Allegheny College Athletics

The Early Days: 1880-1929

America's Pasttime Arrives in Meadville
In 1881 Allegheny had its first "official" baseball squad. Though without a designated coach, that first year saw a fine beginning, a 3-0 season. Opponents in the early years, in addition to those Meadville Mutuals, were community or regional squads sporting names such as Keystone, Meadville, Stars and Meadville Grays. Though details are sketchy, the games presumably were contested around Meadville and on campus.  In 1885, an on-campus field was leveled and cleared of stones so than annual "field days" could be held. These reportedly included occasional baseball games with visiting teams from Washington and Jefferson College, Westminster College and Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh. Also, class rivalries among the Allegheny students accelerated from the 1880s into the early 1890s.  However, along with the popularity of the sport of baseball and the movement into intercollegiate games came a strong will by college leaders to manage the mix between academics and extracurricular activities, and historical accounts from the late 1800s demonstrate that this debate was not taken lightly, according to the college's official "Through the Years: A History of Allegheny," by retired professor Jonathan Helmreich, published in 2005. In the "discipline of producing good fruit," for instance, in 1879 there was to be "no ball playing on the grounds (of the campus) before noon or from 2 to 5 in the afternoon."

The First Run
Track and field and baseball were the first two prevalent sports to take hold of the Allegheny campus, dating back to the early 1880’s.  Annual intramural field days of running and weight throwing had taken place at Allegheny since 1879, while the first official records of such an event are dated June 27, 1887.  At Meadville’s Diamond Park that day, E.B. Bodley was the standout for Allegheny, winning the 100 yard dash (11.0 seconds) and the long jump (17’ 5 ½”).

Football’s Formation
In the 1880’s, football was gaining popularity on college campuses across the country.  At Allegheny, attempts to organize a football team finally came to fruition in 1893.  Without a head coach, T.J. Prather served as the first team captain, and Allegheny won its first ever game by a score of 18-0 over the Meadville Athletic Club.  The team would struggle for the remainder of the season, losing its final four games, and viewing the sport as brutal and savage, the Allegheny faculty would ban football from the school in 1895.  However, a ruling that required at least five players on the line of scrimmage, combined with a petition signed by nearly every student on campus, brought football back to Allegheny to stay in 1896.

Strong from the Start
Less than five years after being invented at a Massachusetts YMCA by James Naismith, the game of basketball appears at Allegheny College.  Allegheny fielded its first official men’s basketball team in 1895-96, playing two games against outside competition - first a loss against Edinboro, and then the first win in program history, a 19-2 decision over the Meadville Olympic Club on Feb. 28, 1896 at Meadville’s Taylor Hose Gymnasium.  In these early days of the program, basketball players were excused from sessions of battalion drill or gymnasium exercise on the days they practiced or played, an early move toward recognition of athletics as meeting the College’s physical education requirement.   The team was successful from the start, winning the Western Pennsylvania regional championship in 1899 with a 24-21 victory over Geneva.
 
The Beginnings of Allegheny Women’s Athletics
 In 1898, the humble beginnings of women’s basketball took place at Allegheny College as the college produced two teams; the “girl’s basketball team” consisting of six forwards and three guards, alongside “The Other Team”, a squad akin to a junior varsity squad, who also produced six forwards and three guards. Mary L. Breene was the first ever manager/coach of Allegheny women’s basketball, as L. Fay Barnaby was the first captain for the varsity program (Helen Hempstead was the captain for “The Other Team”). The game at the time consisted of forwards and guards with specific titles, as forwards were labeled either Goal, Right Field, Left Field, Center, Right Center, Left Center and the guards were labeled back, right back or left back.

58 Straight
On March 7, 1903, Allegheny dropped a 21-15 decision to Westminster in the Montgomery Gymnasium.  Following that loss, eight years passed before a visiting team would again beat Allegheny on its home court.  The streak included victories over Syracuse, Yale, and Ohio State.  After 58 consecutive home wins, Ohio Wesleyan ended the Allegheny streak, 18-16, on March 18, 1911.
 
Famous Foe
In 1903, Allegheny took part in a pair of notable track events.  In early May, Allegheny faced Westminster in the first dual meet in school history, but were on the wrong end of a 58-31 score.  Later on in the month, Allegheny took part in the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia for the first time, and finished third in the 4x400 relay.  The event was won by a team named the Carlisle Indians, led by a 17-year old named Jim Thorpe.  Thorpe went on to achieve notoriety as arguably the greatest athlete to ever live, earning gold medals in the 1912 Olympics in the pentathlon and heptathlon, before playing baseball in the majors, and football in the NFL.
 
