By Ty Sanges
Springfield College’s athletic history runs deep. While most know Springfield as the “Birthplace of Basketball,” the sport being famously invented by Dr. James Naismith, few know what other secrets lie in the school’s archives, waiting to be told and uncovered. The rich roots that lay the foundation of the college’s athletics are exposed through Jeff Monseau, Springfield College’s archivist, who has countless stories and well-documented evidence of notable athletic moments that add to the college’s decorated history.
Monseau’s immense knowledge of Springfield’s history is compounded with a substantial amount of its history lying in Monseau’s office in the basement of Judd Gymnasia through artifacts and documentation of the unrevealed events here on campus.
The first obscure moment in Springfield’s athletic history that Monseau shared was a famous basketball game played in the once-unique Memorial Field House on Feb. 16, 1971. This game featured underdog Springfield College taking on the University of Massachusetts, who were backed by NBA Hall of Famer Julius “Dr. J” Erving. The game saw Springfield pull off an absolute stunner, beating UMass by a score of 63-62 in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people.
“One of the things is that this floor wasn’t there all the time,” Monseau said. “Memorial Field House was used for all the sports. It’s your Field House and your Blake Arena, all wrapped up into one. So they had to lay the floor before when they would play, and supposedly the floor had a whole bunch of little quirks. So, what you could do is force the opposing player into these places where if you bounce the ball, or if you stepped, the ball would bounce in a way that wasn’t great. So they ended up forcing them to try to do this.”
This helped guide Springfield to the win. Additionally, there were reports that Erving didn’t play up to his standard due to illness, contributing to the Springfield win, but this cannot be confirmed nor denied.
Another interesting story Monseau discussed was the first indoor football game ever played at Madison Square Garden in 1890, involving Springfield College playing the powerhouse program of the time, Yale. Springfield College’s team was defined by their nicknames, “Stagg’s Eleven,” or the “Stubby Christians.” Amos Alonzo Stagg, in which Springfield College has their current football field named after, started the football team, earning the team the nickname “Stagg’s Eleven.”
“We were a Christian school,” Monseau said in regard to the “Stubby Christians” nickname. “The Young Men’s Christian Association Training School [the YMCA]. And we were very small to play football. [James] Naismith was about 5-foot-8, and he played center. He was playing center, and he wasn’t a huge guy. Stagg was only about 5-foot-6 and a famous football player from Yale. So you could see, they were stubby, they were short. From that fact comes their name.”
The team went on to lose to Yale in a close battle, 16-10, but their fight was valiant and shocking considering Springfield’s height when matched up against one of the best football teams in the nation. This football game is one of the “greatest” games in Springfield’s history due to how close of a matchup it was.
Another fascinating football story was when Springfield took on Jim Thorpe, an Olympic gold medal winner and someone who is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. Thorpe played football for the Carlisle Indians under legendary head coach Pop Warner, a renowned traveling football team notorious for being excellent, largely due to their star, Thorpe. The Indians did not want to play Springfield as they were seen as an inferior team. Additionally, Carlisle was playing Brown the next day, which was considered a much tougher matchup for the team. However, with the Indians having ties to Springfield’s coach, Jim McCurdy, they agreed to play.
“Jim Thorpe really was just gonna rest and maybe give a little guest appearance out there, but Springfield College began to dominate them,” Monseau said. “And so Jim Thorpe really had to play. In fact, he played so hard and he scored all the points for the Carlisle Indians that he couldn’t go and play against Brown when they played them the next day. Springfield College lost, but it took a special effort by one of the best athletes in the world at the time to actually beat Springfield College.”
Another player on the team that took on Thorpe and Carlisle was Leslie Mann. Mann was a graduate of Springfield in 1914, but was a Major League Baseball player while he was a student and enrolled at the college. Although he played football, Mann was more of a standout on the diamond, having a long 19-year career in the majors and playing for the “Miracle” 1914 Boston Braves, having a huge impact on the team and leading them to the highest of success.
“The Boston Braves were one of the worst teams in baseball in the first half of the season,” Monseau expressed. “However, during the second half of the season, they came back and won the World Series. They won it behind Leslie Mann, who won the second World Series game against the Browns. He contributed and helped them win the World Series while he was here as a student. They were known as the ‘Miracle Braves.’ It’s kind of all attached to the [Indians] football game because these two men, Jim Thorpe and Leslie Mann, throughout their careers maintained a friendship.”
Lastly, Monseau discussed one of his favorite stories centered around the women’s gymnastics team at Springfield. Monseau explained that in 1969, the first-ever national championships for women’s gymnastics took place on Alden Street. At the time, Mimi Murray took over as the head coach, and the team instantly found success, winning the first-ever national championship. From 1969-1974, Dr. Murray never lost a dual meet and racked up two additional Division I National Championships.
“I tend to focus on the older stories, but we have people today who are impacting sport the way all these people did,” Monseau said. “We have these cool stories to share.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Archives