University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXII

ATHLETICS AT THE UNIVERSITY

Two of the earliest papers in the documentary
history of the University contain important statements
on the subject of physical training. In the
report of the Rockfish Commission Mr. Jefferson
wrote in the summer of 1818: "We have proposed
no formal provision for the gymnastics of the
school, although a proper subject for every institution
of youth. These exercises with ancient nations
constituted the principal part of the education of
their youth. Their arms and mode of warfare rendered
them severe in the extreme; ours, on the same
correct principle, should be adapted to our arms and
our warfare; and the manual exercise, military manoeuvres,
and tactics generally, should be the frequent
exercise of the students in the hours of their
recreation. It is at the age of aptness, docility and
emulation of the practices of manhood, that such
things are soonest learned and longest remembered."
And in the enactments for the government of the
University, drafted before the institution was inaugurated,
and printed in 1825, he makes these provisions:
"The two apartments adjacent to the basement
story of the Rotunda shall be appropriated to
the gymnastic exercises and games of the students;

among which shall be reckoned military exercises.
A military instructor shall be provided at the expense
of the University, who shall instruct the students
in the manual exercise, in the field evolutions,
manoeuvres, and encampments. The students shall
attend these exercises and shall be obedient to the
military orders of their instructor. Substitutes in
the form of arms shall be provided at the expense
of the University. They shall be delivered out, received
in and deposited under the care and responsibility
of the instructor."

In neither of these deliverances appears any foresight
of the games that were eventually to figure so
largely in the athletic history of the University. For
nearly fifty years the Jeffersonian view was but little
exceeded. The first athletic utilities were quoits and
marbles, and the arena was the covered spaces now
occupied by the terrace-rooms which connect the Rotunda
with the long colonnades. The University
provided the quoits and marbles, which, when not in
use, were in the custody of the janitor. No hint of
professionalism, or charge of "summer playing" of
quoits or marbles has come down from the heated
contests of those early days; nor have any records
been preserved.

A third official utterance on the subject of athlectics
was made in 1852. This time it was the Visitors
who gave the weight of their approval to this
form of culture: "The Board of Visitors being sensible
of the importance of gymnastic exercises for
the physical development of youth, have read with
pleasure that J. E. D'Alfonce proposes to give instruction
on that subject, and hereby renew the permission
formally given for a site on the University
grounds for a gymnasium, and are disposed to offer

proper facilities, subject to such future regulation
or discontinuance as they may deem expedient."
Already the faculty had approved M. D'Alfonce,
and the catalogue for the session of 1851-52 announced
that he would teach gymnastics under the
authority of that body.

The gymnasium authorized by the Visitors was
erected on the site of the present Academic Building
and on the banks of the little stream near by was
built a house for Russian baths. Both enterprises
were directed by D'Alfonce, but fell into disuse during
the civil war, when the buildings were destroyed.
As a teacher the Frenchman is said to have been unusually
successful, and no doubt by affording employment
for the youthful energies of the students
he contributed materially to the good order which
prevailed from 1851 to 1861, the most prosperous
decade in the antebellum history of the University.

In 1860 some one introduced the game of cricket,
and it was played in a field near the University cemetery.
The University Magazine hailed its advent
with pleasure, but literary enthusiasm for the Englishman's
game could not maintain it, and it disappeared
after a vogue of two years. It has reappeared
occasionally.

After the war the students who came to the University
from the battlefields of the Confederacy,
some of them maimed and scarred in the conflict,
either lacked interest in athletics or the time to indulge
a prepossession for that field of endeavor.
The small beginnings of baseball were noted derisively
in the Magazine. These paragraphs which
appeared in the number for June, 1868, would be
utterly impossible in any University publication at
this day.

"Baseball, a game which to our mind excites a
very strange and unnecessary enthusiasm, has had
quite a run since our last. The Junior Monticellos
of the University were successful over the Excelsiors
of Greenwood in two games, one on the
grounds of each. The former, though young in the
cause, conducted themselves in a becoming manner
both in striving for success and after it was obtained.

"A match was also played between two `muffing'
nines in the University. The champions hailed from
East Lawn and West Range. These muffers being
rats in the cause, were seen on the day after the
game to give signs of contracted muscles, swollen
hands, flushed faces, etc.

"Our Monticello Club has lately been nipping in
the field. On the 22d inst. they met the Arlington
Club of Washington College and easily defeated
them by a score of fifty-four runs to nineteen runs.
We advise the Arlingtons to practice another session
and try the old Monticello again a year hence."

