An Excerpt
from "In the Light"
The College enjoyed its first
taste of victory in a varsity intercollegiate contest, when it defeated
Norwich, 4-2,
in a baseball game in the spring of 1911! Ice Hockey and Basketball began in
the
1912-13 academic year, the same year the College added the following
disclaimer
to its course catalog: "The Faculty has not overlooked the importance of
athletics,
being aware that it plays a considerable part in the physical and
moral training of
students. However, as excess in such matters is detrimental to
studies, the Athletic
Association is now under the supervision of a member of the Faculty.
"
The spirit of athletics was, indeed, infecting the Winooski Park campus, and
it was not limited to the students. The priests were enjoying all of these
new
found activities, too. Fr. Alliot became an avid baseball fan, and was
particularly
drawn to the intricate statistics kept in the sport. He became very
knowledgeable,
an excellent "scorer" or statistician of the game, and would often use
baseball
analogies to effectively relate mathematical theory in his classroom! Fr.
Cheray
grew to love basketball, and was invited to sit on the team's bench during
games.
One night, while seated on the bench, he clapped for a Norwich basket in a
very
close game. The coach turned to him and said, "don't cheer for that basket,
Father, it was for the opposition" - to which Cheray replied, "yes, but it was
a
beautiful basket."
Athletic facilities in those days were centrally located, and very limited.
Saint Michael's first gymnasium, called the "Recreation Room" in the College's
publications of the day, was located in the north end of Founders Hall. It was
affectionately known as "The Shed" by the students, in reference to its size
and
appearance. The room was the approximate size of a large classroom, with low
ceiling, bare walls, and a dirt floor. Outside, the football field, baseball
field, and
ice hockey rink were all located in the same place - the site now holding the
Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel and adjacent parking lot between
Founders
and the Chapel. When tennis courts were built a few years after the College
opened, they were located on the present site of Cheray Science Center.
In 1915, Saint Michael's claimed the State Championship in Basketball,
marking the first title in any sport in the College's history. State
Championships
were crowned by the media in the very early days of the College. A 1917
graduate who was a member of the 1914-15 Purple Knight "basketeers" said,
flour
basketball team was state champion in 1914 and 1915, and that meant conquering
every 'hardboiled' team within a radius of 150 miles." The early schedules
were
comprised of opponents from colleges, prep schools, high schools, company
teams,
club teams, military teams, and touring exhibition teams. Members of opposing
teams were sometimes as young as 13, and as old as 40! The Saint Michael's
squads
were also sometimes a little lean in numbers, and would be padded with
students
from the High School, members of the Society of Saint Edmund, and those who
Fr.
John Stankiewicz '37 referred to as "able bodied souls we met along the way."
One
of the truly legendary "able bodied souls" who was added to some of the
rosters of
those early teams was Jean Joseph Octave Dubuc, a member of the high
school's
Class
of 1906, who once threw a no-hitter against the University of Vermont
varsity
baseball team in an exhibition in the Spring of 1906. Dubuc was born in St.
Johnsbury, Vermont in 1888, and while at Saint Michael's was a standout in
academics as well as both baseball and ice hockey. Following his graduation,
he was
offered an athletic scholarship at Notre Dame. At that time, Notre Dame's
baseball
team was one of the top programs in the nation, winning 40 of a possible 44
games
in 1907 and 1908. In those days of workhorse pitchers, Dubuc was exceptional
Memorable Moments - Interviews - A Look at the Beginning - Record Holders - Images