University Museum

Discus throw has been part of the original Olympic games since the first Olympics in 1896.   Women’s competition in discus was added to the Olympics in 2000. If not for Xena, Warrior Princess, no one would know why anyone ever put the discus throw into athletic competitions.  Our records up to 1914 suggest that discus […]

Swimming was one of the original Olympic games in 1896. ‘Upon the Bluff high over the Willamette where the spires of learning reach up to the sky’, swimmers and swimming have been part of campus life since before Howard Hall opened its doors in 1927.   But industry and landfill have since pushed swimming out of […]

Tennis was one of the original Olympic games from 1896-1924 and re-instituted in 1988. One of our recent acquisitions in the University Museum is this women’s varsity letter jacket from Eileen Cebula Smith ’82, four-year member of the University’s women’s tennis team as a singles and doubles team player from 1979-1982.         […]

Tennis was one of the original Olympic games from 1896-1924 and re-instituted in 1988. Men’s Tennis 1952-1956 “Their streak, unmatched before or since in University athletic annals, began May 10, 1952, with a win against the Seattle University Chieftains.  Four years later, on May 19, 1956, coach Mike Tichy’s Pilot men’s tennis team lost a […]

Soccer was the first team sport added to the Olympics in 1900.  Women’s soccer joined the Olympic sports roster in 1996. UP has sent several soccer players to the Olympics.  None have donated their prize medals to rest enshrined on display at the University Museum (we’d be honored!).  Complementing our earlier post about UP women’s […]

The UP Alumni page boasts 15,424 graduates who call the city of Portland home, pursuing life and careers in the Portland area.  Of course there are also regional alumni chapters across the country.  And special Affinity Chapters promoting continuing connections between Nursing graduates, ROTC cohorts, Villa Maria survivors, and Salzburg dreamers.  But who would have […]

Hurdles is an original Olympic competition from 1896.  Women’s Hurdles were added in 1932. The Colosseum was built on campus against rain and mist and mold in 1902; because UP men’s track and field needed a place to practice and a site to host the Indoor Invitational; the women’s track and and cross-country teams arrive […]

Trampoline made its debut as an Olympic sport in the 2000 Olympics. Without any other information from our usual sources, we simply offer this 1965 photo of women on a trampoline in Howard Hall.  Most likely one of the recreational offerings from the intramural department.

Golf is returning as an Olympic sport in the 2016 summer Olympics.  Golf was last played at the Olympics in 1900 and 1904. In the early years of the University students and faculty were seen putting on the campus greens.  After 1935 golf became more organized and the men’s teams dabbled in matches against other […]

Foot-Races are marquee Olympic events from ancient times and also in the modern (from 1896) revival.  Yet such a difference in training, equipment, and world-records just in recent years.   UP knows the foot-race well, and trains the best in UP Cross Country and Track & Field.   Our own include: Josh Ilustre, ’16 representing Guam in […]

Weightlifting is one of the original Olympic sports since the first Olympics in 1896. Strength & Fitness programs at the Beauchamp Recreation and Wellness Center have an ancestor in the Body Building program organized in 1941 under the leadership of student-instructor, Philip Loprinzi.  Within a year more than 80 members were crushing it with the […]