Physical education program records

Physical education as a means to separate young men from temptations to vice appears early in the history of the American YMCA. The earliest record of YMCA activity in this area dates back to 1856, when the Brooklyn YMCA appointed a committee to consider setting up a gymnasium. At the Montreal Convention of the Confederation of American YMCAs later that year, a committee was charged to report back as to "whether any means can be provided by YMCAs for the physical development and promotion of the health of their members -- by gymnasiums, baths, etc." Spurred on by increasing industrialization and immigration, the YMCA entered a period of rapid expansion during the late 1860s and 1870s. With the influx of young men into the cities came an inevitable increase in delinquency and crime. As the YMCA sought new ways to reach these youths, physical work increasingly proved an effective means of fulfilling the movement's goal to provide a wholesome leisure-time environment for young men.

The first YMCA gymnasiums were informal facilities, often located in church basements or lecture halls. The first purpose-built facilities appeared in 1869, when gymnasiums were included in new YMCA buildings in San Francisco, Washington D. C., and New York City. By the end of the century, at least 450 YMCA buildings featured gyms. Those that did not add them, noted Association secretary Sherwood Eddy, gradually "disappeared."

Among the earliest leaders in the movement to integrate physical education into the YMCA's movement was Robert J. McBurney (1837-1898), who in 1862 assumed the secretaryship of the New York YMCA. McBurney equipped the Association's new Twenty-Third Street YMCA building with one of the earliest, most well-equipped gyms. An even greater contribution to the cause was his "Four-Fold Plan," "the first clear rationale form combining athletics with evangelism. Proposed around 1869, it advocated ministry to all four aspects of a young man's life: bodily, social, spiritual, and intellectual" (Putney, 69).

The term "body building" was coined by Robert J. Roberts, a devout Baptist and former mechanic who worked as a gymnastic superintendent for the Boston YMCA during the 1870s. He went on to start the Leaders Corps in 1884 to select and train physical education instructors and was considered the first Christian physical director in the YMCA movement. In 1887, Roberts joined the department of physical education, organized earlier that year by Luther Gulick, the YMCA's first national physical education secretary, at the new YMCA International Training School (later known as Springfield College). It was Gulick who is credited with originating the YMCA's famous inverted red triangle symbolizing the unity of "body, mind, spirit." In 1891, this symbol was adopted as the YMCA's official seal. The year 1891 also marks the invention of basketball, the brainchild of James Naismith, a faculty member at Springfield, who was instructed by Gulick to come up with a game that would be "interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play indoors by artificial light" (Johnson, 87).

Volleyball, another YMCA innovation, was invented in 1895 by William Morgan of the Springfield (Mass.) YMCA. Patterned after an Indian game called minton and originally called "mintonette," volleyball was designed as somewhat less demanding alternative to basketball for middle-aged businessmen.

The YMCA also has a long-standing tradition in aquatics. The first YMCA pool was in Brooklyn, built in 1885. In 1909, by which time there were 293 YMCA swimming pools, the YMCA started a national campaign to teach swimming under the leadership of George H. Corson. In 1916, the Association Press published one of the first books on lifesaving by George E. Goss, a former physical secretary.

During World War I, the YMCA carried on a number of physical education programs for soldiers in the states and abroad. It also sponsored the Inter-Allied Games held in Paris in 1919 for Allied soldiers. With the departure of so many young men for service abroad, these years also saw a shift in YMCA constituency at home towards boys, middle-aged men and increasingly, women.

In the period since 1920 the YMCA has continued to support and improve its physical education mission with activities and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The YMCA pioneered the training and certification of fitness instructors and sponsored numerous competitive leagues for amateur athletes. YMCAs continued to be the launch pads for new sports and fitness activities, including racquetball, which was invented by YMCA volunteer Joe Sobek in 1950. Jazzercise made its debut at the McGaw YMCA in Evanston Illinois in 1969, and a year later inspired Jackie Sorenson to begin "dance exercise" classes at the Towson, Maryland YMCA, leading to the boom in "aerobics" in the United States and Canada. As of the beginning of the 21st century, YMCAs were collectively the largest provider and promoter of health and fitness programs in the country.

Historical information was compiled from: Discovery YMCA,Spring/Summer 2001; Elmer L. Johnson, The History of YMCA Physical Education(Chicago: Association Press, 1979); Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard U Press, 2001).