A Lesson in Patten Gym

Many will associate Northwestern University with academics since it's a private research university, has one of the largest university endowments in the nation, and is placed high in the national and world university rankings.

Others may associate it with athletics since twelve of Northwestern's nineteen varsity programs had NCAA or bowl postseason appearances. Additionally, Northwestern is a charter member of the Big Ten Conference, which is the oldest Division I college athletic conference in the United States. 

Some think of both since Northwestern plays in a conference known for its academics and athletics. Prior to the addition of Nebraska in 2011, the Big Ten was the only Division I conference to have all its members in the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education.

Prior to 2002, I didn't know much at all about Northwestern University but my first visit to the Evanston, Ill campus would be an educational one.  When I now see or hear the university's name in the media, I too think of both academics and athletics, but for a different reason.

Northwestern University Seal

Northwestern University Athletics Logo

While attending graduate school in 2002, our sport management club met with various sports professionals in the Chicago area to talk about their organizations and learn how they apply business principles to the sport industry. The conversations that day were a great balance between sports and academics.

Following our meeting with Northwestern's Athletic Director, our sport management club was escorted throughout the many Evanston campus athletic facilities, including Welsh-Ryan Arena, Ryan Field, and the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion / Norris Aquatic Center.  All were very impressive in their own right but it was at our last stop that the Assistant Facilities Director made a nonchalant remark that caught my wondering attention.

As we walked across an ordinary basketball court in a dark facility on our way to the basement, I vividly remember him turning towards a few of us in front of the class and quietly remarked, “you know the first NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament championship game was held here in Patten Gym." My ears perked up.

I would learn the week following our club trip that the first NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament championship game was indeed held in Patten Gym in 1939 on the campus of Northwestern University, but in the original Patten Gym, not its successor that I walked through on our tour.  Nevertheless, history had taken place on Northwestern's campus and it was a basketball fact that I had not seen or heard before. 



Original Patten Gym (University Archives)

As both the original and new gymnasiums are cemented into the rich history of the Northwestern University campus, so would the history be cemented in my brain and retained for future use.  Eight years later as we prepared to travel across Illinois to play in some of the state's historic gymnasiums, the new Patten Gym was included but I would have to educate myself of its past first.
 

James A. Patten

According to the University Archives, the original Patten Gym was designed by George Washington Maher and opened in 1910. The gym was named for James A. Patten, a former Evanston mayor, philanthropist, commodities broker, and Northwestern University board of trustees president. It's unique design is said to have derived from armories and massive train sheds. Patten was the largest such building in the Chicago area and many argue that it had the finest athletics facilities in the country.  In 1921, bleachers and a removable basketball floor were installed at ground level on top of the dirt floor and would seat 4,000+ spectators. The arena included a track, a baseball practice field and a swimming pool but its most popular tenant would the Wildcats basketball team;  therefore playing host to their home games.

Original Patten Gym with dirt floor (University Archives) 

Original Patten Gym - site of the 1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament  (University Archives)

University Archives also indicate that in the building’s early years its entryway was decorated with pure gold plating.  Although intriguing, what I found even more interesting was that in 1917, James Patten commissioned the popular American sculptor, Hermon MacNeil, to design statues appropriate to an atmosphere of athletic aspiration, which would be placed in front of Patten Gym for all to see while entering. MacNeil is known for designing the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (1909–12) in Washington Park, Albany, New York, the Standing Liberty quarter (1916), and later for sculpting Justice, the Guardian of Liberty on the east pediment of the United States Supreme Court building (1935). 

For Patten, MacNeil would sculpt two 9-foot tall bronze Greco-Roman figures of athlete accomplishment and scholarly wisdom. A male athlete in victory, entitled Physical Development and a female figure in academic pursuit, referred to as Intellectual Development. The statues have been known to generations of students by the nicknames of “Pat” and “Jim".



Physical Development



Intellectual Development

After nearly 30 years of use, Patten Gym was demolished in 1940 to make room for Northwestern's new Technological Institute which would house the School of Engineering. Prior to demolition, the original arena would make history in 1939 and host the first NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament championship game. The tournament included eight schools playing in a single-elimination format to determine the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament championship.  It wouldn't be until the 1951–52 season when the tournament would be extended to 16 teams and it wouldn't be until 1975 that more than one team from the same conference could play in the NCAA tournament.

The 1939 Tournament began on March 17, 1939, and ended with the championship game on March 27 in Patten Gym. Thirty-minutes prior to the tip off of the championship game, an exhibition game was played, under the original rules of basketball, in front of the crowd of 5,500. In the audience as an honored guest, Dr. James Naismith. 

The championship game would be the last basketball contest played in the original Patten Gym. Although Ohio State kept the game close at halftime with a score of 21-16, Oregon would finally pull away and beat Ohio State, 46-33.

