Men's Ice Hockey and Women's Swimming (1:00 Class)

With this year (2010) being Bowling Green State University’s centennial year, we took it upon ourselves in our sports management class, History and Philosophy of Sport, to look back at the history of each and every one of Bowling Green’s varsity sports. As groups we decided on two sports that we would research, one men’s and one women’s sport. Our group selected men’s ice hockey and women’s swimming. From the start each group member showed a huge interest in hockey, so we all decided that ice hockey would be the most interesting men’s sport to research. As for swimming, we thought that it would be most beneficial to research a sport that we as a group weren’t as familiar with.

Men’s Ice Hockey which is one of the main sports Bowling Green State University is known for ended up being the most interesting to research. As we started the research process we found it fairly easy to find information about hockey at Bowling Green. The majority of our information on ice hockey was found on the internet, through news paper articles, and the NCAA and CCHA websites.

Men’s ice hockey started in 1969, and since the team started here at the university they have had six coaches. Over the past forty one years these six coaches have taken them to nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament, one of those appearances being an NCAA National Championship in 1984 (Newton & Pletch, 2010). The 1984 National Championship win was one of the biggest accomplishments for men’s ice hockey along with a CCHA regular season banner win in 1987. Along with NCAA and CCHA appearances, the players and coaches of men’s ice hockey received several awards for Player of the year, Rookie of the year, Coach of the year, most valuable player in a tournament, Best Offensive Defenseman, and the Terry Flanagan Memorial award. Players that have received the player of the year award include Mike Liut, John Markell, Ken Morrow, George McPhee, Brian Hills and Brian Holzinger (Newton & Pletch, 2010). Players who have received the Rookie of the year award include George McPhee, Paul Ysebaert and Nelson Emerson (Newton & Pletch, 2010). Throughout the forty one years Bowling Green hockey has been around three of the six coaches have received the coach of the year award including Ron Mason in 1975, 1977, and 1978, Jerry York in 1981, and Francis “Buddy” Powers in 1994 (Newton & Pletch, 2010). The most valuable player award was received by two players, those being Mike David and Paul Connell (Newton & Pletch, 2010). Within the last twenty years of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Rob Blake, Kelly Perrault and Mike Jones all received the Best Offensive Defenseman award and Doug Schueller and Jordan Sigalet received the Terry Flanagan Memorial Award (Newton & Pletch, 2010).
Along with the many accomplishments and awards Bowling Green hockey players and coaches received throughout the years, one major accomplishment for not only Bowling Green, but also for the United States included two 1980 Bowling Green Hockey players. Ken Morrow, and Mark Wells were two individuals who played for Bowling Green State University men’s ice hockey program and were chosen to play in the 1980 Olympic games. These two players were a part of United States history otherwise known as “The Miracle on Ice”. The Miracle on Ice is when the United States hockey team won an Olympic gold medal after defeating the Soviet Union, moving them on to the final game where they then defeated Finland.

Women’s Swimming is what we found to be an underrated sport. As we started the research process for swimming we found it very difficult to find the most simple of documents like rosters, overall records, and even documentation of when the sport started. We found that women’s sports in general were not very well recorded throughout the last 100 years. As we continued to search for records of the women’s swimming team we used resources such as the Key Yearbooks, and the archives at the Jerome Library located on the Bowling Green campus. Although the Key Yearbooks were available as a source of research, we found that although the swim team was mentioned, not all rosters were documented. From there our group moved on to the Jerome Library Archives were we found team programs that help us to piece together the year women’s swimming began and what women participated in the sport over the years.
Women’s swimming began here at Bowling Green State University in 1980,* and over those twenty years six coaches have led the team. Throughout the twenty years Bowling Green Swimming has been around the women that participated on the team have set many records in the MAC Conference and have received many awards. Some of the outstanding women of Bowling Green swimming include Cheryl Patteson who set the 400 individual medley, the 1,650 Freestyle, the 200 Butterfly, the 200 individual medley, and was named swimmer of the year in 1993, 1994, and 1995 (Women's MAC Records, 2007). Along with Patteson, Josie McCulloch set many records that included the 100 breaststroke, the 200 breaststroke, and went all American in 1991, 1993, and 1994 (Women's MAC Records, 2007). Over the past six years five members of the swim team were each named All MAC- First Team, including Sarah Agnew, Stephanie Buckner and Alisha Yee who all received the honor once and Caroline Keating who received the honor twice (Women's MAC Records, 2007). Along with the players, coaches also received awards; one in specific was Coach of the year which was given by the MAC conference. Two of Bowling Green’s past Swim team coaches have received that award including Brian Gordon, who received it in 1988, and 1993, and Randy Julian who received it in 1997 (Women's MAC Records, 2007).

