club too;
but not only was there no central power to control all the
football clubs and all the baseball clubs, which were
formed one after another, but there was no single power
to govern all the football clubs as distinguished from all
the baseball clubs, or all the baseball clubs as distinguished
from all the football clubs.[27] In other words,
there was no Olympian overseer either for the separate
branches of sport, or for all the branches brought together
in one group. The system that prevailed,—if
methods so laxly employed could properly be termed a
system,—was one which deserved only the old-fashioned
designation of "go-as-you-please." But while the organization
that had been adopted,—if organization it could
be called,—was only sufficient to hold each club together
temporarily, and not very firmly at that, it would be an
error to presume that the interest taken in football, baseball,
and track events was as feeble as the interest felt in
athletics before the war by the majority of the students.
The very intensity of this interest, however unscientifically
gratified as judged by the highly developed modern
standards, was the very factor that suggested, and finally
demanded, the organization of all sports at the University
of Virginia on the permanent footing which they already
occupied in the Northern colleges.

The earliest practical advance towards converting the
more or less disjointed clubs, whose existence usually
ended with each session, into a single vigorous and allembracing
entity, was made in the spring of 1881, when

the name of the Squibb Gymnasium Association was, after
the adoption of a new constitution and by-laws, altered to
the University Athletic Association. This was the forerunner
in a contracted form of the General Athletic Association.
There had, during several years subsequent to
this event, been an increasing sentiment in favor of bringing
all the subordinate departments of athletics under one
centralized management, which, however, was not to interfere,
as was specifically stated, with the small matters
relating to each department. At first, the proposal failed
to gain the necessary degree of support from the students,
who had not yet been educated up to the point of looking
on athletic games as of any more importance than mere
pastime for an hour of leisure in an autumn or spring afternoon.
But this view was gradually modified, chiefly in
consequence, perhaps, of the extraordinary enthusiasm exhibited
by the sister colleges for athletic sports. A spirit
of rivalry was aroused. At a mass meeting held in the
public hall, in October, 1888, what was spoken of as the
Grand Association was formed, and a committee nominated
to draft a constitution. This was submitted at the
ensuing meeting. It contained the following two leading
provisions: (1) the power and supervision of the
association were vested in a president and executive committee;
(2) upon these officers was imposed the duty of
appointing sub-committees to take charge of the affairs of
the different subordinate branches of athletics and athletic
sports. The president was T. L. Rosser; the vice-president,
Jonathan Bryan; the members of the executive committee,
J. D. Fletcher, E. W. Robertson, L. C. Barley,
and George Gordon Battle.[28]

It was now hoped that, through an active and vigilant
general association, there would be created in the University
of Virginia that intense spirit of unity and cooperation
which had already enabled the curriculum colleges
of the North to win so many victories in the province
of athletics. Any student might become a member
of the organization. By a subsequent amendment, the
executive committee was to consist of the president and
vice-president of the general body and the chairmen of
the boards of directors of the subordinate baseball, football,
boating, and tennis clubs. Each of these secondary
boards was to be composed of three members, to be appointed
annually by the president of the general association.
The directors in each department of sport saw to
the training of each candidate coming forward in that
department. They also chose a manager who had exclusive
control of the team. Under the working of this first
association each branch of athletics was carried on by a
separate club for all practical purposes. Each remained
distinct in itself. The members purchased their own
suits and other special paraphernalia, and paid the expenses
of their own athletic exercises.

