the College with the Top Community Service "Award of Merit" on multiple occasions. Leslie J. Judd ’20 was another influential


coach at Springfield College whose contribu- tions are recognized every year at the College’s Gymnastics Exhibition Home Show. Ask anyone who has seen it,“What was your favorite part?” and they will almost always reply,“The tableaux!”The gymnastics tableaux, once featured in Life magazine, repre- sent a well-loved tradition at the


Leslie J. Judd


College and the brainchild of Judd,who began coaching the men’s gymnastics team in 1921. The team was already renowned for its traveling gymnastics exhibition shows, but it wasn’t until 1935 that Judd added the tableaux as the culmination of the perform- ance, looking to famous statues and other works of art to find inspiration.“Judd was a very artistic gentleman,” explains Cheryl Raymond G’82, head coach of the women’s gymnastics team.“He wanted to display the art of movement and the body through the tableaux.”


“Judd was a very artistic


gentleman…He wanted to display the art of movement and the body through the tableaux.”


But today the tableaux are so much more


than just an art form: they reflect the world. Asked why the tableaux leave such a strong impression, Stephen Posner, Ph.D., head men’s gymnastics coach, explains,“What makes them exciting are their emotional appeal.We have taken the art and used it to reflect current themes, so even though they’re old,


TRIANGLE 1 Vol. 81, No. 3


they are always current.” Exam- ples include tableaux in remembrance of September 11, 2001, and in honor of the Olympic Games. This past fall marked the one


hundredth annual Gymnastics Exhibition Show; In honor of the milestone, the tableaux combined both old and new during the November show. Stephen Lafever, director of facil- ities and campus services who has been involved in the direction of the tableaux for the past fifteen years, says this year’s tableaux celebrated those that elicited the most response throughout the last one hundred years, such as Aspirations, the Statue of Liberty, and the Machine Age, as well as the first all-women’s tableaux. Asks Lafever, “Where else but Springfield College can you go to find something like this?” The most famous sport associated with


James Naismith


new winter sport—and, in turn, challenged them to master something new. He never dreamed that his triumph would become one of the world’s most popular sports, played in more than 250 countries by millions of people each year in school gyms, at playgrounds, in driveways, and by profession- al athletes. For Naismith, it was never about fame,


fortune, or glory, but about being a good teacher and serving others. Says Dean,“The College’s connection to basketball and to


“Any time a college or university claims a renowned inventor, it


conveys to prospective students and to the general public that the


Springfield College is, of course, basketball, and its inventor, James Naismith,M.D., 1891, H’10, is the College’s most famous legend. In recent years the College’s reputation and identity have been solidified with the help of tag lines such as the Birthplace of Basketball® and Great Ideas, Great Careers, and Great Leaders Are Born Here! But these are much more than just empty slogans about a popu- lar sport. They reflect the spirit of innovation and leadership embodied by Naismith, a spirit that sets Springfield College apart from other institutions.“Any time a college or university claims a renowned inventor, it conveys to prospective students and to the general public that the institution has been a resource for innovative thinking,” explains Amy Dean, director of marketing and communications. James Naismith modeled the qualities


that make Springfield College students, faculty, and alumni special: perseverance and leadership. He took on a challenge—to engage a group of students in a completely


institution has been a resource for innovative thinking.”


Naismith is about so much more than just a sport; it’s about the fact that we prepare students to be leaders. It symbolizes the fact that our students and faculty, through the work that they do, can create a powerful ripple effect that transforms people, commu- nities, and cultures.”


The legends of Springfield College are numerous. Those featured here are but a few representatives—individuals who have carried on the College’s mission and its name. But don’t think it’s stopped with them. Each generation presents new innova- tions and new individuals—students and faculty, alike—whose experience and work have benefitted from those who have gone before.1


Shannon Langone is a freelance writer and the College’s AmeriCorps Program director.


9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27