A Look Back at Wheaton College Intramural and Club Sports Throughout the Decades

Intramurals at Wheaton received their first formal mention in the 1927 student handbook: “Intramural athletics are coming each year to occupy a more important place in Wheaton’s program. ‘Athletics for all,’ is encouraged to the limit.”

The “athletics for all” mantra remains the heart of IMs at the College. Wheaties compete against Wheaties regardless of previous experience or skill, creating an accessible outlet for competition and exercise. Faculty have also been longtime participants in IMs. President Philip Ryken ’88 is known around campus as an avid intramural fan, and also regularly participates in IM soccer, basketball, and other sports.

Club sports, on the other hand, are intercollegiate teams run by students, who organize meets and games with teams from other local institutions. Although the term “club sports” is a newer concept that gained national traction in the 1980s and 1990s, Wheaties participated in similar intercollegiate teams long before then.

Regardless of name, IM and club sports are an integral part of many students’ experiences at Wheaton College. The years of wins, losses, scrapes, and scores come together to create a rich, ongoing legacy of athletic fun.

An asterisk (*) indicates a current intramural sport.
A caret (^) indicates a current club sport.

Archery: Archery was popular in the late ’30s and early ’40s, with both intramural and intercollegiate competitions. Participants typically competed in the Columbia round, with 24 arrows shot from 30 yards, 24 arrows shot from 40 yards, and 24 arrows shot from 50 yards. 

Badminton: Badminton was one of the first IMs in the late 1930s, and stuck around through the ’70s, with men’s, women’s, and co-recreational teams.

Baseball / Softball: Baseball preceded the dawn of IMs on campus and holds the distinction of being one of Wheaton’s first three organized sports. Once IMs were introduced in the late 1920s, baseball was, of course, one of the offerings.

Basketball*: Basketball is one of the College’s longest-running organized sports. In addition to standard basketball games, various iterations have made their appearance throughout the years, including 5v5 and 3v3.

Bowling: Bowling was beloved for many years at Wheaton. In fact, Adams Hall once had a bowling alley in its basement. Students and faculty would gather to play a few rounds and hope to make the “200 Club,” an honor bestowed on bowlers who scored 200 points or more.

Cheerleading^: While cheerleading’s categorization in the early years is unclear, it is currently considered a club sport.

Crew^: Rachel Mariner ’89 brought rowing to Wheaton during her senior year after learning to row while studying abroad at Oxford University. Wheaton was the third college in Illinois to have a crew team, after Northwestern University and University of Chicago.

Rowing is notoriously strenuous, and since teams consist of only eight rowers and a coxswain, it can be competitive to make the team. The first week of practice is historically dubbed “Iron Will Week,” where new members prove their chops by completing land workouts every morning before dawn. It is only after the first grueling week that they begin water training.

---

Katherine Gumpy Crawford ’91 completes an equestrian course

1991

Equestrian: A group of female equestrians formed a Riding Club in 1933 and met once a week at stables in Glen Ellyn. The following semester, a group of male students followed suit and formed the Boot and Saddle Club.

After a two-decade hiatus, another group of equestrians congregated to form the Wheaton College Equestrian Club in 1990. The riders rode once a week and competed in national competitions. Laura Robinson ’93 told the Record, “Despite the sore legs, it’s a really good break to ride once a week.” Peggy Kenma ’93 also commented, “It’s nice to do something different even though you come back smelling like manure.”

Fencing: In 1939, students brought fencing to the Wheaton spotlight thanks to their previous training. A Fencers Union met in the wrestling room for practice.

Football / Touch Football / Flag Football*: While football is more widely known as a varsity sport, Wheaton has had many IM teams. Wheaton also hosts a Powderpuff tournament in which female students battle it out with a game of flag football, a tradition that’s been around since the 1980s.

Golf: Golf had a short-lived IM life, becoming a varsity sport in 1938. However, recreational golf teams have cropped up sporadically through the years, as have one-day IM competitions.

Gun Club: Wheaton had a gun club, open to male and female students, in the 1930s and 1940s. Fowl shooting was also an IM sport in 1938.

Gymnastics: In 1930, a group of male students formed a novice tumbling team. What began with weekly team sessions and daily individual training marked the start of over 50 years of Wheaton gymnastics, later including athletes such as Jim Elliot ’49.

Handball: Handball started at Wheaton in 1944 with a tournament open to faculty and students. With World War II on everyone’s minds, the competition was civilians versus soldiers. According to a Record insert advertising the event, Wheaton wanted to forge better ties between civilians and soldiers on campus, and the handball tournament was meant to help the environment: “We’ll do a little about improving civilian-soldier relationships and continue to keep Wheaton-dear-old-Wheaton, actively athletic.” 
Horseshoes: Horseshoes made a brief IM cameo in 1938 and 1939.

Ice Hockey^ / Box Hockey / Field Hockey / Floor Hockey*: Ice hockey goes back to the 1960s at Wheaton and remains a current club sport with an avid fanbase. However, the team experienced its fair share of hurdles in its history. During the 2001–2002 year, the team did not compete due to a substantial debt. But their fundraising efforts paid off, and a team was re-formed for the 2002–2003 school year. The team got off to a rough start, with a 1–15 season, but that one win? It was spectacular. “The fans, often the most numerous (and loud) of any team in the league, illustrated a fervor for the team that might not be expected with a less-than-stellar record,” one Record article recounted. Additional forms of hockey have also had their moment among students, including field hockey, floor hockey, and box hockey, a variant where players stand on either side of a box and attempt to hit the puck through various dividers.

