De Saisset Showcases Santa Clara Sports

Exhibit explores athletic tradition of university

Maura TurcotteTHE SANTA CLARAFebruary 4, 2016

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you can’t get enough sports before Sunday’s Super Bowl, then head over to the de Saisset museum to get your fill of the athletics right here at Santa Clara.

The exhibition, “On Top of the Game,” which recently reopened on Jan. 15, gives insight into the university’s rich history of sports.

Spawning from 1851 to 1950, the collection follows Santa Clara College from its infancy to its growth into the Santa Clara University we recognize today.

The exhibition includes trophies from several Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl victories, copies of past Santa Clara headlining newspapers and other memorabilia that would make any sports lover swoon. It’s one of many festivities in preparation for this coming weekend.

“The City of Santa Clara is welcoming Super Bowl 50 to our community, which places Santa Clara University on the national stage,” said Rebecca Schapp, the director of the de Saisset Museum. “It became important to highlight our rich and diverse athletic history, and to celebrate it with the grand influx of people to our community.”

Conceived several years ago by the university, the collection finally came together after about a year of research by museum curator Lindsey Kouvaris. Student Hannah Baker as well as the previous university historian, Father Gerald McKevitt, assisted Kouvaris in her work.

Although Kouvaris had little experience with sports history–let alone Santa Clara’s sports history–she found herself fascinated, coming across many quirky facts about the university.

“I thought it was interesting that the first appearance of sports–or really recreation and leisure on campus–was a swimming pool, an artificial swimming pool,” the curator said. “And perhaps the first artificial swimming pool in all of California! It was built around 1854.”

The exhibit also explores the university’s on-and-off relationship with football, revealing the complexity of the situation.

“There is a lot of discussion and knowledge that Santa Clara eliminated its football team in the 1990s, but it was actually eliminated twice before that–so a total of three times… Santa Clara had a football team in the 1890s and it was before what is now the NCAA came into play, so the rules were vastly different,” Kouvaris said. “There were a lot of injuries… so there was a lot of backlash, and so Santa Clara, along with Stanford, Cal and other universities actually eliminated their football programs.”

However, the sport was brought back by popular demand in 1919 and continued to grow in popularity.

“In the 1950s, shortly after the Orange Bowl win–that was at the same time that professional NFL came to the Bay Area–and up until that time, Santa Clara, as well as St. Mary’s and Stanford, they were really the Sunday afternoon football draw,” Kouvaris said. “They used to be able to fill Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.”

The exhibition has reportedly been a hit with the visitors as well.

“In general, people have just made positive comments about the exhibit,” Schapp said. “Often visitors gravitate to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl trophies and the information about those accomplishments.”

This project was Kouvaris’ last at the museum, but despite her departure, the university’s history continues to impress her.

“When you really start digging around, there are a lot of really cool things that have come out of Santa Clara in its past and its present and I’m sure in its future,” she said. “Who would have known that Santa Clara football was such a big deal that it could fill 6,500 seats?”

“On Top of the Game” remains open until March 13.

Contact Maura Turcotte at mturcotte@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.