Collection is open for research.
The Whitman College Sports Studies, Recreation and Athletic Records consist of news clippings, photographs, calendars, schedules, publications, correspondence, and memos pertaining to sports of all levels at Whitman College. It also contains information on the construction and maintenance of the Walla Walla Stadium, built in 1925 and renamed Borleske Stadium in 1940.
A Whitman College Athletics Association formed in 1886, due in part to a desire of students to participate in baseball. The first football team was formed in 1892. Women's basketball was being played as early as 1897, and tennis was a popular early activity. The arrival in 1906 of Raymond Vincent Borleske was a seminal moment in the development of Whitman athletic programs. Borleske was considered the greatest football running back in the West during his playing days. Borleske graduated in 1910 and returned in 1915 to teach and coach, becoming the dominant figure in Whitman athletics until 1947.
Whitman College was one of the original members of the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (PNIAC), which, at the time of its conception in 1910, contained schools such as the University of Washington, University of Oregon, and Washington State College, later Washington State University. In later years, most of the larger schools withdrew, leaving Whitman, College of Puget Sound, Linfield College, and Pacific University, all of which belong to the present-day Northwest Conference. Willamette University, Pacific Lutheran University, George Fox College, Lewis and Clark College and Whitworth University have since joined the conference, leaving its present membership at nine institutions.
Whitman dropped football in 1977, but still competes in intercollegiate cross country, tennis, volleyball, swimming, golf, basketball, and baseball, as well as maintaining an active intramural program. Nationally, Whitman was originally a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and is currently a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III.
This section consists of reports, policies, and correspondence between Whitman College and various governing bodies; NAIA, PNIAC, NCAA and Northwest Conference.
Coaches association Pacific NW Conference 1946-1950; correspondence between football coaches, 1962; coaches association minutes, 1962.
binder of PE discussion material, 1978; packet of write-up on the state of physical education at Whitman, 1968.
NCWSA regulations for the rewarding of financial aid to student athletes, 1974; study of athletics and scholarship at Whitman College, 1928.
correspondence, 1970's; PNIAC guide from the 1980's; Agreement 1976.
Correspondence, minutes of committee meeting.
Women's athletic association of Whitman College; scheduling of athletic events 1970's; correspondence with University of Montana and University of Washington, 1906; Intramural sports constitutions, 1930's-1940's
articles, flyers, review 1977, correspondence, schedules, folder of 'general' with discussions about dropping football 1949-1974, clippings about football, bicycling proposal, suggestions for careers, and ski championships.
NAIA Administrative Manuals, guides and handbooks (1980's and 1990's) Women's sports 1980-1981 correspondence NAIA District One material 1983-1984 NAIA District One procedures and statistics, 1970's Football correspondence, 1970's
"The Early Years of PNIAC" by L.J. Sparks, 1925; PNIAC Agreements, 1903-1972; Correspondences and miscellaneous items, 1947-1976; Participation lists, 1953-1972; PNIAC new conference agreement, 1961-1963; documents re: enlargement of the Conference, 1964-1965; Linfield College case documents, 1967-1968; PNIAC article by Robert Whitner and Louis Perry, 1965; Athletic schedules, 1952-1974; NAIA Documents, 1955-1971; NAIA minutes, 1954-1972; PNIAC Eligibility Certificates, 1955-1972.
Files pertaining to individual sports at Whitman College organized first chronologically and then by discipline. The bulk of the material covers the 1960's through the 1980's.
18 cds containing items such as photographs of games and pictures of players.