*Note: This starting date differs from the dates found by Dr. Janet Parks and Ann Bowers. In fact, there were two different swimming teams for women that began well before 1980. One team that was known as the Splashers featured both Swimming and Diving and began in 1948. The other team known as the Swan Club, featured Synchronized Swimming, and competed from 1939-1978.

Members of this Group include: Jon Anderson, Samantha Bova, Nick Braun, Matt Magby, Dane Mansfield, and Tyler Whitehouse.

Men's Baseball/Women's Softball (1:00 Class)

After a long winter in Bowling Green, students in the spring all share in the excitement of getting back outside and enjoying warm weather once again. For several decades the Bowling Green baseball and softball teams have provided excitement and the promise of summer. For the Sport Centennial Project, our group decided to research the men’s baseball team and the women’s softball team, not only because of the resounding similarities between the two sports, but also simply for an enjoyment of the games. The prospect of researching a sport with such a long history, especially baseball proved at times to be a daunting task. However, the research process provided us with a huge amount of information to work with, which proved to be invaluable throughout the process of creating this paper.

The first baseball team was established in 1915 under head coach F. G. Beyerman. The sport did not achieve varsity status until 1918, went intercollegiate in 1921, and became a member of the MAC in 1951. This has lead BG to have an intercollegiate team for 79 years, with the exception of one year, 1936. This was the only year that, according to our research, BG did not field a baseball team, leaving 78 years of baseball history. Over this span, there have been ten head coaches, Beyerman, Krieger, Snyder, McCandless, Steller, Landis, Young, Purvis, Platzer, and Schmitz, the current coach. The average team has fielded approximately 25 players, however this number has fluctuated to include fewer or more men over the years. The overall record is one statistic that has unfortunately been lost to history; however there is evidence to suggest that the overall record is around .500.

There have been a number of memorable teams and athletes in the long history of BG baseball. Some of the individual figures include Burke Badenhop, a pitcher currently with the Florida Marlins, and Doug Bair, a World Series champion pitcher. Perhaps the most illustrious of former falcons is Orel Hershiser, a Hall of Fame pitcher and member of the World Series champion 1988 LA Dodgers where he was named the MVP. He also was a three time All Star Selection, and was named the Cy Young Award winner in 1988.

Burke Badenhop, Florida Marlins pitcher

Doug Bair, drafted by Pittsburg Pirates, former World Series Champion
Orel Hershisher, former World Series pitcher for Los Angeles Dodgers; pitched for Cleveland Indians in 1995 World Series

In the arena of women's sports, the Bowling Green softball team has also enjoyed its share of success since its inception in 1979.* The average team has had 15 athletes. Coaches of the softball team have included Rachel Miller, Jacquie Joseph (below), Sandi Haines, and current coach Shannon Salzburg.

Notable players for the softball team include the first softball player inducted into the BGSU Hall of Fame, Vicki Miwa (below). She was the first softball player to earn All-MAC first team honors three times. She held 11 school records for pitching at one time.

While the baseball team has, at times, yielded more information for our study, both teams were certainly interesting to research, and afforded our team a fascinating look into the history of not only BG sports, but also the University itself.

*Note: The starting date of 1979 as listed in the 2009 Media Guide does not agree with the starting dates provided by Dr. Janet Parks and Ann Bowers, who are currently writing a history of BGSU Women's Sports. According to Dr. Parks, softball began as an intercollegiate sport in 1965 and was played until 1972, when it was "dropped for lack of a coach;" the sport was resumed in 1977 (personal communication, April 13).

Members of this Group include: Holly Brodbeck, Lindsey Huling, Mallory Kemper, Aaron Van Zile, and Kelsey West.

