Early Brockport Football

The earliest reports of a Brockport football team are from 1889. It was a popular sport, but in the WWI era with widespread concerns about the number of injuries and even deaths in collegiate football, and a growing shortage of male students here at Brockport to play, the team was discontinued as of 1915. After WWII, with a great increase of students, including more men to play, and changes to the game having made it safer, the sport was reinstated. Bob Boozer was the coach for the team, which first played in the fall of 1947.

The newly revived team played on a field in between the village middle school and what is now Special Olympics Stadium. Pictured here is a player from the early days of Brockport football after WWII, Ed Burke, '51.

Professor Burlingame's Cubical Blocks

Herman Burlingame was a professor at Brockport Normal School from 1868 - 1891. He was in charge of mathematical instruction, and also served as librarian for a number of years. One interesting product of his time here was the set of blocks that he designed and sold to aid in the instruction of doing cube roots. Such sets were common in the 19th century, as a way of helping visualize the process with the use of the blocks.

Shown here is a set of Professor Burlingame's "Cubical Blocks" which are part of the collections of the Alumni House.

The Grateful Dead

In November 1981 Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead played in the Tuttle North gymn. It came up today when a researcher working on an encyclopedia of places where the Grateful Dead played contacted the archives about this event. A scan of the 11/11/1981 Stylus article and an image of Tuttle North were emailed back to him; the image here is from that Stylus article. You never know where Brockport's history will take you!