Lacrosse^: Students first brought lacrosse to Wheaton in the early 1970s. After several years’ hiatus, a men’s lacrosse club team was reinstated in the 2023–2024 school year. 

Mugby: Mugby had a brief moment on campus in 1989. A flyer advertising the sport described it as an “excellent opportunity to get together with your guy and girl friends to have a playful, entertaining, physical, not-too-strenuous time.” Unfortunately, the exact rules of the game seem to be an undocumented mystery.

Netball: Part of Wheaton’s IM lineup in the late 1930s and early 1940s, netball is similar to basketball, but the ball is not dribbled, only passed.

Pickleball*: The modern-day pickleball fervor has not been lost on Wheaties. The tennis courts on campus are lined for pickleballers to play on.

---

Ping-pong doubles match

1943

Ping-Pong / Table Tennis: Ping-pong tables have long been a recreational feature on campus. Eva Lane ’42 picked up the game in her first few months at Wheaton. Despite her newness to the sport, she went on to become the freshman class’s ping-pong star, beating out their formidable sophomore competitors.

While the sport is no longer an organized IM, students can still be found at ping-pong tables around campus, battling it out over the net.

Pool / Pocket Billiards: Although pool is no longer an organized IM like it was in the 1970s, students still frequent the pool table in Lower Beamer year-round.

Racquetball / Paddleball: Paddleball was offered in the mid-1970s, and racquetball came shortly afterward in the mid-1990s. These sports are similar in concept but have a few key differences, including racquet type, serving methods, and scoring.

---

Scott Takushi ’80 and Mark Luttio ’80 play racquetball

1978

Soccer^*/ Indoor Soccer* / Hoc-Soc: Soccer is a long-standing IM and club offering, in addition to the College’s Division III teams. One unique offshoot, hoc-soc, got its start in 1962. True to its name, the game is a combination of hockey and soccer. Initially played by the College’s DIII soccer team as a way to stay in shape during the offseason, interest spread and hoc-soc eventually became a very popular IM. After his senior team’s win at the 1979 playoff game, Dave Elsen ’79 commented to the Record, “They’ll be talking of this one in the Stupe for years.” Forty-five years later, the talk has died down a bit. 

Spikeball*: Spikeball is a relatively modern sport, invented in 1989. Students began bringing their personal sets to campus and the sport grew in popularity, eventually becoming an organized IM.

Tae Kwon Do^: In 2007, the Tae Kwon Do Club hosted a Martial Arts Expo where, according to a quote in the Record, participants were able to “demonstrate the martial arts as a form of self-expression.” 

Tennis: It’s 1929, and “the demand for further inter-collegiate competition is being felt more each year,” according to the student handbook, so the College expanded its tennis offerings from exclusively IM to intercollegiate. This is one of the first examples at the College of an IM gaining enough traction to initiate a larger program. The College currently has male and female Division III tennis teams.

Ultimate Frisbee^*: Although not formally recognized as an IM until 1989, ultimate frisbee had a following on campus as early as 1979.

In 2002, ultimate frisbee was the most popular co-ed IM on campus. The Record ran a feature on the sport, describing the players congregating at the cafeteria in a humorous light: “Bandanas hold back their sweaty hair, dirty cleats clatter on the tile floor, and mud and grass stains vie for supremacy on their clothing and bodies. They find an available table and deposit their silverware among a growing heap of beat-up Nalgene [water bottles] and well-worn Frisbees. And then, as if to complete the experience, a boombox starts blasting ‘Eye of the Tiger’ across the crowded dining hall for all to hear. They call it ‘dirty dinner.’”

Volleyball* / Sand Volleyball*: Beginning in the early 1930s, volleyball has been one of the most consistent IM sports, with sand volleyball affectionately associated with Fischer Lawn. Currently, students enjoy sand volleyball IMs during the warmer months and indoor volleyball the rest of the year.

Walking: In 1921, the first women’s athletic group was formed: a walking club. The group started out strong, with 30–40 members. Eighteen of the female students earned their insignia, a coveted badge, by walking a whopping 400 miles.

This inaugural walking group paved the way for the formation of the Women’s Athletic Association. By 1929, over one-third of the female population on campus participated in IMs. “Every girl who gave herself and something of her time felt amply repaid at the end of the season, not only because of the fun she had had, but because of the fellowship and the satisfaction of having been a member of a team whether for victory or defeat” (Student Handbook, 1921–1922). 

Water Polo / Innertube Water Polo*: Innertube water polo is exactly what its name describes: athletes play by water polo rules while floating above the water, confined in an unwieldy inflatable ring. 

Wiffleball: Although Wiffleball was not an extensively documented IM, it had its moment on campus in the mid-1990s.

Wrestling: Wrestling, another varsity sport at Wheaton, is occasionally offered as an IM, including in the late 1930s and in 1991.