Oregon vs. Ohio State in 1939

As Patten Gym was being demolished, a new gymnasium was being constructed.  It would also be named for James Patten.  The new Patten Gym was rebuilt at 2407 Sheridan Road, just a few blocks north of the original Patten Gym though it would be notably smaller. The new gym's exterior is of lannon stone, which was used on many other University buildings, and the architectural style echoed some of the Gothic details of the other buildings on campus, such as Deering Library, Scott Hall, and of the proposed Technological Institute which would be constructed where the original Patten Gym stood.
  


Basketball court in new Patten Gym (University Archives)

Although varsity athletes worked out in the new Patten Gym and their coaches had offices there, the facility afforded little room for spectators. The basketball courts measured a full 18 feet short of regulation size.  As a result, the Northwestern Wildcats played its home games at Evanston Township High School for a twelve-year period until McGaw Memorial Hall (now known as Welsh-Ryan Arena) opened in 1952.

According to the University Archives, "the new gymnasium was intended to meet the needs of the growing program of intramural sports at Northwestern, as well as to hold physical education classes". 

Today, Patten Gymnasium continues to serve as the primary location for the intramural sports program, and sport club programs, such as women's fencing, lacrosse, field hockey, and men's and women's soccer. In addition, it's seventy-five feet long by six lanes wide swimming pool area was renovated in 1998 and became the Gleacher Golf Center, which is arguably the finest indoor learning center in collegiate golf. 

New Patten Gym - built in 1940

As our family walked into the ivy-lined Patten Gym in October 2010, we were appreciative that the staff was congenial and accommodating.  Although students and faculty need identification to enter, they didn't think twice about letting us in to look around and play our game of 2-on-2. The student managing the front desk was not aware that another Patten Gym came before this one, nor that it had basketball significance. I wasn't surprised.

Although the gym lights were turned off on my first tour years earlier, the gym was glowing this time around. I now could see that a regulation game could not be played here, let alone the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament. Nevertheless, we played our game at the new gym to pay homage to the history that had taken place at the original.

Patten Gym basketball court in 2010

Warming-up for our traditional 2-on-2 game



Shooting to see who gets the ball first

The original gymnasium may no longer stand, but there are still a few reminders of it on campus.  While traveling on Sheridan Road, look over at the Technological Institute which houses the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.  The original Patten Gym once set on this parcel of land prior to 1940.  Or you can do what we did and visit the new Patten Gym, which is only a few blocks north of the original site on Sheridan Road.  The inside may look nothing like the original, but when you approach the front doors you are reminded of the past.

That is because the front doors and the two MacNeil statues were retained from the original gym and relocated to the new gym facing Sheridan Road.  They were dedicated during Homecoming on Nov 2, 1940.  It is these hidden gems, representing both athletic achievement and intellectual development, that come to mind when I see or hear of Northwestern University in the media.


New Patten Gym in its early years

According to the Hermon A. MacNeil website, the male statue is named Physical Development and is of, "two stylized men playing football, one standing, one fallen. The standing figure's proper right leg is forward, his muscles well-defined. A cape is draped behind him and over his proper right arm. At his waist he wears only a sash. In his proper left arm he holds a ball with a bird on top. The fallen male has his head at the feet of the other man, and his body and legs extend upward behind him. His proper left hand braces his fall, and he wears a helmet and shirt. Around the back of the piece are sculpted vines and foliage."  An inscription on the statue is from Alfred Tennyson's Ulysses. It reads:

"To strive to seek, to find and not to yield."

Alfred Tennyson

The female statue is named Intellectual Development (aka The Scholar). It is a standing female with torch with eagle atop. A boy is seated at her feet holding lyre with turtle shell. The inscription on the back reads:

"And after all - is not that enough to have lived for-
To have found out one true thing and therefore
one imperishable thing in one's life"
- Charles Kingsley

According to the Hermon A. MacNeil website, the quote refers to Eratosthenes excellent attempt to calculate the circumference of the earth from the shadows of the sun in two different locations, on the solstice.

MacNeil's statues out front of Patten Gym 

After finishing our game of 2-on-2, we walked out the original wooden front doors and down the steps towards Sheridan Road. We passed between the famous MacNeil statues representing physical and intellectual development and couldn't help but think how important their images and message are in a setting such as Northwestern University.

It doesn't surprise me that MacNeil chose these themes for his sculptures. These hidden gems are symbolic of the importance of being a well-rounded individual. Studies have been conducted over the years that reveal that sports participation in school does in fact show promising results for improving students’ academics. The thought is that students who participate in sports, have a competitive disposition which also motivates them to do well in their studies.

Where once the statues were a beacon to student-athletes walking into the original Patten Gym of the importance of having both a sound body and mind, the same two statues now remind all students participating in intramural, club sports, and physical education classes of the importance of physical and intellectual development.

I leave you with this final history lesson since we are on the subject of athletics and academics.  Northwestern University hosted the first NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament in 1939, nearly 75 years later there is only one "BCS" conference team to never make the NCAA Division I tournament...

...the Northwestern University Wildcats.