Central Michigan University. Athletics Organizational Records, 1896-2019, and undated
90 cubic ft. (in 85 boxes, 1 Ov. Volume, 1 Oversized Folder, 1 slide box)
This collection is the organizational records of Central Michigan University (CMU) Athletics, collected by CMU Athletics, consisting mainly of documentation of CMU athletic teams, athletes, and athletic staff, publications, some photographic materials, and other materials. Processing is ongoing. Materials are mainly in overall good condition. The collection is incomplete and some materials are faded, especially ditto copies, and are hard to read. Some materials, mostly scrapbooks or materials that were in binders, suffered water damage due to flooding in the Athletics basement. Water damage items are so noted in the Box and Folder Listing.
The two largest series in this collection are Team Sports and then Student and Staff folders. These series document, to varying degree of completeness, all sports that existed at CMU up to 2019, mostly as official sports teams and some on what we would now consider the intramural level.
Materials in the Team Sports series, 1896-2019, 50.5 cubic feet (in Boxes 1-51) usually includes statistics, publications, and historical materials as well as other materials. The Team Sports series is organized alphabetically by sport and materials are organized chronologically and alphabetically by folder label within each team. Statistics includes box scores or results and may include team and individual results or box scores. Publications in the series are mainly from CMU, regional and national events and athletic organizations such as programs, fliers, facts and other brochures, variously titled news releases, and media guides. Multiple sports were featured in some seasonal brochures. Usually there is a copy of each program and media guide in each Team's folders for that season. Please see the description of the Publication Series below for more information about CMU publications. Another predominate form of publications in the series is newspaper clippings, from the Mount Pleasant area, Michigan, and out-of-state newspapers. Audiovisual material in the series includes: photographs, negatives, and galley proofs, and scrapbooks. The majority of the photographic materials and moving images in multiple formats remains in the Athletics building as of 2022. Other materials often found in the series such as historical materials folders listing annual statistics and team members, memos; letters of intent; student athletes, and lists of potential team members. Early sports and early women's sports have far less documentation than later sports. For example, both Men’s and Women's Cross-Country materials are few and often easily contained for an academic year in one folder. In contrast, the amount of documentation of the main sports of football and men's basketball is vast. There are also missing years of materials in various Team folders. For example, both Men’s and Women's Cross-Country materials are few and often easily contained for an academic year in one folder. High school sports camps and events held on campus are also documented in the collection. In Box 20 there is a rare letter about the need to cut spending on athletics publications. The contents of the folders for team sports are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings. Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. The first time the abbreviation appears in the Box and Folder Listing in Team Sports it is spelled out. Later boxes may include some Team Sports material. For example Box 66 includes Gymnastic Meets folders with additional Gymnastic materials.
CMU. Athletics Student and Staff series is the next largest series (originally approximately 20 cubic feet in 20 boxes). There are two subseries: CMU student athletes who played on CMU sports teams Box 80-forward) and CMU staff (Box 51-part of Box 54). CMU staff series includes: coaches, assistant coaches, graduate student assistants, CMU sports announcers, physicians, trainers, Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) commissioners, SID (Sports Information Department, which generated newsletters), and even recognized CMU fans, such as Bob Kuck, the 1985 Baseball Fan of the Year (approximately 4 cubic feet in 4 boxes). The contents of each folder varies in amount, with prominent athletes and coaches having more material. In contrast most folders contain a single photograph or one to a few pieces of information, either text or photographic in nature. Types of materials typically found in these folders include photographs, usually mug shot-style, clippings, CMU news releases of various titles, statistics, and resumes, applications, and CMU’s Sports Information Background Form, all of which detail their biographical and sports history. The series is organized with coach boxes first, then students, alphabetically by surname. Labels include the name of the person, last name first, and the position/s they held or sport/s they played, and the dates spanning the contents of the material in the folder. In cases where there was no position specified, the processing students and the archivist researched through CMU publications to determine the person’s position. In a few cases where the label was entirely missing and the contents of the folder consisted of a single unidentified mug shot style photograph, we checked to see if the photograph included a negative number with a year. Most of the photographs in the collection were taken by CMU. University Communications staff or contract photographs who used a number sequence for negatives. For example, 77-23-4 means it is the fourth photograph on the 23rd reel of film taken in 1977. If we had a date, we researched through the sports teams programs for that year to identify the person. Sometimes there might be additional notes on a photograph that indicate which sport an unidentified athlete played or we could tell from an athlete’s physique which sports the athlete was most likely to play. We checked the specific sports programs for that year or years on either side of that date until we found a photograph which identified the athlete. Folders for some athletes were missing before the collection was transferred to the Clarke. Folders for some staff may also be missing. The contents of the folders for coaches/staff/student athletes are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings. Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. Sports teams names were spelled out and not abbreviated on these folder labels since the folders are not organized by teams. The only abbreviation widely used in this series is GA for Graduate Assistant.
