Sports and Recreation at Oberlin College

The primary rationale for this book is the opportunity to bring together both the rich history of sports at Oberlin College and the related topics involving recreation, the people involved in these endeavors, and the honors and awards that have accrued to many extraordinary athletes, coaches, and administrators. Certainly, it would be possible to conduct numerous Internet searches to examine these topics, but combining modern digital services and the extensive holdings on campus, particularly the Oberlin College Archives and the Department of Athletics and Physical Education, provides a more complete, integrated perspective on athletics and recreation.

The book is unique in terms of the comprehensive coverage of the history of all athletics teams at a single institution. It also includes coverage of most recreational activities, providing a thorough picture of the scope of physical activities on one campus. No volumes with this breadth and depth covering these topics were located for other institutions of higher education during the search for resources used for this book.

The reader will notice recurring themes in the book. First is the enormous growth in terms of the number of varsity sports and many recreational opportunities, particularly for intramurals and club teams. Second is the parallel expansion of the physical structures and playing fields, which were originally found in a variety of locations on and near the campus, but are now gathered together at the north end of campus. Third, separate sections in many chapters celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of Oberlinians in physical endeavors, complementing and augmenting their academic experiences. Fourth, the history of Oberlin athletics involves patterns of ups and downs, both within some sports and across aspects of the entire program. These are examined at appropriate places in the text. Last, there are anecdotes in some chapters which provide insightful information about the roles played by students in the larger context of growth and changes in national sports, as well as offering bits of humor, often a key feature of being part of an intramural, club, or varsity athletics team.

The book is divided into six sections or parts to encompass all aspects of the programs for athletics and recreation. The remaining four chapters of Part I present a starting point with the early history of the program, including three chapters dealing with the locations and venues for athletics. Some of the places used for recreation are covered in later chapters. Part II is devoted to the men's sports teams, arranged in chronological order from the earliest to those added more recently. Part III encompasses women's teams, also in a time-ordered sequence; Title IX resulted in the simultaneous introduction of many women's varsity teams. Part IV is devoted to people, including administrators, the Heisman Club Hall of Fame, the Heisman Club Hall of Honor, and awards made for individual accomplishments by Oberlin athletes and teams. Selected recognition received for all-star status at the conference, regional, and national levels are presented with each team. Part V presents the range of activities encompassing intramurals, club sports, dance, and other recreational pursuits. Part VI covers the move, during the past several decades, toward physical fitness and provides concluding thoughts and visions for the future of Oberlin's sports and recreation programs.

Lee Drickamer graduated from Oberlin College in 1967 and obtained his PhD in zoology at Michigan State University in 1970. He followed a career path in the biological sciences with an emphasis on the study of animal behavior that took him to Williams College, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. He is known for two textbooks where he was a major author - one in animal behavior and one in mammalogy. He and his wife, Judith Sellers, retired first to Myrtle Beach, SC, and then to Oberlin where they now reside in a house filled with books, a dog, and two cats. Beginning in the late 1970s, Lee turned a long-time interest in history into a second career writing on various topics pertaining to American history. His works include three books involving Civil War correspondence and newspaper dispatches, a history of Northern Arizona as told by its buildings, and history of the biology departments at Northern Arizona University and Oberlin College. He is currently working on two projects pertaining to the Oberlin Alumni Association and the Oberlin Alumni Magazine. James (J.D.) Donovan graduated from Oberlin College in 1961 and began a 32-year career in public school education as a high school social studies teacher and coach. In 1982 -1983, while still teaching at Oberlin High School, he joined the Oberlin College coaching staff as both an assistant football coach and head coach of men's lacrosse, a position he held until retiring in 2001. He lettered in football and lacrosse and was a four- year member of each team while at Oberlin. He continued to play lacrosse as a member of the Cleveland Lacrosse Club for over 25 years after finishing his degree. J.D. acquired the well-deserved reputation as the "historian" of all things pertaining to athletics at Oberlin. His treasure trove of information was important in the first book on physical education at Oberlin and has served as the basis for key elements of the chapters on the teams in this book. J.D. is also a charter member of the John W. Heisman Club, serving on several committees over the years and most recently as the chair of the Hall of Fame Committee. J.D. and His late wife, Linda, were always close to the players from the lacrosse team and attended many men's and women's sporting events. He too resides in Oberlin, making the collaboration easy and enjoyable. Nancy Hawley Morrison, a 1967 Physical Education and Recreation major at Oberlin, taught public school for three years, and then worked four years at a YWCA. She earned her Master's in Education from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where she now lives with her feline friends. Prior to the electronic world, she prepared and edited manuscripts for doctoral candidates and college professors. Now a bona fide couch potato, she was "drafted" to be part of this project.