You may have heard Vanderbilt has built an new indoor practice facility for its football program.
It's true but the new (and now expanded) Vanderbilt Recreation and Wellness Center is much much more than that.
Take a look at this VUCast video released earlier in February. It's quite impressive to say the least and it's not just for athletes, but all students and even alumni.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWaJPUgEcAA
And as to how all this compares to when we were in school 40-plus years ago?
Well, memories fade a bit over time, but there was absolutely nothing even remotely close to any of this in our day. Throwing frisbees on Alumni Lawn? Sneaking into old Wesley Gym (other than games, Memorial Gym was usually off limits to students)? Weight machines? Indoor squash or racquetball? Swimming in old Memorial? Well, maybe sometimes.
Of course a few of us (who worked at WRVU) played a game similar to handball using the front of Neely Auditorium. But one or two too many broken windows (tennis balls can be hard) made Plant Ops and Vanderbilt Police take a dim view of such activities.
They probably wouldn't have liked Moon Ball either, played with a tennis ball and cafeteria trays from Rand, then utlizing the ability to run down a batted ball before it stopped rolling (on the Honor Code) in the dark, at night....sober.
Yeah right, what were we thinking?
Map Data
2 comments:
Wow, Pat,
Of course we never would have graduated if they had opened Sarratt Center while we were in school, but this was pretty cool.
I remember when the McGuggin Center opened and the number of racket/hand ball courts doubled from 4 to 8! The court over there was also a Tartan surface like at Stokley Center at UT.
Memorial Gym used to have 3 cross courts for recreational use when the varsity wasn't using the main court. Those were those mysterious lines running across the main court. Occasionally during the off season you could hook up with some of the varsity players in a pick up game. Try guarding Terry Compton in a pick up game sometime! It wasn't all that much fun!
In addition to the gym in Wesley, there was another court underneath the North End Zone seats, that was supposed to be for the Women, as it had separate locker rooms. No women's team that far back!
I can also remember feeling like I was going to die many a time playing water polo in that pool. I also remember Coach Smith throwing me off the high dive once to get me over a fear of diving. Didn't work, I was more scared than ever!
The moon was full the other night...still a little chilly for a Moon Ball match, but March is looking good. See you at Picnic Area 2!
Step
Question?
Is P.E. required now? Used to be required for Freshmen and Sophomores, but they did away with that when we were Sophomores.
Looking back, I think that was an even bigger mistake than I thought at the time.
With today's emphasis on good health, they might not need a requirement. It surely did broaden my first two years at Vandy.
Steve Womack
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