•im^i^j;^^ y- .>?^s^%^^?&i'V\ ::rr^Q^fi^mm^mi^Mmti'^.^ Wisconsin Magazine ^ of History Athletics in the Wisconsin State University System, 1867—1913 RONALD A. SMITH An Unrecopvized Father Marquette Letter? RAPHAEL N. HAMILTON The Wisconsin l^ational Guard in the Milwaukee Riots of 1886 JERRY M. COOPER The Truman Presidency: Trial and Error ATHAN THEOHARIS Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 55, No. 1 / Autumn, 1971 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers E. DAVID CRONON, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HoMSTAD, Treasurer HOWARD W. MEAD, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Secretary Board of Curators Ex-Officio PATRICK J. LUCEY, Governor of the State CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the University MRS. GEORGE SWART, President of the Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee SCOTT M. CUTLIP JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Madison Milwaukee Grantsburg Stevens Point MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE ROBERT H. IRRMANN Hartland Milwaukee Beloit Term Expires, 1973 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Eau Claire Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee Term Expires, 1974 ROGER E. AXTELL PAUL E. HASSETT MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIC Janesville Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander HORACE M. BENSTEAD WILLIAM HUFFMAN WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Wisconsin Rapids Nashotah Baraboo THOMAS M. CHEEKS ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON Milwaukee Madison Madison Honorary Honorary Life Members EDWARD D. CARPENTER, Cassville MRS. ESTHER NELSON, Madison RUTH H. DAVIS, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison MRS. MARGARET HAFSTAD, Rockdale MONICA STAEDTLER, Madison PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison PAUL VANDERBILT, Madison WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, President MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, Racine, Vice-President MISS RUTH DAVIS, Madison, Secretary MRS. RICHARD G. ZIMMERMANN, Sheboygan, Treasurer MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Ex-Officio VOLUME 55, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN, 1971 Wisconsin Magazine of History WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor Athletics in the Wisconsin State University System, 1867-1913 2 RONALD A. SMITH An Unrecognized Father Marquette Letter? 24 RAPHAEL N. HAMILTON The Wisconsin National Guard in the Milwaukee Riots of 1886 31 JERRY M. COOPER The Truman Presidency: Trial and Error 49 ATHAN THEOHARIS Book Reviews 59 Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society 66 Contributors 84 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Second-class postage paid at Madison and Stevens Point, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wis. Copyright © 1971 by the State Historical Society of to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon $7.50; Family membership, $7.00; Contributing, $25; Busi­ Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. ness and Professional, $50; Sustaining, $100 or more annual­ Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ly: Patron, $500 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.75. the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, story carries the following credit line : Reprinted from the 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica­ State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for tions should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not [insert the season and year which appear on the Magazine}. In this turn-of-the-century photograph a young ballplayer, holding the equipment and wearing the catcher's uniform of the time, poses in stiff solemnity in the Black River Falls studio of Charles Van Schaick. It is one of the hundreds of Van Schaick photographs owned by the Society's Iconographic Collections, covering the years 1890 to 1910. ATHLETICS IN THE WISCONSIN STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM: 1867-1913 By RONALD A. SMITH A THLETIC DEVELOPMENT in the Wis- Less than a year after the founding of Wis­ -'*- consin normal schools (the present Wis­ consin's first normal school the townspeople consin State University System) occurred at were preparing for a journey to a nearby fair­ a time when athletics were becoming impor­ grounds at "Strawberry Diggings" where the tant in colleges throughout America. Athletic normal-school boys were to meet the Dar­ programs were patterned after major eastern lington town team in a baseball game.^ The and midwestern colleges, but because of the day was made a festive occasion. It was not unique nature of the normal schools, athletics common that 100 townspeople in twenty car­ differed in both quality and quantity. The riages would spend a day together, and they influence of women on men's athletic programs had never had the opportunity to see the at the female-dominated, two-year normal Platteville Normal School, or a Platteville schools can be clearly seen. While the devel­ team, play the "truly American game of Base opment of baseball, football, and basketball Ball." The Platteville team was composed of followed a national pattern, few leaders of in­ a number of Civil War veterans, who may have stitutions of higher learning questioned their first seen baseball played, as did many sol­ school's lack of virility as did the presidents diers, during the Civil War.^ Wherever they of the normal schools. The presidents, who learned the rudiments of the game, some fea­ saw the need for a larger male student con­ tures of Platteville Normal School's first game stituency, gained control of the student-con­ would be readily recognized by twentieth- trolled athletic programs of the late nineteenth century and developed an athletic conference under faculty control in the early twentieth century. The growth of athletics between 1867 ^ Platteville opened on October 9, 1866. Charles McKenny (ed.). Educational History of Wisconsin and 1913 gives a clearer picture of early (Chicago, 1912), 130. "Strawberry Diggings" was preparation of teachers in Wisconsin, of so­ probably no more than a crossroads about two miles cial life in the normal schools, and reflects north of Elk Grove, seven miles southeast of Platte­ ville. Grant County Witness, June 13, 1867. the desire of the new educational institutions ^ Grant County Witness, October 4, 1866; Otto to promote and project their identity. Basye to State Historical Society, January 19, 1950, in the Archives-Manuscripts Division, State Histori­ It all began, more or less, on a Saturday cal Society of Wisconsin, Madison; Foster Rhea late in the spring of 1867. Unusual excitement Dulles, A History of Recreation (2nd ed., New York, 1965), 189; David S. Crockett, "Sports and Recrea­ awaited the little southwestern Wisconsin tional Practices of Union and Confederate Soldiers," town of Platteville on that morning, and the in Research Quarterly, XXXn:335-347 (October, town's citizenry buzzed with anticipation as 1961) ; John R. Belts, "Organized Sport in Indus­ trial America" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia Uni­ the horses were readied for their carriages. versity, 1951), 71. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1971 century Americans. There were nine men on kinds," may have been true as it applied to each side at the familiar positions as well as the first two Wisconsin normal schools, Platte­ nine innings of play, and special mention was ville and Whitewater. Both schools opened made of home runs. The players, however, (1866 and 1868) at a time when the recently did not use baseball gloves, and the pitcher returned Civil War veterans would likely threw underhanded. They also played at a have enrolled. In fact a number of those more leisurely pace than their counterparts a normal-school students who participated on century later. The contest started at noon the first organized teams were war veterans.^ but was delayed at the end of the fourth inning The interest which created teams in the first so that players and spectators alike could have year of existence did not continue unabated their picnic dinner. The players completed in the years that followed. The nature of the the game on full stomachs, Darlington win­ normal schools and the question of finances ning 16 to 15.^ played a role in the fluctuating character of The beginning of athletics in Wisconsin normal-school athletics. normal schools probably did not differ great­ Organization of athletic teams must have ly from the origin of athletics at most schools been far from the minds of the state legislators and colleges in the United States. That Platte­ who created the normal-school system. Origi­ ville Normal School organized a team in 1867 nally the schools were organized to provide in its first year of existence is rather surpris­ training for future and practicing grade-school ing in that the origin of midwestern school teachers. Grade-school or common-school and college sport is usually attributed to the teaching was one vocation in which women period of the 1880's and 1890's. The normal became readily accepted. Rarely, until well school at Platteville, however, was not the into the twentieth century, did men comprise exception in organizing athletics in the first more than one-third of the normal-school en­ year of existence.