© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2010 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago. Department of Physical Education and Athletics. Records
The University of Chicago’s Division of Physical Culture and Athletics was established in 1892. It was governed by one of the four original University Boards with authority over non-instructional areas of the University. It was later reorganized as the Department of Physical Culture and Athletics (1911-1933), the Office of Physical Education (1934-1937), Men's and Women's Divisions of Physical Education (1937-1974), and finally as the Department of Physical Education and Athletics.
Founding President William Rainey Harper envisioned a university that comprehended athletic training and competition. Under the directorship of Amos Alonzo Stagg (1892-1933), the University developed a strong intercollegiate, intramural, and class sports program. A founding member of the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1895, more commonly known as the “Big Ten Conference,” Chicago’s stadium at Stagg Field seated some 50,000 spectators by the end of 1920s. The Maroons’ football supremacy earned them the nickname “Monsters of the Midway,” later borrowed by the Chicago Bears in the 1940s and the 1980s. The Chicago-Michigan football game, held on Thanksgiving Day, was a major sporting and social event between 1893 and 1905; the competition was compounded by personal rivalry between Stagg and Fielding Yost, Michigan’s coach.
Chicago established a concurrent tradition in women’s athletics under Gertrude Dudley, Director of the Women’s Gymnasium and the Department of Women’s Athletics between 1898 and 1935. This program was the first of its kind at a major American university. The Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) was founded by Dudley in 1904, and remains the nation’s longest-running collegiate organization for supporting women’s athletics. In 1916 the University opened Ida Noyes Hall, designed as a clubhouse for women’s athletics and sociability. Ida Noyes housed a gymnasium, swimming pool, and trophy room, as well as a ballroom, theater, dining rooms, and club meeting spaces. Although intercollegiate competition was not allowed between women’s teams until the 1960s, Dudley and the WAA invited local colleges to participate in unofficial “Play Days” on the Midway during the 1920s.
The 1930s brought significant changes for University sports. Varsity football was eliminated in 1939 by President Robert Maynard Hutchins (1929-1951), who sought to focus on cementing the University’s reputation for intellectual rigor. The Maroons left the Big Ten in 1946. Chicago’s waning emphasis on athletics is perhaps best illustrated by the events of December 1942, when Manhattan Project scientists conducted the world’s first controlled and self-sustaining nuclear reaction under the west bleachers of Stagg Field. By 1970 Stagg Field had become the Joseph Regenstein Library.
The University of Chicago is now a Division III college and a sponsor of 19 intercollegiate sports. It is a charter member of the University Athletic Association (UAA), founded in 1986 to promote excellence in athletics without compromising academics. Stagg Field has been relocated to the northwest corner of the campus.
This collection is divided into eight series:
Series I: Programs, Handbooks, and Schedules, contains scheduling and participant information for varsity sport events. It also contains handbooks for intramural sports. Programs include team anniversaries, special athletic events, and the Intramural Athletic Carnival. Though this series covers the period between 1896 and 1999, not all varsity sports are comprehensively represented. With the exception of football programs from the 1980s and 1990s, the bulk of the material dates from the 1910s-1930s.
Series II: Results, contains files Alonzo Stagg and his staff labelled “Results.” These comprise performance and statistical information collected each year for each team. The "results" files include names of team members, awards given, participation records, and results of athletic events. Material spans 1893-1967, though not for all sports. More complete football results can be found in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Papers.
Series III: Scorebooks, complements the records in Series II. It contains baseball scorebooks from 1895-1949, basketball scorebooks from 1906-1953, and track scorebooks from 1894-1933.
Series IV: Participation and Eligibility, contains lists kept by the Department indicating which athletes were eligible and ineligible for intercollegiate competition in each sport. Material spans 1897-1968.
Series V: Honors and Awards, documents recipients of letter awards and freshman numeral awards. It includes the records and correspondence of the Order of the “C,” the nation’s oldest varsity lettermen’s group. Materials spans 1892-1965.
Series VI: Publicity, contains clippings, brochures, photographs, postcards, and press releases from 1920-1976. Most of these items date from 1950; earlier material can be found in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Papers.
Series VII: Women’s Athletic Association, contains minutes, photographs and scrapbooks documenting the early history of the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA). It also contains programs and scrapbooks recording athletic and social activities held at its clubhouse, Ida Noyes Hall. It includes baseball, basketball and hockey results. Material spans 1899-1957.
Series VIII: Artifacts and Memorabilia, contains clippings, photographs, plaques, and letterman sweaters. Material spans 1913-1968.