The General Athletic Association, known hitherto as
the Grand Association, adopted a new constitution in October,
1892, which embraced in its scope all the interests
of the football, baseball, track, and tennis clubs. Its
object was to bring about a still more intimate relation

               

Felix H. Levy, 1888–9	M. P. Robinson, 1896–7
J. D. Fletcher, 1889–90	Paul L. Cocke, 1897–8
J. B. Robertson, 1890–91	Eugene Davis, 1898–9
J. C. Blackford, 1891–2	B. C. Nalle, 1899–1900
J. B. Robertson, 1892–3	A. W. Moore, 1900–01
E. Hope Norton, 1893–4	B. C. Willis, 1901–02
Fred Harper, 1894–5	B. Lankford, 1902–03
W. D. Dabney, 1895–6	J. B. Pollard, 1903–04

between the different branches of athletics at the University,
as the most certain means of increasing their popularity
and promoting their success. In 1894, a charter of
incorporation was obtained, and, in 1897, by-laws were
drafted. The membership was composed of the entire
body of matriculates, the professors, and the alumni. No
dues whatever were demanded, and no obligations of
any kind imposed. The affairs of the reorganized association
were at first conducted by an executive committee,
which comprised the president, vice-president, two
students picked out from the body of the University at
large, one member of the Faculty, and two alumni chosen
by the committee itself. This committee possessed an
exclusive authority over the coaches; its decision as to the
eligibility of players was final; and it also decided upon
the number of games to take place between the University
teams and the competing teams of rival colleges.

The association had to contend with two highly obstructive
disadvantages: (1) its only income was derived
from the receipts from games and from voluntary contributions;
(2) the brevity of the average student's sojourn
within the precincts threw its management, each session,
as a rule, into the hands of new men, with small
knowledge, and still less appreciation, of what had been
done the year before. As has already been mentioned,
College Topics was acquired by the association. The editor
of that journal was thereafter appointed by the executive
committee; and this committee also reserved the
right to reject any one or all of the five sub-editors nominated
by the senior editor.

In the beginning, the Faculty were disposed to frown
upon the almost feverish interest exhibited by the young
men in all athletic sports. The reputation of the University
of Virginia was founded upon the supreme attention,

which, under its system, had always been given to
study; and that conscientious body very naturally felt
that it was their duty to maintain this tradition by all the
influence which they could command. But the flood of
athletic enthusiasm rising beyond the precincts made such
a profound impression upon the student-mind of the University,
that the professors, in the end, were constrained
to admit that it could not be successfully resisted. "The
experience of the last three sessions," said Chairman
Thornton, in his report for 1891–2, "has enabled the
Faculty to gauge, in a practical way, the merits and demerits
of college athletics. Balancing the one against the
other, that body was decidedly, though not unanimously,
convinced of their value as an element of the college life.
In cultivating the college spirit and college pride; in discouraging
and even forbidding drinking, and other unsanitary
or vicious habits; in developing a vigorous physique
and a manly temper,—they are most salutary. The
drawbacks are: they occasion often a waste of time and
energy, which, in the case of the more enthusiastic devotees,
tend not seldom to serious excess. They call for
considerable aggregate outlays in money, which, although
distributed over the student body, produce an appreciable
item in the expense of college life. It is possible, by
judicious suggestion and direction, to mitigate some of
these evils and correct others entirely."

The Faculty endeavored, by the adoption of searching
rules, to exercise a strict control over the association:
(1) only a matriculated student was permitted by them
to become a member of a team; (2) his connection with
that team had to be severed, should his examinations demonstrate
unmistakably that his attention had been diverted
from his studies; and (3) no trained instructor in any
branch of sport was to be engaged without their approval.

A prize of a silver cup was established by Professor Barringer
in 1891, to be awarded to that department of athletics,
whether football, baseball, or track, which should
be able to show to its credit the largest number of points
in a single year.

A Southern Intercollegiate Association was organized
in 1892. It embraced in its membership the University
of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, Wake
Forest College, the University of the South—which
was afterwards succeeded by Vanderbilt University,—St.
John's College, Johns Hopkins University, University of
Tennessee, and University of Alabama. Each of these
institutions was to furnish a football and a baseball team.
Strict regulations were adopted to shut out every form
of professionalism. In order to arrange more conveniently
for the games, the area in which the participating
colleges and universities were situated was divided into a
northern and a southern section.