From the President

Athletics: A Vital Part of the Student Experience

Valerie Olafson

President John Burris

Beloit College has long been committed to the aspirations of student-athletes. The first football arrived on campus only a decade after the College was founded. According to College historian Dave Mason’49, a group of first-year students started playing the game “because they do so at Yale.” By the 1870s, students were complaining about the dexterity required to play baseball, football, and cricket while “dodging back and forth through the grove of trees which constitutes the field, in a glorious attempt to secure the ball as it bounds from tree to tree.” This scenario sounds surprisingly similar to the way current students play a good game of frisbee golf.

Today, more than a quarter of our students participate in one or more of 18 varsity sports offered. Whether softball, tennis, football, or track and field, athletic opportunities abound for our undergraduates. Another nearly 50 percent of our students participate in intramural and club sports. At Beloit, we want everyone to have the chance to be part of a wide variety of athletic activities. Recently, we followed the energy and initiative of several students and established crew as a club sport; Beloit’s crew team will row its eight-oared shell on the Rock River this spring.

Our athletes are clearly students first. Twice already this decade, the women’s swim team was recognized for its academic work when it was named an Academic All-American Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association. The 2000-01 team earned an excellent rating with a combined grade point average of 3.0 or better, while the 2001-02 team had a superior rating with a GPA of 3.25 or better. In fall 2003, 38 Buccaneers were named to the academic all-Midwest Conference for maintaining a GPA of 3.2 or higher and earning a varsity letter in a sport. And this excellence is not concentrated in one or two sports—the 38 student-athletes ran cross-country and played football, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s tennis, and women’s golf. This past year, the football team had a cumulative GPA of 3.03.

Overall, intercollegiate athletics are in a state of flux. Bill Bowen, president of the Mellon Foundation, and others have raised a number of concerns about the academic performance of athletes at all levels. At the recent NCAA Convention, Division III incorporated structural and procedural reforms to address this problem. Title IX legislation requires equality in athletic opportunities for men and women and continues to be of central importance, demanding our constant attention. Meanwhile, students are requesting better personal fitness training equipment and direction. They now expect stationary bicycles, elliptical machines, and treadmills. Outdoor activities extend to ultimate frisbee as well as to basketball, tennis, baseball, and soccer. Last fall, we even had a cricket game.

At Beloit, we are committed to strength inside the classroom and out, and athletics is one of our most critical co-curricular activities. For nearly 20 years, Ed DeGeorge has covered both the football field as our head football coach and the athletic department as our athletic director. As athletic director, he has overseen not only the intercollegiate program but also club and intramural sports, as well as our facilities and a coaching certificate program. In all of these areas, he has done an outstanding job. Generations of students are a testament to his success, as are the excellent and expanded athletic facilities ranging from the Sports Center to the renovated Strong Stadium.

As Division III athletics grow more demanding, the concept of one person holding the two full-time jobs of coach and athletic director is unrealistic. Beloit needs to commit additional resources to establish excellence in all aspects of our program, and this one is crucial. To that end, I am pleased to announce that Ed DeGeorge will devote his considerable energy and talent to his first love—coaching football—as we, for the first time in Beloit’s history, seek a full-time athletic director.

Beloit College is committed to providing a strong and diverse athletic program at every level of participation. Bringing in a full-time athletic director is one way we can insure that students have a full range of opportunities to be engaged outside the classroom. As an institution and as a community, we extend our thanks to Ed DeGeorge for his decades of service as athletic director and wish him continued success as he influences the lives of students on the football field and beyond.

— President John E. Burris

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John Burris - President, Beloit College