History
Highlights of Bowdoin College's Track & Field History
The long tradition of track and field
at Bowdoin began in 1870s with the first meet held at the Delta, a triangular field located where Sills Hall now stands. Bowdoin students competed with one
another in events such as sack, wheelbarrow, knapsack, and three-legged races.
The tournaments became an annual event and became more structured every year.
By 1880, more traditional track evens began to predominate and many of the Bowdoin school records begin there. Gradually, competitions against rival schools became
an important focus and in 1895, the Maine Intercollegiate track and field competitions
began. Prior to 1895 there had been only New England competitions and intra-scholastic
meets.
In-Depth Profiles
Most of the coaching was done by managers and faculty until 1913, when the school hired Jack Magee as athletic trainer. Jack coached "the Mageemen" from 1913 to 1955 in both cross country and track & field. During his tenure as coach, Bowdoin teams won 18 out of 38 Maine State Championships (UMaine won the others), and 4 New England titles including one Open New England title (All divisions -1950). Magee was the coach of 4 Olympic teams, and would have been sent to the fifth, but he refused to take part in the Nazi run games in Munich, Germany. He was known throughout the country and world for his coaching and wit and one college dean was fond of saying, "Jack Magee has done more to spread the name of Bowdoin College throughout the world than any other man." This means something to a school that graduated Hawthorne, Longfellow, and President Franklin Pierce.
In 1955, Frank Sabasteanski took over
as head coach. Aformer Bowdoin student and athlete, Sabe as he was called,
had been Magee's assistant for a number of years. He continued the success of
track & field at Bowdoin until his death in 1983. At that point Peter Slovenski
took over and has remained at the helm until present day.
During the 137 years of Bowdoin athletics, there have been many national and world class track and field men and women (since 1972) who have grazed the walls of Massachusetts Hall. There have been eight Bowdoin athletes to hold American Records, four of which also held the world marks. This is on top of the plethora of Maine State records, New England records, and NCAA records held by Bowdoin men and women. Most famously, there have been two Olympic Gold Medallists have graduated from Bowdoin:
Fred Tootell '23, Hammer
Throw in Paris '24
Joan Benoit Samuelson '79, Marathon in LA '84.
The College Archives have a special collection that follows the history of athletics at Bowdoin, withteam pictures and scrap-books going back into 1896.
From The History of Bowdoin College, Book by Louis C. Hatch (1927):
Discussing the start of Bowdoin Track & Field:
Field and track contests began at Bowdoin in a very modest way. On October 30, 1868, a "tournament" was held at the Topsham fair grounds for the championship of the college. The events were a two hundred and twenty yard dash, a mile run and a mile and a half walk. The next fall there was a more elaborate tournament of eight events. For a few years meets were sometimes held in both the fall and the spring, but in 1876 the fall meet was discontinued. The Orient explained that the attention of the students during the opening fortnight of the year was taken up by other matters than preparing for a field day, that only three or four weeks then remained before the weather became too cold for an outdoor contest and that a fall field day could be little more than an impromptu affair at the best. Several colleges had abandoned fall meets for this reason, and the Orient approved ofBowdoin's action. The next year, however, the paper took a different view. It said, "Of the three a
ssociations sustained by the students [boating, baseball and track] this [track] is best calculated to promote health and manly vigor, and we believe that there is a good deal of surplus vitality in college that might be profitably worked off in this direction."
An attempt was made to excite interest in the contests by freak events, and for a number of years the meets usually included one or more of the following races, potato, wheelbarrow, sack, knapsack, hop-skip-and-jump, and three-legged. These were for the benefit of the spectators. The contestants were lured by prizes, usually made of silver. To the winning class-team was presented a jug of cider. On one occasion this resulted disastrously. It was the custom to choose the President of the Y.M.C.A. from the incoming Senior class. The class of '80, which appears to have been an impious crew, had only one man in that worthy organization. A believer in muscular Christianity, he was also a member of the winning track team. Someone "doctored" the cider, the team celebrated, the Y.M.C.A. man behaved as no Y.M.C.A. man should, and lost the presidency. However, he was a "good sport" and declared that he had rather have had his fun with his class than hold any college honor.
Discussing Bowdoin's 1899 New England Meet Win:
The contest was most dramatic. It was uncertain till the end and in part turned on the question when the end came. The last event was the pole vault. Walter B. Clarke of Bowdoin and a Williams man were tied for second place. If the points were divided Williams would win the meet by one point, if the vaulting was continued and Bowdoin won it, then the Maine college would win first honors by a single point. The vault was jumped off, Williams protesting, and Bowdoin won.
The Lewiston Sun thus described what happened when the wondrous tale was telegraphed to Brunswick: "To say Bowdoin was overjoyed by her unexpected but well earned victory is to put it mildly, very mildly indeed. The news was received at 8.15 Saturday night, and after the first incredulous feeling such a wave of excitement struck the town as has never before been seen. The chapel bell was rung, a bonfire was hastily collected and lighted, which, however, was one of thelargest ever seen here. The band was hastily collected and the impromptu collection of rejoicing students paraded and listened to bright speeches by faculty and undergraduates until 1 o'clock in the morning." Godfrey of '99 was the first of the victors to reach Brunswick, he was carried in triumph to the chapel steps (no easy task, he stood six feet four inches high and weighed two hundred pounds) and a speech demanded. He named each man and each received a three times three. He also spoke of the sportsmanlike way in which the Bowdoin men had been treated, particularly by Dartmouth and Williams, and these colleges were likewise given the triple cheers.