Men's Baseball/Women's Golf (11:30 Class)

When presented with this project, it is safe to say that we were all a little overwhelmed with what we needed to accomplish by the end of the semester. When it came to draft day, the day where we got to pick our sports, we decided to go with the sports that we had contacts within: baseball and softball. We thought that this would make the information gathering process a bit easier. Our group was soon proven wrong.

At the time of finding information for our men’s sport, baseball, we found a plethora of information not only in the yearbooks, but also on the Internet. This team had been part of the BGSU sports family almost since the beginning: 1915. There were only two seasons where the Falcon Baseball team did not see action and those years were 1935 and 1937. Also, there were no records for the seasons 1916 and 1917. Since 1915, there have been ten head coaches, the most memorable being Warren E. Steller (below, middle) and the most recent Danny Schmitz. Generally, there are 25 men on the team. Back in 1921, there were only 14 and as of 2010, there are 31. The overall record for the team is 1441 wins, 1208 losses and 26 ties, this all being prior to the start of the 2010 season.

Danny Schmitz, current BGSU Men's Baseball Coach:

There have been some significant events in the baseball team’s history. In 1921, Bowling Green Normal College won its first championship when they defeated the Defiance Yellow Jackets on June 14th. In 1964, a new baseball stadium was constructed and named after Warren Steller, who coached the Falcons for over 30 years. Last season, in 2009, Danny Schmitz recorded his 500th career win as current head coach for the Falcons. While there have been several players that have played professional baseball, probably the most prominent is Orel Hershiser (see: photo, below, in BGSU Athletics Archives).

While we found the information for the baseball team rather easily, the women’s golf team held a few problems. After searching in all of the yearbooks since 1950 we were desperate for any information we could get our hands on. During this long and vigorous research process, we found that the women’s golf team had started in 1960, but there was no recorded evidence of this until the 1973 yearbook. Much of our research for this team was done in the archives in the library.Since its beginnings in 1960, women’s golf has had 8 coaches. Many of these coaches were also in charge of the men’s golf team as well. The coaches that coached the longest for the women’s golf team are Greg Nye, from 1985 to 1993, and Kurt Thomas, from 1998 to 2005. Currently, Stephanie Young (below) is the women’s golf coach. While looking for the records of the team we encountered another issue. When looking in the yearbooks, it does not say their wins and losses because in golf, many times rather than just winning or losing, you are ranked amongst your competitors. For example, instead of winning, they placed 3rd out of 5 or 1st out of 20. We could not find official records.

The women’s golf team has some significant history, like the baseball team. In 1960, the team was started as a spin-off of the intramural golf team when Lorraine Abbott won a competition between BGSU and Ohio University. In 1973, the team won the Ohio Intercollegiate Tournament. As of 1988, Bowling Green State University was the only school supporting a women’s golf team. They had no conference honors to earn and were not yet part of the Mid-American Conference. In 2000, Shelley Binzel, a freshman at the time, broke the school record for season average with a mark of 80.18 strokes.

The research done for this project was extensive. By working closely with the people who work in the archives and talking to the people that have been directly involved with the sport, we accomplished what we set out to do. As a group we feel like we have learned a lot about the history of these particular sports at Bowling Green State University.

Members of this group include: Tim Bialecki, Mandie Carey, Carolyn Deas, Stephanie Fleming, and Hannah Perez.

Men's Football and Women's Basketball (11:30 Class)

When we first got assigned the football team we were a little upset because of how much research we heard we were going to have to do. But once we began, it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. The team began in 1919, and finding the rosters to all the way back then was not a problem at all. The team has been going on since 1919 with no years off or being suspended. In the 90 years of the football team’s existence there have been a total of 17 coaches. There has been an average of 75 players on each team, due to the fact that in the early years of the football team there weren’t a lot of players on each team. The overall record for the football team is 490-328-52. The most memorable team in history was the 1959 small college national champion team. A memorable player and vital part to their success that season was Bernie Casey (below). He later went on to play in the NFL, and also became an actor in several Hollywood movies.

A couple of outstanding coaches that have coached here at Bowling Green were Doyt Perry (see below) and Urban Meyer. Doyt Perry coached from 1955 to 1964, his overall record was 77-11-5 he also coached Bowing Green to the National Championship. And he now has the current football stadium named after him. Urban Meyer coached the 2001 and 2002 seasons, having a 17-6 record at BGSU.

