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Ice-Hockey at Round Hill School in 1823


james laverance

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A few excerpts regarding Ice-Hockey at Round Hill I found from 1823.


"Round Hill Schoolfounded in 1823, in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first prep school to introduce physical education into the curriculumUnder its gymnastics instructor—the first in a secondary school in the United States—Charles Beck, the school introduced such pastimes as horseback riding, gymnastics, bathing, dancing as prescribed recreations.
passel of other sports soon flourished at the schoolincluding team sports like early forms of baseball and footballplus cross-country runningswimmingwrestling, and boxing
Winter sports included hockey, sledding, and ice skating."
 
 
"In October, 1823, I was sent to the famous school at Round Hill, Northampton, then lately opened by Messrs. Cogswell and Bancroft. The grounds covered perhaps a hundred acres, with fine woodland and beautiful views of the Connecticut valley and of Mt. Holyoke and Mt. Tom. Mr. Cogswell was a learned man and a man of the world, and to him was largely due the breadth and liberality of the school, and its great success. The teaching was of no meagre kind, for Germany, Italy, France, and Spain each gave us of its best. But it was the pleasant and friendly relations of Mr. Cogswell and his masters with the boys, and the gymnastic and out-of-door education, which made Round Hill peculiar. The boys were taught to ride, had skating and swimming in their seasons, and wrestling, baseball, and football"
 

GYMNASTICS AT ROUND HILL, SCHOOL IN 1825.

"I am greatly indebted to the venerable Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, who was a pupil at Round Hill, for the following account of the physical training pursued there."

"Dr. Beck, the teacher of Latin, afterward the professor of Latin in Harvard University, was the teacher of gymnastics. A large piece of ground was devoted to the purpose and furnished with all the apparatus used in the German gymnasia. The whole school was divided into classes, and each class had an hour three times a week for instruction by Dr. Beck. At the same time there were a dozen riding horses and classes for riding three times a week. Gardens were assigned the boys, in which they raised plants and vegetables. A piece of land was set apart for building huts. Baseball, hockey, and foot-ball were the games. I remember playing in a match game at the time of the Presidential election in which Adams and Jackson were candidates. The Jackson boys beat. You notice how much was done for physical training. I remember Mr. Edward Everett speaking at an annual exhibition and telling us how much better a school, how much greater advantages we enjoyed than Mr. Cogswell and himself had at Exeter. Though the school had only an existence of twenty years or less, and failed from want of pecuniary support, I believe that its influence has survived, and a great stimulus was given by it to the cause of education. Developing the bodily powers and strengthening the constitution were there first recognized as of great importance in the education of boys. The boys were very healthy. I only recall one death, from typhoid fever."
Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education
 
 
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