As the Men’s Baseball team goes on a Cinderella run in the NCAA Division I World Series, let’s look back at the foundations of baseball at Davidson College.

Baseball is first mentioned as a pastime on campus in 1870, played as recreational “Saturday ball”-style games by members of the literary societies. Much of the information the archives has on 1870s baseball come from the reflections of E.M. Summerell (Class of 1876), who was interviewed for a May 15, 1924 Davidsonian story, “Earliest Days of Davidson’s Baseball History Are Pictured By Former Player”:

“Dr. Summerell said that he had a fondness for town ball and that when a baseball club was organized here the spring after he came, he joined and made the team. He played every position on the field, including pitcher, catcher, and infielder.”

Cornelia Shaw’s Davidson College describes the spirit of Davidson baseball in these early years:

“The first mention of baseball was in September, 1870, when two clubs (The Mecklenburgs and the Red Jackets) were in existence… Members were excused from literary society meetings on Saturday mornings to take part. The games were an overflow of joyous interest in sport; there were no coaches and no admission fees.”

Baseball became an intramural sport, and each class fielded a team to play against the others. Quips and Cranks, the yearbook, often recorded athletic records set each year, including a “baseball throw.” However, the March 1898 issue of the Davidson College Magazine noted that “baseball doesn’t receive as much attention among us as it should,” implying that football was the more popular sport on campus at that time.

Class baseball played an important role in one of the most infamous riots on campus – the Freshman Riot of 1903, when inter-class competition and hazing led to a conflict between the Class of 1906 (then freshmen) and the Class of 1905 (then sophomores) that legendarily involved their baseball score score (freshmen 12, sophomores 9) being scrawled on the columns of Old Chambers, sophomores being barricaded from their rooms, both classes taking refuge in boarding houses in town and then possibly settling their differences in a fistfight on the College President’s lawn.

Baseball became a varsity sport in 1902, when Davidson began intercollegiate play. The first season went swimmingly, with Davidson recording victories over Duke University (then Trinity College), The Citadel, and University of South Carolina. The intercollegiate team’s first season record was 7-2, and the team would go on to post a 84-55-2 record over the first ten years of play. The freshmen class retained a junior varsity team, known as the “Scrubs” and later as the “Kittens” or “Wildkittens”, which allowed freshmen to get more playing time.

The baseball program has significantly expanded since the early years of “town ball,” class team rivalries, baby mascots, and early intercollegiate play. Cheer on our modern-day Davidson ball players in their best-of-three super regional match-up against Texas A&M – game one will be on June 9, game two on June 10, followed by a third game on June 11 if necessary. Go ‘Cats!

19 year ago, on March 1, 1998, the Davidson College men’s basketball team won the Southern Conference Tournament and received their first NCAA bid in twelve years. As the following season’s programs put it, “Davidson added the one achievement missing from an otherwise successful run through the ’90s.” This Southern Conference win also marked the first NCAA bid under Bob McKillop, head coach of the men’s basketball team since 1989. As March Madness approaches, this week’s post provides a peek into that exciting Southern Conference win, 19 years ago today.

Davidson faced off against Appalachian State at the Greensboro Coliseum for the title game on the 1st, after defeating The Citadel in a semifinal game on February 28th. The 1998 tournament marked the third appearance of the Wildcats in the SoCon final in five years, but the team had ended up on the losing side of the bracket in their previous trips.

The SoCon final was a close game, with Davidson winning 66-62. Senior Staff Writer Micheal J. Kruse (Class of 1999) covered the SoCon win in a few articles published in the March 17, 1998 issue of The Davidsonian, including one entitled, “With dancing Davidson in NCAA’s, recognition for school,” that served notice to basketball fans that Davidson was entering the big leagues:

“Attention all college basketball fans, casual or die-hard: Davidson College. Take Note.

It’s in Davidson, N.C., which is about 15 miles north of Charlotte. It’s the eight-ranked liberal arts college in the country according to the most recent U.S. News and World Report, Due to an exceptionally large freshman class this year, enrollment is slightly over 1,600 students.

It is not Denison. It is not Dickinson. The name is Davidson.”

While the moment of glory was brief – Davidson entered that year’s NCAA tournament as a #14 seed in the South Regional, and fell in the first round against #3 Michigan, 80-61 – this trip to the championship marked the men’s basketball team’s emergence as the small school with a lot of heart. Bob McKillop’s teams would return to the dance in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2015.