The Bowling Green State University Women's Basketball team has been a varsity sport since 1962.* Although it became an official varsity sport in 1976, the history of the Women’s Basketball team began in 1919. The research for trying to find different rosters for them before they became an official varsity sport was difficult. We looked through past yearbooks and archives trying to find the rosters of the women who played before Title IX took effect and made women's sports into varsity sports. The history wasn’t completely bare of women’s basketball though. Looking through the yearbooks from the 1920’s to the 1970’s we found pictures of women’s intramural basketball and scores from schools they played nearby. So even though they weren’t an official varsity team, their history is still documented.

Some of the people who stood out among the rest in the history of women’s basketball were Sue Hager, Paulette Backstrom, and Chris Tuttle. Sue Hager was a former women’s basketball coach that has helped shape what Bowling Green State University's Women’s Basketball has become today. Paulette Backstrom (see below) played during the 1980’s and won the Francis P. Naismith Award and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995. In 1989, she was considered one of the premier point-guards in the country. Chris Tuttle was the first woman at Bowling Green State University to join the 1,000 point club in women’s basketball. These are only a few names and faces from the history of women’s basketball at BGSU, but there are still more, even now, that are changing the game of women’s basketball.

*Note: While there is disagreement about the starting dates of Women's Basketball, the date of 1962 was provided by Dr. Janet Parks (personal communication, April 13, 2010).

Members of this Group include: Vince German, Ashley Lynch, Keith Morgan, Stephen Stein, and Blaec Walker.

Men's Cross Country/Women's Softball (11:30 Class)

With the 2010 year marking the 100th year anniversary of Bowling Green State University, our sports management class, History and Philosophy of Sport, took on the challenge of documenting the history of each of the varsity sports at Bowling Green. We were divided into groups and each group selected a men’s team and a women’s team. Our group selected men’s cross country and women’s softball. One of our group members, Jason Salyer, is currently on the BG cross country team and Bryan Ferrer also ran cross country in high school which is the main reason why we selected the sport. It was much easier to access the information we wanted to find with Jason being on the team. We selected softball because the whole group enjoys baseball and softball is the female equivalent.

Documenting the history of each sport was a very long and arduous process that took us the entire semester to complete. Our group had a vague idea of the history of cross country with Jason being on the team, but knew absolutely nothing about the history of softball. The first step our group took was to look up general information about each team. We went to the BGSU athletic website and looked up information about the current teams and also which athletes had been named to the BGSU Hall of Fame. From there we obtained media guides from the coaches of each sport which contained much of the information we needed, as far as statistics, honors, and historical achievements. After that, our group looked through all of the Key Yearbooks in the Archives of the library to compile more information. We took note of roster sizes, major team and individual accomplishments, and coaching histories. Not every yearbook had information about the teams, so we had to piece together information from other sources. After organizing all of the information and double checking to make sure it was correct, we then went on to interview five athletes or coaches from each program. The cross country interviews were easy to conduct, but we had a harder time getting in touch with members of the softball program.

The Bowling Green men’s cross country team has been very successful over the years. The sport began in 1927, but didn’t become very popular until the 1960s when Coach Mel Brodt took over. A total of thirty athletes have earned All-MAC honors a total of 42 times. Fourteen athletes have earned All-Region honors a total of 17 times and six athletes have earned All-American honors a total of 9 times by placing in the top 25 at the National meet. The four year run of finishing in the top 10 of the National meet from 1969-1972 will go down as one the greatest dynasties in Bowling Green sporting history. Coach Mel Brodt will be remembered as one of the greatest coaches in BG history. Most of the historical achievements for cross country and track happened under his tenure, including Dave Wottle winning the Olympic Gold Medal in the 800 meters at the 1972 Olympic Games. The sport has definitely been in the rebuilding stages the last decade, but hopefully the program will be able to step it up and regain some of the glory of the past.

