IU East Athletics: Club Sports

IU East has a strong history of club sports, with many of the early clubs posting an ad in the school paper about an upcoming tourney and asking interested students to sign up. Students would sign up at via the Student Activities Center on campus and all students were welcomed and encouraged to join.

Our two earliest club sports were basketball and golf. It is not known exactly when the golf team started at IU East, but we can guess it was in the spring of 1972 or 73. By 1974, the team was established, with faculty member William Hine as the new golf coach. Practice sessions and home meets were held at the Highland Golf Course.^[1]

Basketball was by far the most popular and widely covered sport at IU East. IU East’s first full basketball season was in 1971-72. At that point, the team was called the Easterners. They completed their first season with a 7-13 record. Gary Keesling was the head coach, and Jan Finkel was the assistant coach. Mike Koch received an award for best free-throw shooter, and Jeff Sexton received an award for Most Valuable Player.^[2]

They played at Trueblood fieldhouse on the Earlham College campus. The early seasons were tough for the team as they didn’t have adequate space for the team to meet and practice as often as they needed, getting only one or two practices in a week compared to a lot of their competitors who practiced 4 to 5 times a week. There were other factors that also made it difficult for the team to practice as many of the team’s players had other responsibilities, such as being married with children, live outside of Richmond, or have night classes at the same times as practice . There was also the issue of losing basketball players due to IU East only being a two-year college. The player turnover rate was high since players had to transfer after their two years were up.^[3] However, by 1975 the basketball team made history by winning their first trophy, 2nd place at the Miami-Middletown Tourney. By the early 80’s a lot of the factors that troubled the team, such as lack of consistent practice space and scheduling conflicts, made it difficult for the team to play at the intercollegiate varsity level, and the team shifted to more recreational league play.

Alongside basketball and golf, other club sports began to emerge. Slow pitch softball began on May 11th, 1974 with a tournament at Middletown, OH.  Any interested student was encouraged to sign up to play. In November of 1975, there was enough interest for a volleyball team and the participants, which included faculty and administrators entered into a 20 week long season where games were played at the Y.W.C.A. The softball and volleyball teams were a few of the sports that started out co-ed. In May of 1976, the first women’s softball team was pulled together. In 1990, the IU East co-ed softball team placed second in the Richmond Parks and Recreation ‘s Coed softball league, fourth place in the Fountain City tourney, and second place in the Cambridge City tourney.^[4] By the summer of 1991, softball was the largest and busiest summer league, with four co-ed teams formed for on-campus games: Ivy Tech, IU East Lingle, IU East Coed, and IU East staff and faculty. Sand volleyball was also popular that summer, with 38 students that signed up and even a faculty and staff team. The sand volleyball court was located near the campus tennis courts.^[5]  

The Pioneer Cheerleaders emerged for the first time in 1975 with Vicki Simons, Elaine Hircher, Sue Wickemeier, and Terri Kirkman.^[6] By 1980, cheerleading was seen as a spring sport, with cheerleading clinics to learn routines and techniques, and tryouts were held in the fall.

Tennis also became available during the summer of ’76 as the city of Richmond’s Park and Recreation department offered lessons at Glen Miller Park to IUE students at three different times, teaching beginners strategy and stroke mechanics.^[7] IU East didn’t have tennis courts or softball fields until the 1983-84 school year. This was when tennis really took off at IU East as the campus having its own courts provided a lot more opportunity to students. Informal play was set up in the fall of ’83 with plans to develop matches against other colleges for the ’84 spring semester.^[8]  

The 1983-1984 school year was also the year that cross country was added, making using of the Parcourse exercise course that is located at the back of the campus, currently behind Hayes Hall. That course is still in use today by the IU East cross-country teams and for the annual Run with the Wolves. David Browers was the coach of the first cross country team, having prior experience coaching track and cross country at Richmond High School. The cross-country team was not a recreational sport, but a competitive varsity sport. As IU East had the Parcourse exercise course and nature trails around the campus, IU East was able to play host to a varsity athletic competition for the first time with the Pioneers running against the Earlham College Quakers on October 12th, 1983.^[9]  The first cross-country team were men, but Coach Browers at this time was hoping to generate enough interest to have a women’s team the following year. While cross-country and tennis was just starting, at this time IU East’s men’s basketball and women’s volleyball had been competing in Leagues at the Richmond’s Y for several years.^[10]  

In the mid 80’s to early 90’s, IU East focused more on building recreation and intramural sports, choosing at the time to focus on educational sport workshops, competitive tournaments, and forming and retaining club sports. The goal to all this would be to establish a strong foundation for the organization and funding to later establish a more robust intercollegiate sports program for athletes seeking a more advance level of play, but still have a stable offering of club sports for students wanting to play recreationally throughout the year. Many students at IU East still juggled full-time work, family, and classwork and the average age of many IU East students were older than most students attending a traditional residential campus, so at this time, the commitment to participating in intercollegiate sports was difficult for many.^[11]

The men’s basketball team had taken a break from intercollegiate play for about 10 years, before coming back in the spring of 1991. The team was “clobbered” as it was the first time any of the players had played together, but the team played with enthusiasm and encouraged each other and clearly held some talent. All they needed was more practice.^[12] It wasn’t until the 1994-1995 school year that the Pioneer basketball program was revitalized and much more resembled the program we have today, with new guidelines, a new look, and a new coach, Bill Mullin. The team’s goal for that year was to play well, play competitively, and be fun to watch.^[13]  A women’s basketball team was also popular for a while at the IU East campus, but a lack of participation throughout the 80’s caused the team to die out until recreation coordinator Larry Willis worked to revive the women’s team in the fall of 1992.^[14]   

Along with physical sports such as golf and basketball, mentions of the Chess Club and Chess tournaments were often featured in the sports section of the student newspaper, The Pioneer Press.  

The Chess Club (later Chess Society) was first established in the Fall of 1973. The first meeting was held on October 10th and the members elected officers.  Barry Hamm was elected president, David Nolte was elected vice president, and Fred Owens was elected the treasurer. English faculty member Ron Carter was the faculty advisor for the team. The annual fee for the first year was only $1 dollar.^[15]  

While students mostly comprised of the participants in the club sports, faculty and staff also played in sports leagues and game tournaments, too.  For example, in 1981, faculty member Dr. John Hwang was the first-place winner in the 6th annual IU East Chess Tournament. Just before

the summer of 1991 started, the student government challenged the faculty to a few rounds of volleyball. Unfortunately for the students, more than 15 faculty members showed up to play against 10 students and they beat the students 2-1. Softball was another sport were faculty and students have faced off against each other for some friendly competition and a way to unwind after a long semester.^[16]  

Other popular club sports or games: bowling, backgammon (later part of the Game Club/Game Society), pool, soccer, badminton, flag football, and ping-pong.