An Excerpt
from "In the Light"Here is a short piece written by Associate Athletic Director Chris Kenny for the book "In the Light." The book documents the college's first 100 years. This excerpt is from the chapter about the school's athletic history, and the piece shown here tells a little about the very beginning of Saint Michael's College athletics from 1904-1947.
From the very beginning, the administration of Saint Michael's College was
fully aware of the importance of athletics in a quality education. However,
there
was one major obstacle in the path of achieving this goal. The founding
fathers of
the College were all from France, and therefore were unaccustomed to American
athletics and the country's consuming emphasis on sports. They were not
qualified
to organize the popular American games of the day.
This dilemma did create incredible opportunities for the
student managers
for the early Purple Knight teams. They became "general managers" in a very
real
sense - making all of the team's arrangements, drawing up schedules, hiring
coaches, ordering equipment, building and maintaining game fields, raising
funds,
taking care of advertising and publicity, arranging for transportation to and
from
contests, and many other details. The College's earliest students did not
waste any
time in setting up a foundation for the excellent athletic programming we now
know. In the fall of 1904, the College's very first year of existence, the
first Athletic
Association was formed, presided over by Thaddeus Barttro '08, and moderated
by
Fr. Eugene Labory. Serving with Barttro (who also served as Manager of
Baseball)
on the first Association board was William Gelineau '08 (Treasurer), Lawrence
Pine
'08 (Secretary) and Bernard McMahon '08 (Manager of Football). The elections
for
team managers were of high importance to the students of the College - turnout
for voting was very high.
Fr. Labory is an interesting and somewhat forgotten figure in the College's
history. Born January 10, 1880 in Paris, he came to the United States in 1898
as a
seminarian at the age of 18, and was ordained as a member of Society of Saint
Edmund on March 25, 1903. He was a key member of the group of Edmundite
founding fathers, invited by the Bishop of Burlington to found Saint
Michael's. He
taught classes, was heavily involved in residence life, directed the College's
orchestra and St. Cecilia's Band, and was the College's first Moderator of
Athletics.
A look at many of the early team pictures reveals that Fr. Labory often times
suited
up in uniform to help fill out the first team rosters!
The College's Silver Jubilee describes Labory's contributions to athletics at
Saint Michael's thusly - "No more capable director to launch St.
Michael's into
athletics in a manner consistent with the aims of educators could
have been found
than Fr. Labory. A keen lover of sports himself, he made himself all to
all. If a man
were needed for a football scrimmage or a scrub game of
baseball he was there.
The examples of his enthusiasm, skill and sportsmanship are still mentioned
by the
old-timers. His devotedness, it is said, was occasionally rewarded with a black eye
or a loosened tooth; but all the same results were obtained
- results that have
continued with the march of years."
He left the College in 1915, going to the Grand Rapids diocese in Michigan
at the invitation of Bishop Gallagher. He served as pastor of St. John the
Baptist
parish in Standish, Michigan for 44 years, retiring in 1959. He died August
30, 1975
in Saginaw, Michigan at the age of 95.
Through the diligence and hard work of the Athletic Association and
Labory's guiding hand, the individual varsity programs were born. Baseball
began in the spring of 1905, followed by Football in 1907.
Memorable Moments - Interviews - A Look at the Beginning - Record Holders - Images