Archives West Finding Aid

This collection document over 60 years of intercollegiate sports, sports-related events, and the recording of them at the State College of Washington (later Washington State University). The bulk of the collection consists of 1990s video of women's basketball games and sports productions, that include the men's basketball and football coaches' shows as well as a general sports show known as "Crimson and Gray".

The collection also includes footage from club ski jumping events from the 1930s to 1950 as well as from some intercollegiate sports no longer participated in by WSU, such as wrestling, which was eliminated in 1986.

The collection is arranged in three series: WSU Sports Productions, 1965-1997; WSU Sports Specific Recordings, 1938-1994; and Miscellaneous Recordings, undated, 1946, and [1979]-1988. The first two series are then divided into five subseries each. All materials in these series were produced at WSU. The third series collects miscellaneous sports-related recordings connected to WSU's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics but not necessarily produced by nor involving it.

Series 1: WSU Sports Productions, 1965-1997. The productions often bear numbers that at times are simply sequential (e.g., 205, 206, and so on) and at others are a binomial system that begins with the year followed by a sequential show number (e.g., 1993-02, 1993-03, and so on) or begins with four digits for the academic year (such as 9596 for 1995-1996) followed by a sequential show number (e.g., 9596-4, 9496-5, and so on).

Subseries 1.1: Men's Basketball Coach's Show, [late 1980s]-1996. This subseries consists primarily of 3/4" Umatic videotapes of shows made with Men's Basketball Coaches Kelvin Sampson (1991–1994) and Kevin Eastman (1995–1996) reviewing the team's games. Included in this subseries is a single undated 1" open-reel videotape basketball production "A Year to Remember".

Subseries 1.2: Football, Mike Price Coach's Show, 1990-1996. Preserved here are productions with Football Coach Mike Price reviewing team games. Both 3/4" Umatic and Betacam tapes comprise this subseries.

Subseries 1.3: Crimson and Gray Show, 1992-1997. The Crimson and Gray show was another WSU sports production, but not sport specific. Interviews with various WSU Athletics coaches and student athletes dominate the show productions. Both 3/4" Umatic and Betacam tapes comprise this subseries.

Subseries 1.4: Numbered Productions - Miscellaneous Sports, 1993-1994. Called simply "Sports Video," these VHS tapes are in a donor numbered series with WSU coach and athlete interviews and many tapes called "Non-Sport Specific B-Roll and Interviews" that include coaches' press conference footage.

Subseries 1.5: Miscellaneous Productions, undated, 1965, 1986-1996. Collected here are items that may have been part of a larger series originally, such as a 16 mm film in the Physical Education Department's Mosaic series in the mid-1960s, a few Cougar Sports Tonight numbered shows in 1996, recruiting videos and so on.

Series 2: WSU Sports Specific Recordings, 1938-1994

Subseries 2.1: Women's Basketball, 1990-1993. Game footage from women's basketball contests (conference and non-conference) from the 1991–1992 and 1992–1993 seasons.

Subseries 2.2: Wrestling, undated, 1960, 1973–1979. Primarily 1/2" helical scan videotape reels, footage of WSU wrestling meets in the 1970s dominates this subseries. Included are a 16 mm film of a 1960 wrestling demonstration, an 8 mm film from 1962, and a 1/2" open reel videotape of a "Japanese clinic".

Subseries 2.3: Baseball, circa 1945-1950, 1968, 1987–1994. Two 16 mm films, one from the late 1940s and the other from 1968, record WSU baseball games. The rest of this subseries consists of standard audio cassettes, many from local radio broadcasts of WSU games from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Two cassettes are baseball-related events such as post-game shows from Coach Bobo Brayton's 1000th win in 1990 and commercial spots featuring Coach Brayton and former WSU player John Olerud when he played for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Subseries 2.4: Skiing, undated, 1938, 1946, 1950. A half dozen historical 16 mm films of the Washington State College Outing Club and Ski Team feature footage of ski techniques and ski jumping. The ski jumping meets were held in Leavenworth and Mount Spokane, Washington.

Subseries 2.5: Other Sports, undated, 1938–1939. Three 16 mm films comprise this subseries. Two are undated of swimming and track and field "photo" finishes and the third is a 1938–1939 "minor sports" carnival with WSC and the University of Idaho.

Series 3: Miscellaneous Recordings, undated, 1946, [1979]–1988. This subseries collects recordings of sports-related events such as the 1946 naming of Bohler gym, sports awards dinners, Apple Cup and bowl-game related events, and an interview with WSU alumnus and sportscaster Darrell Aune. The subseries consists of 1/4" open reel audio and standard audio cassettes, a 16 mm film, and VHS video.

The 1" video, 3/4" Umatic video, and audio cassettes are, for the most part, in their original plastic cases. The reel-to-reel audio, video, and VHS cassettes are, for the most part, in their paperboard boxes or sleeves. Among the VHS tapes in Subseries 2.1, mold contamination necessitated separate boxing of nine tapes. The films remained on the original reels but to reduce shifting a few of them were wrapped in archival grade polyethylene foam and transferred to an archival media box for both preservation purposes as well as to prevent the films from unspooling.