Someone had to be first.

Thankfully for the legacy of St. Ignatius College and John Carroll University athletics, the first was the Rev. Edward Bracken, S.J.

Inducted into the JCU Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the very first class in 1964, Bracken holds the distinction as the school's first Director of Athletics, holding the position from 1919 until the summer of 1930.


Making Athletics A Priority

Father Bracken became the dean of the college in 1919, and, according to the book "A Century of Service" by Donald Gavin, wasted little time in mobilizing resources to field the school's first football team in 1920.

Bracken, who had spent time during World War I as a military chaplain and also had been director of athletics at St. John's College in Toledo before arriving at St. Ignatius, rallied student support for the endeavor. An article in The Ignatian spoke to this:

"The athletic management is planning a big year in football next autumn. It is doing its utmost to assure the success of the team in the field ... Now it remains for the student body to take up the task and inaugurate a regular football boom. What is needed now is ood, sound, solid backing on the part of the student ... The matter of the team is a vital proposition but it rests solely with the students."

Bracken made no secret that he saw athletics as a priority and that athletics success was vital to school spirit. At a rally after the opening of the fall semester in 1920, Father Bracken announced there would be a football team and presented the new coach, George "Tuffy" Conn. The first football mentor for the school had played collegiately for the Oregon Aggies and was scheduled to play professionally with the Cleveland Tigers.

Under Bracken's watch, basketball launched in December of 1919 and football in October of 1920. Both had winning records in the first year.


Growing Pains and Sudden Departure

The first decade of athletics at St. Ignatius and John Carroll was not without issues. There was a constant turnover in coaches - basketball had six different coaches in the first ten years and football did not stabilize until the arrival of Ralph Vince. There was also the issue of facilities. The Blue Streaks football team trained five miles from campus, and for home games, bounced from Tate Field, West Tech High School and Dunn Field (later known is League Park) before landing at Luna Park, an amusement park that had a field adjacent. 

In 1929, Luna Park suffered a devastating fire. According to Gavin's book, since John Carroll had already invested $2,000 in sodding the playing field for the fall games and was obligated to the extent of another thousand dollars for other improvements, there was an urgency to somehow make it work. An alumnus in the construction business, William J. Schirmer '10, came to the aid of his alma mater and built the stands (6,000 seats) at cost. The stands were finished just in time for the opener against Valparaiso, and the result was a 90-0 win for the Blue Streaks that still stands as the largest margin of victory in school history.

In the summer of 1930, after the students went home for the year, Father Bracken was transferred back to St. John's of Toledo. He was replaced as director of athletics first by Rev. Augustine Bennett, but when Bennett was unable to assume the position due to illness, the job was then given to Rev. William J. Murphy, after whom Murphy Hall is named.

Bracken returned to John Carroll in 1934 in a different role, and then left again for good in 1937 when he moved on to Xavier University.


Legacy

Through the efforts of those who remembered Father Bracken, his contribution to the university was not forgotten. He joined Eugene Stringer and Rt. reverend Richard Walsh S.J. as the three charter members of the John Carroll Hall of Fame when inducted on December 9, 1964.

In the mid 1960's, the idea of an athletics complex on the east side of Belvoir Blvd was close to becoming a reality. Led by Ralph Vince, the Bracken Fund was established to raise $250,000 as part of the stadium project.

Once Wasmer Field had been built, the rest of the complex remained under the Bracken Athletic Field name. There would be a baseball field, a soccer field, and eventually a softball field that would occupy the space between the stadium, Belvoir Blvd. and Washington Blvd.

The Bracken name still adorns the softball field as the last vestige of the Bracken Fund. The baseball field is now Schweickert Field (dedicated in 1992), and soccer (both men and women) moved into Don Stadium at Wasmer Field permanently in 2002.