It was ten years later that a Washington and Lee
team vanquished the 'Varsities on their own ground,
through the uncanny, and hitherto unheard of, skill
of the pitcher, Sykes, who delivered curved balls
which no Virginia batsman could touch. The news
went abroad in the University, and was laughed to
scorn, except by the players who tried to bat the ball.
It is said that the subject, incidentally introduced at
a faculty meeting, excited a rattling debate, at times
exhibiting touches of asperity, on the subject
whether a baseball could be thrown with such control
over its course through the air as would force
it to describe a curve at a given point in its transit.
The faculty minutes do not record the decision, but

the question has since been answered on a thousand
fields. The advent of the curved ball was about coincident
with the disappearance of such local teams
as "The Modocs," "The Bomb Stingers" and "The
Pill-Garlicks"—at any rate, these names ceased to
occur in the enthusiastic literature of athletics. Concentration
of "talent" and effort resulted eventually
in what has since been called The Team, and a subordinate
organization of scrubs has as its sole raison
d'etre the preparation of players to fill vacancies in
the superior nine.

In the fall of 1870 the Magazine made its first
reference to football—half-sarcastic, half-humorous
gibes, which at this day would attaint the authors of
philistinism. However, sarcasm quickly gave place
to a tolerant humor.

It was in the year 1872 that the Magazine began
to agitate for a gymnasium. At that time there were
local gymnasiums on Carr's Hill, Dawson's Row,
Monroe Hill, East Lawn and East Range, consisting
of meagre equipments—bars, dumb-bells, Indian
clubs, etc., in rooms of inadequate size, and there
were horizontal and parallel bars at several points in
the grounds, but in general it may be justly said that
from the time of Monsieur D'Alfonce's departure in
1866 until 1876 there was an athletic, or, as would
have been said then, a gymnastic, interregnum.

The real athletic history of the University dates
from 1876. In that year Mr. E. R. Squibb of
Brooklyn, New York, gave a thousand dollars
toward the equipment of a gymnasium. The second
floor in the present Levering Hall at the southern
end of East Range was assigned by the University,
and although too small was all that could be
had until Daniel B. Fayerweather's bequest made a

modern gynasium a possibility. The ladies of the
community by favorite methods raised funds and
contributed to the enlargement of facilities, and in
one way and another the little gymnasium on East
Range became an effective factor in physical life at
the University.

In the session of 1876-77 the brilliant but all too
brief history of boating at the University had its beginning.
Archibald G. Stuart of Staunton, Virginia;
James C. Lamb of Richmond, Virginia; De
Courcy W. Thom of Baltimore, Maryland; John
M. Macfarland of Winchester, Virginia; and William
J. L'Engle of Florida, originated a movement
looking to the establishment of a boating club. By
some happy intuition they were lead to appeal to
Mr. Francis Rives, of New York (M. A., '40), who
promptly sent a check for $1,000. At a meeting
held in Jefferson Hall on the 17th day of April,
1877, the Rives Boat Club was organized with Archibald
G. Stuart as president, George D. Fawsett,
vice-president, J. C. Lamb, secretary, and W. J.
L'Engle, treasurer. A boat-house was erected on
the Rivanna at Farish's Cliff and the course lay between
the Free Bridge and the dam at the Charlottesville
Woolen Mills.

In an incredibly short time the club arranged a
race with the Tobacco City Club of Lynchburg,
which was rowed on James River, June 30, 1877.
The Rives boat was built of cedar, while the Tobacco
City Club used a paper gig, an advantage which was
added to by a foot more length and six inches less
width. The University crew were William J.
L'Engle, bow; Charles Steele, No. 2; J. M. Macfarland,
No. 3; De Courcy W. Thom, stroke; Willoughby
Walke, coxswain. They were admirably

trained and victory was confidently expected, but in
turning the stake the strain on seat No. 2 caused the
rails to spread and dislodge the seat, leaving the
rower to slide as best he might on the sharp steel runners.
The bow oarsman, unable to slide forward to
the stroke, because of the stationary condition of No.
2, was also interfered with, and thus handicapped
the Rives crossed the line one minute and two seconds
behind their competitors.

The following year, 1878, the Rives bore the red
and gray—which were the University's colors before
the adoption of orange and blue—to victory
over the same course against the same competitor.
The 'Varsity crew that year was T. N. Carter, bow;
Frank Hampton, No. 2; B. D. Gibson, No. 3;
Charles L. Andrews, captain and stroke, and John
Redwood, coxswain.

