TABLE OF CONTENTS
Guide to the Agallian Base Ball Club Records, 1865 - 1869
Special Collections and ArchivesOlin Library
Wesleyan University
252 Church Street
Middletown, CT 06457 USA
(860) 685-3864
(860) 685-2661
Email: sca@wesleyan.edu
URL: http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/schome/
Descriptive Summary |
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| Repository | Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University |
| Creator | Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Baseball Club. |
| Title | Agallian Base Ball Club Records, |
| Dates | 1865 - 1869 |
| Linear Feet | 0.4 |
| Archival Boxes | 1 |
| Abstract | The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University from 1864 to 1871. |
| This collection contains the surviving records of the club. The two scorebooks provide detailed inning-by-inning statistics for Agallian players for each of the recorded games; most games have dates and duration of time ascribed to them and scorer and umpire identification. Some matches which are recorded in these volumes took place against other Wesleyan teams as well as Connecticut baseball clubs and teams from other universities. | |
| Call Number | 1000-43 |
| Location | For current information on the location of these materials, please consult Special Collections & Archives staff. |
| Language of Material | Material in English |
Historical Note
The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University. It was formed in the autumn of 1864 and played its first matches against other teams the following spring. Baseball had been played informally at Wesleyan back to at least 1860. Baseball letters were given (often at a considerably later date) to Wesleyan athletes in baseball beginning with the 1861-62 season. The name Agallian was given by professor of Greek James Van Benschoten as a derivation of the name Agalles, who was said to have invented the first game of ball-playing in ancient Greece (cf. College Argus, June 11, 1868).
The club played its first match against the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Hartford in the spring of 1865, losing 22-12. Its first intercollegiate game, which was also Wesleyan’s first intercollegiate athletic contest, was against Yale on September 30, 1865, with Yale winning 39-13. One of club’s founders, Charles L. Bonnell, class of 1868, served as captain for his entire playing career. The first practices and home games took place on the Washington Street green in Middletown and on a nearby vacant plot of land on Washington Street. Later photos exist of games being played on the Wesleyan campus on what is now Andrus Field, which at the time was essentially an undrained swamp or wetlands. The Agallian club was not a formally sponsored university team but a club composed of members of several Wesleyan classes. A later organization, the University Base Ball Club, founded in 1869, seems to have had a more formal endorsement from the administration.
The Agallian B.B.C. ceased to function after 1871, when baseball began to be eclipsed by the popularity of rowing as a collegiate sport. Aside from informal contests between class teams, Wesleyan was not to have an organized baseball program again until 1888.
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Collection Overview
This collection contains the surviving records of the club. The two scorebooks provide detailed inning-by-inning statistics for Agallian players for each of the recorded games; most games have dates and duration of time ascribed to them and scorer and umpire identification. Some matches which are recorded in these volumes took place against other Wesleyan teams as well as Connecticut baseball clubs and teams from other universities.
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Restrictions
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Copyright Notice
Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Related Material
Athletics Teams Records, collection 1999-65, Wesleyan University Archives.
Nicolson, Frank W., ed. Athletics at Wesleyan. Middletown: Wesleyan University Alumni Council, 1938.
Stephen Henry Olin (Class of 1866), correspondence with his mother, Julia Olin, 1864-65, in the Olin Family Papers, Box 6, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University. Approximately 6 pieces during this time mention the organization and activities of the Agallian Base Ball Club.
Vertical files collection - baseball folders, Wesleyan University Archives.
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Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Agallian Base Ball Club Records, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA.
Acquisitions Information
Received in part as a donation to the library from Harlow B. "Doc" Raymond, superintendent of buildings and grounds, before 1910.
Processing Information
Processed by Jeffrey Makala, 2000
Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, April 2006
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