Bowling (1963) -- CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

Wabash Valley College currently fields five varsity athletics squads, one of which, the men's basketball team, won a NJCAA national championship in 2001 and featured two future NBA players. Fifty years ago, however, the school's athletics programs were more humble. In the 1963 edition of The Oubache, Wabash Valley College yearbook, the men's basketball team is followed a page later by what appears to be the only other organized athletic endeavor at the school, bowling. Pictures of bowlers appear repeatedly in the yearbook, and it seems to have been a popular activity at the school.

There are a few items of note on page 25 of the 1963 Oubache. There's obvioulsy the dapper squad photo at the bottom of the page, taken before the group departed for a tournament in Urbana, and the image captioned "It is also good for women," a likely well-meaning inclusion that resonates differently these many years later (Wabash Valley now fields women's basketball, cheerleading, and softball squads).

1962-1963 was only Wabash Valley College's second year in operation and the student body was still relatively small, even by community college standards. I don't know if the school currently offers an intramural bowling program, or how many students frequent the local alley, but I find the prevalence of bowling in this 1963 yearbook (and, I hope in student life at the time) pretty charming.

Written by Adam Strohm, Digital Collections Librarian, The Newberry Library

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