New Physical Education Building at ESU 1971

Doomed Building Revives Old Memories
New Physical Education Facility Begun ....

     Their building is going to be torn down.
     Someone is going to come in with a bulldozer and raze some 60 years of history and memories. A part of their lives will disappear in the dust of falling bricks.
     "Their building" is the old physical education facility at Kansas State Teachers College. But in its place, though not on the same site, a new building will take shape. Work already has begun on a $2.6 million physical education facility to replace the old one which is now too small, too old, and deemed inadequate for today's needs.
     "They" are the individuals who shaped the KSTC Division of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics since its inception in the college's early days. They gathered at KSTC recently to look over the site of the new building and to talk about the "old days."
     —Bill Hargiss: legendary Kansas State Normal School (now KSTC) athlete, coach, department head. Possessing an incredible memory — mostly fond memories — for a man of 84 years.
     — Edna McCullough: long-time department head, who helped start the first organization for women in physical education and saw the beginning of varsity competition for women.
     — Mrs. F. G. "Fran" Welch: wife of the late, revered all around athlete-coach, who was herself an important part of departmental activities.
     — Gus Fish: for 25 years head basketball coach at KSTC, leader in the growth and development of basketball at the smaller colleges.
     This group, along with Dr. William Tidwell, new Chairman of the Physical Education Division, Dr. Leo Ensman, Dean of the School of Applied Arts, and Genevieve Hargiss, sister of Mr. Hargiss, met for lunch recently and generally reminisced about life in the old building.
     Mrs. McCullough recalled her first teaching assignment at KSTC in 1916 when she worked for $75 a month. The college had started its physical education program about 1914. It was one of the first in the state.
     The "old" building was a new one then, "one of the finest in the country," "Bill" Hargiss called it. Its nearest rival was at Iowa State. The KSTC gymnasium cost $100,000 in 1911 (compared to the $2.6 million of the new one). It was built of brick and reinforced concrete and Mr. Hargiss said, "It'll stand for a thousand years."  But it's coming down to be replaced by a new one.
     Mr. Hargiss knows everything about the building — and about athletics at KSTC since the turn of the century. He coached everything: baseball, basketball, track, football, gymnastics. Fran Welch was a member of one of his teams. It was 1916 and "it was a darned good team".  Back in those days KSTC played such schools as the University of Oklahoma, the University of Kansas, and Arkansas, and they frequently won.
     Mr. Hargiss also remembers an Indian athlete who was so fast, "you couldn't catch that guy in a telephone booth." He remembers scores of games, who made the big play, who made the mistake. And he remembers a student who was "kicked out of school" — Bill had to give him the bad news — but who later became a fine physician.  And Mr. Hargiss also remembers with a chuckle the time he and a friend were caught in the training room without clothes when the gymnasium floor —which they would have to cross to get their clothes — was "covered with gals in bloomers." With characteristic daring, Mr. Hargiss and his friend draped towels over their heads and "ran like crazy" past the startled girls.
     Mrs. McCullough, who was Head of Women's Physical Education from 1922 to 1961, said KSTC was the first school west of the Mississippi with a two-year program of complete physical education credit. Students were required to study such courses as physiology, hygiene, and anatomy.
     When the gymnasium was built there were "two or three times" as many women in school as men and the women got two-thirds of the gymnasium for themselves. The program of physical education was planned to help students correlate the mind and body — a philosophy the division continues to follow today.
     Basketball games were played in the gymnasium up until the 1950's when Emporia's Civic Auditorium was completed. But Gus Fish coached some great teams in the old gymnasium and ran up a record of 334 wins and 287 losses against some of the finest teams in the mid-west. He won the conference title outright six times and tied once. His teams competed in the N.A.I.A. National Tourney placing fourth in 1946 and in 1964. He is still among the top 10 on the list of winningest coaches.
     But times change and the old building will come down.
     "Now Billy's here," Mr. Hargiss said, referring to former KSTC athlete Bill Tidwell, who has been recently named Chairman of the Division, "and he's gonna carry on a program we're gonna like."
     Mr. Hargiss recalled the time Mr. Tidwell beat Wes Santee in the mile run, the way he trained, the fine young man he was —and is. "Billy will have a balanced program," Mr. Hargiss said. "He'll see that intramurals and academics get the same emphasis as inter-collegiate athletics. And he'll turn out some real fine graduates." The others quickly agreed.
     Then the group went to the site of the new building, just north of Welch Stadium, named for Mrs. Welch's late husband —the stadium with the rubber track, also one of the first in the Midwest.
     It is a far cry from the old track that used to run near the old gymnasium: the crooked one-fifth mile track with a tree growing three feet inside it at one point. Mr. Hargiss slipped onto the track late one night and cut the tree down, though it had been forbidden by the school's president. He didn't tell him until years later who had done it.
     Times change. And those who devoted most of their lives to work in the "old" gymnasium at KSTC change, too.
     They smiled when they talked of the "old days".
     But they also smiled as they looked over the site of the "new" gymnasium and one could see the dreams of the past being replaced with thoughts of the future.

VISIT BUILDING SITE—Looking over the site of the new Physical Education Building at Kansas State Teachers College are, from left, Dr. William Tidwell, Chairman of the Division of Health. Physical Education and Recreation; Dr. Leo Ensman, Dean of the School of Applied Arts; Genevieve Hargiss; Bill Hargiss; Mrs. F. G. Welch; Edna McCullough; and E. D. "Gus" Fish.

On the Physical Education Building at Emporia State is this plaque under: This building stands in tribute to