The Start to a Legendary Career
In 1904, Allegheny made waves by hiring a 23-year old star athlete to head its football and baseball teams.  It marked the first job for Wesley Branch Rickey, who had made a name for himself while still a student at Ohio Wesleyan as he simultaneously starred in football for both the Battling Bishops and the professional Shelby Blues of the ‘Ohio League,’ a direct predecessor to the NFL.   Upon arriving at Allegheny, Rickey found his team deficient in weight and muscle, and concentrated on speed and strategy.  His new ideas included starting practice 10 days before summer began, keeping the team to itself in order to foster bonding, and conducting daily chalkboard sessions.  He was also known for regularly delivering rousing, impassioned speeches in the Allegheny chapel.  While the Allegheny baseball team went 23-11 in Rickey’s two seasons behind the bench, his football teams did not fare as well, combining for an 8-13 mark in two seasons.  Rickey felt that this was due in part to the practice of his opponents using a number of paid “ringers,” and caught between the need to recruit players and the responsibility of not paying them, he resigned from his post at Allegheny in December 1905.  Upon leaving Allegheny, Rickey pursued a career in professional baseball, playing catcher for the New York Highlanders (now Yankees) before retiring in 1907 due to an arm injury.  He then went on to serve as the head baseball coach at the University of Michigan, from where he received a law degree, before becoming the most influential front office figure in sports history.  He essentially created the modern minor league system in baseball when working for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930’s.  He left his true mark on the game in 1947 as the general manager for the Dodgers, when he signed Negro League star Jackie Robinson to a Major League contract, making Robinson the first African American to appear in the Major Leagues.  Rickey maintained a close and friendly relationship with Allegheny College throughout his career, and was a guest of honor at the dedication of the Andrew Wells Robertson Athletic Complex in 1962.
  
NCAA Pioneer 
With college football experiencing widespread growth in the early 1900’s, the practices of paying players and using non-students to compete became rampant across the country.  Concerned with the poor moral health of intercollegiate athletics, Allegheny President William Crawford presented his views to a meeting of college administrators in New York City in 1905. While many attendees voiced their concerns on the actual playing rules, Crawford took it a step further, stressing the importance of “reforming the eligibility code and correcting the evils of importation, professionalism, and commercialism in sport.”   Out of this meeting came the founding of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the U.S. on December 28, 1905.  Behind Crawford, Allegheny was one of 62 founding members of the association, which would change its name to its current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910.
  
No Coach? No Problem
Despite having no official coach, Allegheny's men's basketball team finished a perfect 12-0 during the 1907-08 campaign.  Led by future Allegheny Hall of Famer C.D. Baker, Allegheny out-scored its opponents a combined 460-164 in the 12 contests, highlighted by a 52-14 drubbing of Colgate.  A year later, E.J. Stewart is named the team’s first coach, and the squad continues to prosper, finishing 11-2, with the lone losses coming to powerhouses Penn State and Bucknell.
 
Opening Serve
The Allegheny tennis program begins its history with the first recorded season in 1913.  Records indicate that the team did not compete often, only partaking in one contest during their inaugural campaign.
 
Free for All
Nearly a century after graduating, two school records set by Maurice “Rink” Kofford during his four-year men's basketball career have yet to be threatened.  Between 1918-22, Kofford attempted a whopping 860 free throws, 340 more than the next closest name on the list, Nick Catanzarite, who played from 1999-2003.  Kofford made 605 free throws - 204 more than Catanzarite - and owns the four highest single-season marks in team history, making 145 free throws in 1921-22, 151 in 1918-19, 150 in 1920-21, and 148 in 1919-20.  Kofford was memorialized by the naming of the Maurice “Rink” Kofford ‘22 Memorial Award, which is given annually to the junior or senior men’s basketball player with the highest cumulative grade point average.
 
The Gator "Tankers" Era Begins
The history of Allegheny swimming & diving begins as the institution holds its first ever season of intercollegiate swimming.  Allegheny’s first meet in program history was held at the school’s gymnasium on April 22, 1922 against Thiel College, a meet that over 100 people attended to see the Gators pick up a 38.5-20.5 victory.
 
Lady Hoopsters Earn Milestone
In 1928, the women's basketball team became an officially-recognized collegiate program, as the Gators make the final steps of a long journey towards the legitimization of the sport.  In 1927, the thirty-seven members of the squad traveled to Pittsburgh and were placed on mixed teams comprised of individuals from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, the former Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham) and Slippery Rock to compete, which set the tone for the program’s development during the following two years. The sport was recognized as an intercollegiate program in 1928 before officially beginning competition as an intercollegiate varsity program the following year, losing to Edinboro in the first home contest in program history.  Miss LeRoy was the coach of the Gators as forward Alice Luther was named team captain.  Dorothy Fritz, Claire Ordkey, Margaret Herr and Sarah Dixon comprised the first roster in program history.
 
What a Plan
Appointed as alumni secretary in 1928, Frank LaBounty ‘07 sought to help improve Allegheny athletic teams in hopes that winning would foster alumni participation.  Subsequently, the interest in football continued to grow, with an unprecedented number of players on the roster in the late 20’s.  Such a large number of players led to problems with housing on campus, and hindered team cohesion.  LaBounty then proposed a plan in which the football team would dwell, eat, and plan as a cohesive unit at the Phi Gamma Delta for the eight weeks of the football season, postponing rushing until after Thanksgiving while forcing the current Phi Gamma Delta members to find residence in other fraternity houses across campus. The experiment was said to have reduced interfraternity rivalries and raise college spirits, and over 3,000 fans turned up for the team’s season-opening victory over Mount Union.  After the team finished 4-3, President James Beebe voiced his approval of "The Plan" as it was called, saying that in addition to the athletic success, “fraternity particularism took a lower key, new friendships forms, and we have a more democratic College than in any recent year.  With this increased democracy has come a distinctly better scholarship.”  Beebe wanted to see “The Plan” continue to be carried out in future years, but the national fraternity offices put heavy pressure on the Allegheny chapters to not renew the practice.  LaBounty resigned shortly thereafter.