The History of Ohio Wesleyan Athletics

1870-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-59 | 1960-69 | 1970-79 | 1980-89 | 1990-99 | 2000-08

1875

Ohio Wesleyan students organize their first football team. The faculty objects, and football is discontinued as an intercollegiate sport for 15 years.

1888

Fairbanks Gymnasium is built, giving Ohio Wesleyan its first forum for physical education and athletics. The building was located east and slightly south of the current location of Elliott Hall and was named in honor of Charles W. Fairbanks, class of 1872, who later became Vice President of the United States under Theodore Roosevelt. Prior to the opening of Fairbanks Gymnasium, the University's limited physical education facilities were located in the basement of Elliott Hall.

1889

Ohio Wesleyan fields its first intercollegiate baseball team. Ohio Wesleyan students had played home exhibition games against other schools as far back as the early 1880s, but away games were prohibited by a faculty rule barring road trips for athletic purposes.

1890

Cardinal and black are selected as Ohio Wesleyan's official colors. Formerly they were pearl and gold.

After a winter of preparation, the football team plays its first intercollegiate contest. Ohio State tops Ohio Wesleyan, 20-14, on Saturday, May 3. The team played 3 games that fall, losing all 3.

1891

The football team records an undefeated season, shutting out Denison and Miami en route to a 4-0 finish.

1897

Fielding H. Yost coaches the football team to a 7-1-1 mark and Ohio Wesleyan claims the state championship. The Red and Black shut out 6 opponents, including Ohio State and Michigan. The scoreless tie with the Wolverines ends up leading Yost to the Michigan head coaching job.

1902

Ohio Wesleyan joins Case Tech, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio State and Western Reserve University in forming the Ohio Athletic Conference.

1903

After signing a professional baseball contract and thus becoming ineligible to continue his collegiate playing career, Branch Rickey '04 becomes Ohio Wesleyan's athletics director and baseball coach. During a baseball trip, Rickey's catcher, Charles Thomas, a black student from Zanesville, Ohio, is denied lodging at a hotel in South Bend, Indiana. Rickey was able to convince the hotel manager to allow Thomas to stay in his room as an unregistered guest, but the event was burned into his memory and proved to be his inspiration in signing Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers over 40 years later.

1904

Rickey's baseball team wins 14 games, a school record that would stand for 81 years.

1906

Edwards Gymnasium is dedicated on Feb. 22. Ohio Wesleyan's first varsity men's basketball team plays its games in the still-unfinished facility, compiling a 4-4 record. The gym was named after John Edwards, who served on the Board of Trustees in the late 1890s and early 1900s. One of the biggest facilities in the state at the time, Edwards was one of the first sites for the Ohio high school basketball tournament championships, which it hosted into the 1930s.

Edwards Field, located where Branch Rickey Arena and Gordon Field House stand today, becomes home of the baseball, football and track teams. Games prior to this point were played at a variety of sites. One popular site was the hollow between present-day Phillips Hall and Delaware Run on the eastern edge of campus, another was north of Monnett Hall, site of present-day Austin Manor.

1907

Branch Rickey, who returns to his alma mater as football and baseball coach and athletics director, and halfback James Rike, who rushed for 1016 yards in 1906, lead the football team to a 7-3 record.

1909

Another Hall of Famer, Lynn St. John, becomes the head football coach. Under St. John, Ohio Wesleyan surrenders a total of only 56 points during the 1910-11 seasons but records back-to-back 6-3 finishes.

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1870-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-59 | 1960-69
1970-79 | 1980-89 | 1990-99 | 2000-08