This year’s team played their final home game of the season last night (a win over St. Bonaventure), and have one more away game before heading to the Atlantic 10 Championship next week. Let’s wish the Wildcats luck!

Flickerball is a uniquely Davidson sport – first invented on campus in the fall of 1951, flickerball was originally called tag football or tag game. As an article in the October 12, 1951 issue of The Davidsonian states, tag football’s “only resemblance to actual football is the ball.” This new tag game combined some rules of basketball and tag football, and evolved over the years from a fraternity-dominated pastime to an intramural sport played by nearly all Davidson College freshmen on dormitory hall teams.

As an article by Jack Efird in the October 5, 1951 Davidsonian says, “This fall a new type of football will be introduced onto the intra-fraternity gridiron. Because of numerous injuries incurred last year and in past years, touch football has been dropped from play and tag football has been substituted.” The Davidsonian faithfully covered flickerball games weekly over the fall season from the inaugural championship in 1951 (won by the Kappa Alpha team) until the mid-1980s.

While the game was created with the intention of being safer than football, flickerball has still resulted in some gnarly injuries, as illustrated in the November 10, 2010 Davidsonian article, “Flickerball: Freshman fun or blood sport?” Author Sarah Welty points to the change from flag to touch play as a possible reason for the increase of injuries in “the part football, part ultimate Frisbee hybrid we all know and love.”

This week, we thought we’d share some of the images we have of this Davidson sport being played and practiced throughout the years.

While flickerball is a fall sport, with the coming of lovely spring weather Davidsonians may want to venture outdoors to practice their “new tag game” skills!

This Friday, Davidson’s men’s basketball team will play University of Iowa, kicking off their eighth NCAA tournament under head coach Bob McKillop. McKillop’s 26th year as head coach is also Davidson’s first in the Atlantic 10 Conference, so to honor both a successful first year in a new conference and his long tenure at Davidson, the Archives & Special Collections presents pictures of Bob McKillop throughout the years:

We hope you enjoyed this small sample of archival holdings on Bob McKillop’s years at Davidson – go Wildcats!

Since Davidson College officially went co-educational in 1972, women have been playing sports. Early sports participation by Davidson women included the formation of a co-ed intramural swim team in 1972, and Tracy Charles (Class of 1974) became the first woman to join the varsity sailing team that same year.

On October 26, 1973, the College Trustees passed  their Policy Statement on Athletics and Physical Education, which included a proviso that “other intercollegiate athletic teams, including women’s teams, be supported financially at a level which would enable them to make a positive contribution to the overall athletic program,” which marked the College’s intention to comply with Title IX. 1973-1974, the first year that freshman women enrolled as degree candidates, saw the establishment of basketball and tennis as varsity sports for women. The basketball team was coached on a volunteer basis by Ann Holland, whose husband Terry coached the varsity men’s team. The tennis team was led by student player-coach Carol Goldsborough (Class of 1975). This banner year for women in Davidson sports also produced the first female varsity swimmer, Susan Reid (Class of 1977).

The first full-time paid female athletics staff member was Pat Drake, who was appointed in Fall 1974 to coach swimming and women’s tennis. Two years later, Susan Roberts was hired to coach women’s basketball and the newly established field hockey team, and during the 1977-1978 year, a playing field was set aside specifically for the field hockey team.

1977 through 1980 saw further expansion of women’s sports at Davidson: a co-ed intramural equestrian program began in 1977, women’s cross country and track intramural teams were formed in 1978 (both teams became varsity programs in 1982), and athletic facilities were improved by renovation and expansion of women’s locker rooms. Rebecca “Becca” Stimson (Class of 1977) is a standout athlete from these early years of women at Davidson – Stimson lettered in three varsity sports (four years of tennis, three of basketball, and one season of field hockey), and since 1978, the Rebecca E. Stimson Award has been presented to “a woman athlete in recognition of outstanding dedication and contribution to intercollegiate athletics” (from the College Catalog 2010-2011; see a list of the Stimson award winners here).

Women’s sports at Davidson have continued to expand, adding volleyball in 1986, soccer in 1989, and lacrosse in 1994. Some notable highlights include: a 1984 women’s tennis Division III National Championship; a 1991 women’s tennis Big South Conference Championship; six consecutive Deep South Field Hockey Championships between 1991 and 1996; women’s soccer Southern Conference Championships in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 2009; a 2008 women’s swimming Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association championship. Currently,  Davidson women compete in ten varsity sports.