This series is divided into three subseries:
Subseries 1: Programs, contains booklets or sheets distributed at athletic events, listing participants and order of event. Sports include baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics, Rifle Club, swimming, track, and wrestling, though the bulk of these programs are from football and track events. The subseries also contains programs related to team anniversaries or other special athletic events; these are filed with other programs of that year. Material is organized by sport and then by year. The subseries covers 1896-1999, primarily dating from the 1910s-1930s; football also covers the 1980s and 1990s.
Subseries 2: Handbooks, contains intramural sports handbooks that combine programs, schedules, and general information. It includes publications from the seven Intramural Athletic Carnivals held between 1927 and 1932. The Intramural Carnival drew participants from all parts of the student body, offering contests in basketball, track, and wrestling, as well exhibitions in boxing, fencing, and gymnastics. These were accompanied by novelty races, dancing, fraternity sings, and band music. Material spans 1924-1968 and is arranged chronologically.
Subseries 3: Schedules, contains printed cards or sheets indicating events for specific quarters or years. Baseball and track cards between 1899 and 1921 include photos of team captains. Material is organized by sport and spans 1899-1974, though not comprehensively.
This series contains files Stagg and his staff termed “Results.” These comprised performance and statistical information collected each year for each team. The "results" files include names of team members, awards given, participation records, results of athletic events (including championships or tournaments entered), and other statistics. Existing "B" team and freshman team results were filed with the appropriate varsity team. With the exception of track, information for most sports in late 1890s and early 1900s is taken from the Maroon and Cap and Gown. This series is divided into four subseries, all organized by sport and by year:
Subseries 1: Varsity Sports, contains results for baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, fencing, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling. Material covers 1893-1967. Football results are not comprehensive; more complete statistics can be found in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Papers. The "summarized sports results" which make up the final material in this subseries consist of the combined records for all major sports from 1945-1946 through 1958-1959.
Subseries 2: Minor Sports, contains results for the Rifle Club, summer baseball, football, ice hockey, polo, sailing, skiing, squash and handball, summer tennis, and volleyball. Some, like the Rifle Club in the late 1930s and 1940s, enjoyed short-lived classification as varsity sports. Material spans 1929-1950.
Subseries 3: Intramural Sports, contains complete intramural results for
1934-1942. It includes 1916 and 1961 results.
Subseries 4: High School Sports, contains results for Chicago and Illinois competitions in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling. It includes inter-scholastic and University High School results. Though material covers a period from 1895-1966, most dates from between 1895 and the 1930s.
This series complements the records in Series II. It is divided into three subseries:
Subseries 1: Baseball, contains scorebooks from 1895 to 1949. It includes some records of summer games, as well as team trips to Japan to play Waseda University.
Subseries 2: Basketball, contains scorebooks from 1906-1953. These include some practice games, as well as interscholastic and Freshman Leagues.
Subseries 3: Track, contains scorebooks from 1894-1933.
This series contains lists kept by the Department indicating which athletes were eligible and ineligible for intercollegiate competition in each sport. Material is organized chronologically and spans 1898-1968. The series begins with letters of intent signed by athletes in 1897-1898 and concludes with a report on the quality of academic work completed by student athletes.
This series is divided into three subseries:
Subseries 1: Letters and Numeral Awards, records recipients of major “C,” minor letter, and freshman numeral awards. Athletes awarded the major "C" are listed by sport and by year between 1892 and 1954, along with team captains and band member recipients from 1931-1935. Minor letter and freshman numeral awards span 1903-1961.
Subseries 3: Other Awards, contains brief biographical sketches of students named Athlete of the Week between 1957 and 1959. It includes information relating to the D. L. Hoffer Memorial Trophy, a gymnastics prize established in honor of a coach of the same name.
Subseries 4: Order of the “C” contains the records of the nation’s oldest varsity lettermen’s group from 1904-1965. These include program booklets from annual Order of the "C" banquets, along with clippings and correspondence from the same years. Many of these booklets are annotated, and some belonged to Amos Alonzo Stagg. The subseries also contains statistics related to “C” men in service during the First World War. The subseries ends with correspondence by Order of the "C" presidents, including President Frank S. Whiting's general athletic correspondence. The subseries also contains song sheets and scores for athletic and school songs.
This series contains clippings, brochures, photographs, postcards, and press releases from 1920-1976. Most of these items date from 1950; earlier material can be found in the Stagg Papers.
This series contains minutes, photographs and scrapbooks documenting the early history of the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA). It also contains programs and scrapbooks recording athletic and social activities held at its clubhouse, Ida Noyes Hall. It includes baseball, basketball and hockey results. Material spans 1899-1957 and is arranged by topic. Artifacts have been transferred to Series VIII.
This series contains photographs, plaques, and a WAA letterman sweater. It includes a banner and letterman blanket from tennis star Max Davidson, as well as photographs and clippings related to Davidson and the tennis team. Material spans 1913-1968.