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Athletic Archives |
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Athletic have been an integral part of Indiana State since the early normal school years. From intercollegiate sports to intramurals and clubs, the history of Indiana State athletics is as rich and extensive as the university itself .
From Normal School to University Athletics
The Indiana State Normal School Athletic Association was organized during the winter term of 1894. The baseball team played several ball games, but the only "intercollegiate" game was played with Rose Polytechnic, which ISNS lost by a score of 19-8. The following year marked an ambitious program by the Athletic Association, when a football team was organized, uniforms were purchased, and several games were played. A full schedule for baseball was developed during the spring of 1895, and several Normal School athletes participated in the State Track and Field Day. The ISNS Athletic Association was admitted to the Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association in the spring of 1895
Arthur Westphal (1912-1917) and Birch E. Bayh (1917-1923) must be given the majority of the credit for establishing the administrative framework for athletic programs at Indiana State that would emerge competitively on the intercollegiate level. In the period from 1912 to 1923 such basics as administrative backing and financial commitments were secured to support the teams. The students and alumni (I-Men and N-Women) were organized as promotional and financial backers of the program. By the time Arthur L. Strum (1923) was appointed to head the Men’s Physical Training Department, as well as assumed the title of "Coach," the intercollegiate athletic programs were well established at Indiana State. Strum was charged with establishing intercollegiate teams in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Men’s tennis, golf and a girl’s varsity basketball program were also introduced at this time. In addition to the Intercollegiate Athletic program, the Athletic Department also sponsored and managed a full compliment of inter-class and intramural contests in a variety of sports. Managers who assisted the coach of the intercollegiate teams or served as coaches of the minor sports organized most teams and teams sports. The "minor sports" (i.e. tennis and golf) frequently had no coach in charge.
Indiana State has a long tradition of support and encouragement for women’s athletic programs. The first women’s athletic sweaters were issued in 1902 to women varsity basketball players. The "N" Women’s Association was formed on Blue and White Day (homecoming) in 1922. In 1924 the women’s athletic program formed the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) and broadened the base of athletic participation making women’s athletic programming largely intramural in nature with limited intercollegiate scheduling. By the year 1925 the WAA sponsored organized athletic activity for women in; Basketball, Hiking, Tennis, Swimming, Track, Baseball, Hockey, Soccer, Formal Gymnastics, Apparatus Gymnastics, Golf, bowling, Dancing, Roller Skating, and Training Rules.
Later in the decade of the 1920’s two significant events occurred in the history of Indiana State athletics. First, a new college Gymnasium was completed which offered a single facility that could the needs of the Athletic Department (and intercollegiate teams) on the campus. Second, Walter Marks (1927-1971) was hired as a coach. "Wally" coached the three major intercollegiate varsity teams of football, basketball, and baseball and provisions were also made for the assignment of assistant coaches in each of the three major sports. With the hiring of Wally Marks, one can see for the first time an administrative division beginning to develop between the Department of Physical Education and the Intercollegiate Athletics makes a clear commitment to support intercollegiate athletic competition in addition to its Physical Education Department programming. This division was further highlighted in the appointment of Glenn Curtis as Athletic Director was in 1946. The period from 1938-1946 highlighted the decade during which basketball surged to the forefront of athletic prominence at Indiana State under Coach Glen Curtis and Coach John Wooden. Naval trainees from the V-5 and V-12 programs housed on campus manned many of these teams and the post war years witnessed the return of mature student athletes under the G.I .Bill. In the years from 1947 through 1053 there were numerous Sycamore appearances in the NAIB Tournament. John Longfellow built on the success of Curtis and Wooden in developing several outstanding basketball teams. In 1950 the basketball players formed the nucleus of the United States Team, which won the Pan-American Olympic games in Argentina. Perhaps the greatest level of success in intercollegiate athletics occurred in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when Indiana State University fielded men’s and women’s intercollegiate teams in 26 competitive sports before fiscal constraints forced the elimination of small (minor) programs. These successes included such highlights as: the 1979 basketball team led by Larry Bird, which finished second in the NCAA tournament; a national championship in the gymnastics with Kurt Thomas ranked No. 1 in the world among male gymnasts; a powerful wrestling program led by Bruce Baumgartner; Benita Edds, making the U. S. Olympic Archery team; a trip by the baseball team to the college World Series; and a football team ranked no. one during the regular season in 1984. In recent years, Indiana State University intercollegiate athletics have developed and continued to maintain nationally recognized NCAA Division I programs in men’s and women’s basketball, football and baseball, softball, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s cross country, and a men’s and women’s indoor/outdoor track and field team. The track and field program has featured several All-American performers in recent years and is consistently one of the premier programs in the conference and region.
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