FSU's West Campus: Birthplace of Men's Athletics

By Jim Joanos

West Campus Marker

On Friday evening, September 14, 2012, the Florida State University Alumni Association’s Emeritus Society will be dedicating a historical marker to be placed at the site of the university’s former West Campus. The FSU Emeritus Society is composed of alums who graduated from the university more than fifty years ago. It is meaningful that the Emeritus Society was instrumental in bringing this recognition about in that it has been more than fifty years ago since FSU had any substantial presence at the old site. Many of the Emeritus members have fond memories of living at West Campus, as well as attending classes, meetings, social events, and of especial note, athletic practices and events at that location.

Soon after the United States officially entered World War II in 1941, a number of new military training bases were established around the country. Among those was an Army Air Corps flight training base in Tallahassee, named Dale Mabry Field. Its location included Tallahassee’s then existing small airport at the end of Jackson Bluff Road and a large area of land surrounding it. On that site is currently located the Leon County Jail, the Messer Field Sports Complex, Sabal Palm Elementary School, several housing subdivisions and numerous supply and warehouse facilities.

To suit its wartime use as a military base, a number of facilities were built and developed at the site including office and classroom buildings, barracks style housing units, numerous drill fields, and physical fitness facilities including a very functional gymnasium. Consequently, when the war ended and the base was emptied and closed, this intricate complex of facilities stood vacant.

Following the war, because of “the G.I. Bill” passed by Congress, thousands of former military personnel suddenly had the financial means to attend college. There was an immediate need to expand the facilities available to accommodate the returning veterans. In Florida, at the time, the only public university available to white males was the University of Florida and its facilities could be stretched only so far to accommodate the increase in need. Consequently, the authorities looked for other options. One that appeared was the vacant military facilities in Tallahassee located a couple or so miles from the very fine women’s educational institution then named “The Florida State College for Women” (FSCW). Soon, they established an institution named “The Tallahassee Branch of the University of Florida” (TBUF) whereby during the 1946-47 academic year approximately five hundred young men were housed in the old military barracks and attended some of their classes in the classrooms of FSCW alongside its women students.

As part of TBUF, a men’s intramural sports program was created involving a number of men’s sports including baseball, basketball, volleyball and others which utilized the facilities of the former air base. TBUF also had an intercollegiate basketball team. That team which played its home games in the former Dale Mabry gymnasium was coached by none other than Ed Williamson who the following year would coach FSU’s football team.

In 1947, the Florida legislature reconstituted FSCW as a coeducational school named the “Florida State University.” Consequently, the entire former TBUF program including its intramural activities and the intercollegiate basketball organization were expanded and extended as a part of the new FSU. In addition, a number of additional men’s intercollegiate teams were immediately added to the program for the 1947-48 school year. The additional intercollegiate teams were, of course, football, baseball, tennis, golf and men’s volleyball. The football team met and practiced on the old drill fields and played their home games in Tallahassee’s Centennial Field. The basketball intercollegiate team continued to play its home games in the Dale Mabry gym as did the new men’s volleyball program. While the golf and tennis matches were probably played elsewhere, their administration and much of their practicing was done in and on the former military facilities. The new baseball team not only practiced at West Campus but played many home games there although night games had to be played at Centennial Field in order to have lighting.

During the 1948-49 school year, Coach Ken Miller supervised the building of a track at West Campus and a men’s track and field team was begun which competed at that site. Later Dr. Hartley Price came to FSU and in the 1949-50 school year began a men’s gymnastics team which practiced and competed in the old air base gymnasium. From the early years and well into the fifties, the West Campus facilities were still very much at the center of men’s athletics at FSU. It was their headquarters.

As time went on, things changed. Volleyball and gymnastics were dropped as intercollegiate programs at FSU. As new facilities became available, all of the sports functions were transferred along with all of the other academic activities from West Campus to the main campus. By the late fifties, the events at West Campus had remained only as history. It was a history of a fledgling athletics program taking its first steps from birth toward the maturity that it now occupies as one of the nation’s most successful and impressive programs. There will be a lot of great memories shared when that dedication takes place on September 14th. I am looking forward to it.