Women’s softball at Bowling Green State University started in the Spring of 1979*. The passage of Title IX in 1972 created many new women’s sports at BG. Although the law passed in 1972, it wasn’t fully implemented until 1976 when both the men’s and women’s sports programs merged together under the same department. All of the women’s sports competed in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) until 1982 when the NCAA took over women’s intercollegiate athletics. The emergence of softball as a varsity sport has brought a great amount of positive publicity for the University as the team has achieved a great deal of success in their 31 year history. The Orange and Brown have qualified to the Regional Tournament four times (82, 88, 93, 04). The process for qualifying to the Regional Tournament is similar to college basketball where 64 teams compete. Every league tournament champion qualifies automatically and the remaining spots are selected at-large by a committee. Bowling Green has been competing in the MAC since 1983 and has won the regular season title twice in 1988, and 1993. They won the MAC Postseason Tournament in those years and also accomplished the feat in 2004. The women have also won the MAC East Division in 2000 and 2001. Overall, the Orange and Brown have had forty-seven athletes earn All-MAC honors a total of 76 times, eleven players earn All-Region honors a total of 16 times, two players earn All-American honors a total of 3 times, three MAC Players of the Year, three MAC Freshman Players of the Year, three MAC Coaches of the Year, and a MAC Pitcher of the Year. The softball team has had 13 winning seasons in their 31 year history with an overall record of 734-756-10 (0.493).

*Note: As mentioned elsewhere, the starting date for Women's softball as 1979 was indicated in the 2009 Women's Softball Media Guide, which does not agree with recent research being conducted by Dr. Janet Parks and Ann Bowers who are currently writing the history of BGSU Women's sports. According to Dr. Parks, the starting date of women's teams begins when intercollegiate competition was first held. Intercollegiate competition in softball was first held between 1965-1972, before being dropped for lack of a coach; intercollegiate competition again resumed in 1977 (J. Parks, personal communication, April 13, 2010).

Members of this group include: Stephen Curitore, Bryan Ferrer, Adam Keller, Adam Klupp, and Jason Salyer

Event Details

The Centennial Sport Celebration is just a couple of weeks away. With that in mind we would like to share some additional details with everyone.

We hope you are excited to celebrate 100 years of sport at Bowling Green State University. The event is sure to be a memorable one as undergraduate and graduate students have been working for several months to make this event special.

The event will begin with a reception from 4:00 pm-5:30 pm on Friday, April 23, 2010 in Anderson Arena. We are excited to have this event in Anderson Arena during it's final year. During the receotion guests will have the opportunity to interact with students who will present historical views and analysis of BGSU athletics through poster presentations and a multimedia show. The BGSU Athletics Archives, managed by Mickey Cochrane, will be open for visitors. As mentioned in the invitations light hors d’oeuvres and Coca-Cola products will be served.

Immediately following the reception, at 6:00 pm, we will have the panel of notable alumni discuss their sport experiences at BGSU and answer questions from our audience. Please see the previous post for a full list of our speakers.

We are pleased you have chosen to join us for the special celebration of 100 years of athletic excellence at BGSU. We look forward to seeing you on April 23rd. In the mean time if you have any questions please feel free to contact the planning committee at BGSUsport@gmail.com

ROLL ALONG!

Panel Speakers Announced

The BGSU Sport Centennial Celebration will be held Friday, April 23, featuring a reception and multi-media display from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in Anderson Arena. The display will include poster displays on the "History of BGSU Athletic Teams," in addition to a continuous slide presentation and video footage of memorable moments. In addition, the BGSU Athletic Archives will be open for visitors who will be welcomed by Archivist and former Soccer/Lacrosse Coach Mickey Cochrane. Following the reception, there will be a panel of distinguished speakers who will discuss their experiences as current and former athletes and/or coaches. The Panel speakers have now been announced and include the following:

Tom Colaner, former BGSU Men's Football player and member of the 1959 Championship Football Team, will be a member of the panel.

Gary Haas, former member of the BGSU Men's Baseball team, will be on the Panel.

Professor Sue Hager (2nd from left), former BGSU Women's Basketball Coach (shown below with L-R: Curt Miller, Nora Liu, and Fran Voll).


Mike Wilcox, former All-American Lacrosse player.

Coach Denise Van De Walle, current BGSU Women's Volleyball Coach, who recently recorded 500th win!

Dr. Crystal (Boo) Ellis, former BGSU Men's Basketball player and former Superintendent of Toledo Public Schools.

Jim Lessig, Moderator, former BGSU A.D.

Check out this site for further updates about the members of the panel who will be speaking on Friday, April 23, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in Rm. 111, Olscamp Hall.

Questions? Please contact: Drew Hall (dhall381@gmail.com) or Dr. Nancy Spencer (nspencr@bgsu.edu)