The race which took place July 15, 1879, was
rowed at Fredericksburg against a local crew. It
had scarcely the semblance of a race, for the Rives
came in three hundred and fifty yards ahead of the
Fredericksburgers. The crew consisted of the same
men as in 1878, except that Mr. Hampton gave place
to Mr. Thom, who had been a member of the 1877
crew.

The Rives went into the race in 1880 with a new
paper gig. It was not satisfactory in some particulars,
but the defects were discovered too late to procure
another boat. They rowed this year against
Fredericksburg for a challenge cup given to the Virginia
Association of Amateur Oarsmen by Major
Seth B. French of New York, formerly of Fredericksburg.
The crew was made up of veterans with
one exception: Gibson, stroke; Hampton, captain
and No. 3; G. C. Graddy, No. 2; Andrews, bow,

and Redwood, coxswain. The race took place July
6 at Fredericksburg against the Appomattox and the
Rappahannock clubs, and the Rives won by ten
lengths.

The next race took place July 6, 1881, at Richmond.
The entries were the Rives, the Appomattox,
and the Cockade City of Petersburg, the
Olympic of Richmond, and the Rappahannock of
Fredericksburg. The Rives came in first, followed
by the Olympic, the Cockade, the Appomattox, and
the Rappahannock. The crew: Davies Cox, bow;
P. C. Massie, No. 2; Graddy, No. 3; Andrews,
stroke, and Redwood, coxswain.

The members of the crew for the race of July 4,
1882, at Fredericksburg, were A. S. Doswell, bow;
W. A. Harper, No. 2; S. B. Cowardin, No. 3;
Massie, stroke; Redwood, coxswain. The entries
were the Rives, the Olympic, and the Cockade City.
The Rives won by eight lengths over the Cockade
City and fifteen over the Olympic.

This was probably the last race in which the Rives
took part. Thereafter the Magazine is silent on the
subject of boating, except for a three or four line
note in October, 1883, announcing the election of
Davies Cox as president of the club and certain other
students for other offices. Out of six races five were
won and accident alone prevented the winning of the
sixth.

The Squibb Gymnasium Association was formed
at about the time of the organization of the boating
club, and a wonderful extension of athletic enterprises
ensued. The Magazine—almost the only repository
of the memoirs of student activities until
the appearance of Topics—dates organized athletics
at the University from April, 1877; and this judgment

was announced as long ago as 1880. It was in
1877 that the first field day was held, a fact disclosed
by a reference in an account of the games that took
place in 1878. Since that early day the following
records have been made:

100-yard dash—T. N. Carter, 1878, 11⅜ seconds.
Lowered by C. P. Kemper, 1880, to 11; G. H. Smith,
1881, 10¾; L. Carroll, 1882, 10½; W. G. Bibb,
1884, 10¼; Allen Potts, 1890, 10. These records
wer not made on a regulation track. W. G. Brownlow
in 1894, on a regulation track, made the dash
in 10 1-5.

Putting the shot—W. D. Cardwell, 1837, 44 feet
7 inches. The nearest approach to breaking this
record was made in 1905 by W. W. Council, 38 feet
6 inches.

Throwing the hammer—T. P. Crawford, 1878,
64 feet 9 inches; broken by R. G. Rhett in 1880, 65
feet and 4 inches; Ewing Cockrell, 1895, 110 feet.

Half-mile run—De Courcy W. Thom, 1878, 2
minutes 34⅜ seconds. Lowered by G. McD. Hampton,
1879, 2 minutes 23⅛ seconds;: R. H. Laughlin,
1894, 2 minutes 6 seconds, and P. M. McNagny,
1905, 2 minutes and 5 4-5 seconds.

Running high jump—C. B. Walker, 1878, 4 feet
5 inches; William Beazley, 1879, 4 feet 11½ inches;
1880, 5 feet 1 inch; Manly, 1883, 5 feet 1½ inches;
H. Glenn, 1895, 5 feet 8½ inches; A. C. Randolph,
1906, 5 feet 9 inches.

220-yard dash—H. T. Harris, 1880, 25 seconds.
Lowered by F. W. Harper, 1893, to 22¾ seconds;
Hiram Smith, 1905, 22 1-5 seconds.

Broad jump—C. B. Walker, 1876, 16 feet 6
inches; C. P. Kemper, 1879, 17 feet 4 inches; Lee
Carroll, 1882, 19 feet 3 inches; Michael Hoke, 1895,

20 feet 6 inches; J. S. Adkisson, 1904, 21 feet 6
inches.