The Publications series is another smaller series. It includes issues of multiple CMU publications including programs, media guides, Courtside, Football Sidelines, and variously titled news releases, which were not interfiled by CMU. Athletics into the Teams series. Notes about CMU Sports publications in general: The earlier, minor male and women’s sports publications were thinner and fewer with no or few images compared to their later twentieth century publications and to the main sports of football and men’s basketball. A page or two of dittoed information for the cross-country men’s team annual information contrasts with the same year’s glossy media guide and individual game programs for football. But even early football and men’s basketball publications were not as large and complete as later versions. In the late 1970s, for example, few of the football team members’ photographs appear in the programs or media guides. Photographs and statistical information about CMU athletes and coaches, statistics, season final box scores, scheduled games, historical information about star athlete and notable coaches, team and individual records and statistics, and similar information for opponent teams, including photographs, is usually included in the thicker programs and media guides.
Lastly is the Miscellaneous Series, 1896-2019, and undated, which is processed, 22 cubic feet (in 25 boxes and 1 Oversized scrapbook volume). Currently these box numbers begin with S(Scrapbook), T(Top, found on top of cabinets and tables), or M(Miscellaneous folders), until we complete processing. Miscellaneous includes materials that were originally in binders and scrapbooks documenting sports and some publications, some of which were damaged by flooding. Other parts of the Miscellaneous were waiting in piles to be interfiled mostly into the Teams Sports or Publications series when it was transferred to the Clarke, and includes publications, materials documenting CMU Athletics advertising, social media, marking plans and policies, budgets, scholastic and other achievement awards, CMU Athletic Hall of Fame lists, certifications for various team sports, banquets, training, reports, special projects and events such as the construction or opening of Theunissen Stadium, the Rose Center, and Indoor Athletic Complex (IAC), statistics, and more galley proofs. Six boxes of photographic materials remain to be processed.
Researchers may also be interested in several other collections with CMU athletic historical information in them, for example CMU photographs, CMU Information Services, CMU Public Relations and Marketing, and CMU UComm (Communications) at the Clarke. A small series of the collection, focused on CMU Hall of Fame Nominees and Winners, one film and one plaque was transferred to the Clarke before this main collection, and is separately cataloged. Also, CMU. Women's Softball and CMU Cross Country, Track and Field donated their own collections separately to the Clarke. A sample of athletics artifacts, including helmets, jerseys, trophies, and plaques, were transferred from CMU Athletics to the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History. Most photographs and recordings remain in the CMU. Athletics complex as per the wishes of CMU. Athletics.
Processing Notes:
We have followed requests for processing and withdrawing as per CMU. Athletics. The contents of the folders for team sports and coaches/staff/student athletes are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings.
Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. The first time the abbreviation appears in the Box and Folder Listing it is spelled out.
The collection, as transferred to the Clarke, is incomplete. As of March 2024, 14 cubic feet of student folders and photographic materials remains to be processed in the Clarke. An additional 25 cubic feet of student folders and photographic materials remain in the Athletics building, awaiting transfer to the Clarke. 25 cubic feet of materials have been withdrawn from the collection during processing. Withdrawn materials include: duplicates and peripheral material, as well as acidic or thermal copies of materials which were photocopied and the copies retained in the collection. Due to resources, the massive number of clippings in the collection, clippings were not photocopied or scanned as this would have doubled the processing time. News articles for digitized newspapers, such as CMLife and its predecessors CSLife and CNormalLife, or those that only peripherally mentioned CMU, were withdrawn, the rest of the clippings were retained. The only time CMLife articles were retained in the collection was when it was necessary, due to an absence of other information, to explain who someone was, as in the case of MAC Commissioners when only a photograph with a name on it was in the original folder. Non-Michigan materials were retained only if they document CMU athletic history, athletes, or coaches beyond a mere mention such as "CMU plays [or played] here Tues night." Volumes, mostly scrapbooks that were entirely acidic were retained in their current state. Social security numbers on rosters and lists were blacked out with a marker and then photocopied, and the copies were retained in the collection. Also, galley proofs and large caches of photographs were not individually sleeved due to Clarke resources.