THe history of gustavus athletics

         The Gustavian. 1960                                                                           http://gustavus.edu/athletics

Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN is a community of people who take pride in their studies, their student activities, and their athletics. While classes and student groups have always been around at Gustavus, athletics have not. Today, it might be hard to imagine life at Gustavus without athletics, as many students in the community are involved in one or more of the 23 different male and female sports available. However, athletics have not always been a part of daily life at Gustavus.

In the 1880s and 1890s, there was only one campus building that provided the space and facilities for all student housing, food service, and academics. The students were required to cut and split the wood for the kitchen and heating stoves and take turns in caring for the lecture rooms. These manual labor tasks were considered to meet most of the physical exercise needs of the students, and therefore sports did not exist at Gustavus during that time. However, through the early years of Gustavus history, there emerged an interest in the Swedish Ling system of gymnastics, as well as an interest in American sports. Skating rinks were first to appear at Gustavus to provide students with an escape from confinement indoors.1   Read More

The purpose of this web site is to further inform the reader on five current sports at Gustavus: women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s basketball, football, and men’s tennis. The creators of this site picked these five sports to highlight the diversity in Gustavus athletics. However, even with different success rates and popularity, every sport at Gustavus is influential to students and helps shape the community.