120-yard hurdles—Martin Bruns, 1893, 16 1-5
seconds; broken by A. C. Randolph, 1905, 15 4-5
seconds.

440-yard dash—T. N. Carter, 1878, 58⅝ seconds;
Frank Hampton, 1879, 57¾ seconds; Carroll, 1881,
54 seconds; C. J. Kinsolving, 1894, 52¾ seconds;
J. H. Shelton, 1905, 51 1-5 seconds.

1-mile run—C. L. Andrews, 1878, 5 minutes 32⅝
seconds; Hampton, 1879, 5 minutes 31½ seconds;
Davies Cox, 1881, 5 minutes 12¼ seconds; J. W.
Graves, 1882, 5 minutes 2½ seconds; 1884, 4 minutes
56⅜ seconds; A. W. Butts, 1905, 4 minntes
51 2-5 seconds.

1-mile walk—A. B. Pope, 1878, 8 minutes 55½
seconds; Cator Wade, 1881, 8 minutes 11½ seconds;
R. T. Irving, 1888, 7 minutes and 24 seconds. This
record was tied by H. S. Hedges in 1892.

Pole vault—Rhett, 1880, 8 feet 7 inches; F. W.
Harper, 1893, 9 feet 6 inches; E. L. Taylor, 1905,
10 feet 7 inches.

If the organization of the Squibb Gymnasium of
1877 introduced a new spirit in athletics, the enlargement
of gymnastic facilities added to the impetus,
organized its forces, and improved its methods.
The Fayerweather Gymnasium, with an equipment
then beyond the needs of the institution, was built
and furnished in 1892-93. The records of field
sports made during the previous fifteen years were
in most events speediy broken. Football and baseball
records have been kept since 1889. In that time
Virginia has played ten games of baseball with Cornell,
winning 5; 8 with Johns Hopkins, winning 6;

22 with Lafayette, winning 15; 19 with Lehigh,
winning 11; 17 with Pennsylvania, winning 5; 18
with Princeton, winning 4; 26 with Yale, 1 tie and
winning 6.

In football, in the same time, Virginia has played
four games with Johns Hopkins, winning all; 4 with
the Carlisle Indians, 1 tie, and winning 1; 3 with
Lafayette, 1 each, and a tie; 3 with Lehigh, winning
1; 14 with North Carolina, a tie, and winning
9; 10 with Pennsylvania and 3 with Princeton lost.

In 1894 indoor sports showed the result of the
directing and reforming skill of Dr. W. A. Lambeth,
the instructor in physical culture. The Fayerweather
Gymnastic Association was put in charge
and has done much to popularize winter sports and
games. Their quarters in the gymnasium are now
far from ample.

Away back in the late eighties an athletic association
was formed as the result of the influence,
sound judgment and active interest of the late R. D.
Anderson, and some others, among whom was Felix
H. Levy of Galveston, Texas. This organization
became the General Athletic Association and was incorporated
in 1894. In the election of its officers,
made by ballot, every alumnus and student has a
vote. Under its direction the athletic affairs of the
institution have been so well managed that it has accumulated
a considerable property. The greatest
achievement, perhaps, has been the making of Lambeth's
Athletic Field, one of the best arenas for college
sports in the United States. The contract for
grading the field was let in January, 1900, and the
first games occurred there in 1902.

Before Lambeth's Field was available baseball and
football were played on indifferent grounds on the

south side of the University. About 1894 the running
track on those of the present Madison Hall—
now largely taken up as tennis courts—came into
use, and, indeed, is still resorted to.

The General Athletic Association and the General
Alumni Association are jointly committed to the
erection of a large house for common use as an athletic
and alumni club-house, a need of long existence,
especially for the entertainment of alumni and
guests on special occasions of reunion. There is also
pressing need for some forms of athletic facilities
which the club-house will meet, such as training
table conveniences, a home for the Association's
organ—College Topics—a museum for trophies,
etc.

The architect's plans are in hand. They provide
for a building of four stories—a basement with servants'
quarters, etc.; first floor with a central reception
hall, a statuary hall, dining room, trophy
room, editorial room, bed-rooms, etc.; third floor,
bed-rooms and bath-rooms. From the rear of the
main hall, which is two stories, there is to be a semicircular
balcony overlooking the athletic field. The
estimated cost is $72,000, of which $15,000 is in
hand and $12,000 pledged.

It may be that here and in other similar institutions
the golden age of athletics has been reached
and an era of decline is at hand; that some other
employment of the surplus energies of college men
must be found. If so, may the new worship of the
collegian be as fit as the old, and develop a manhood
as clean and strong.