The first home of Michigan Basketball
Many people know that before Crisler, Michigan Basketball played at Yost Field House.
But what about before that? The team moved into the new Field House in 1923, but played 7 seasons somewhere else.
Waterman Gymnasium.
It was the original home to Michigan Basketball, Men's Gymnastics, Wrestling, Indoor Track(!) and Baseball practice(!!)
Its site is where the chem building currently sits today. It was demolished in the 70s.
Built in 1894-
The first Michigan Basketball team practicing in 1909. Notice the wood backboard.
That balcony is an indoor track. That's where Michigan held it's indoor track meets until Yost Field House was built. It was common in those days to have elevated balcony tracks. Some old Detroit high schools built in that era still have them.
Baseball practice in the batting "cage". You can see a bat in one of the player's hands. Notice the still rings hanging down from the ceiling. Gymnastics also called Waterman home.
Michigan Basketball compiled a 39-25 record at Waterman Gymnasium.
The first game was against Oberlin on January 16, 1909. Michigan won that game in an overtime thriller, 27-25.
It was home to Michigan's first B1G Championship team in 1920-21. That team and this current Michigan team in 2016-17 are the only two teams in the 101 years of Michigan Basketball to play and win 4 games in 4 days.
Waterman Gymnasium demolition in 1977.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
It's nice to see "the young people" interested in history.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
Cool post, WD
March 21st, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
I did not know this info. Very cool. I also love the basketball practice photo above. NO JUMP SHOTS ALLOWED! Set shots were en vogue.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
Actually, human beings were physically incapable of jumping off the ground until the mid 1950s. Something to do with the Depression and vitamins...
March 21st, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
After closer inspection, that basketball picture probably depicts a pass and not a shot. But you can still tell that all players are firmly grounded. My working hypothesis: the earth's gravitational pull decreased significantly after 1950, although your food and vitamin intake hypothesis cannot be ignored.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
Satellite launches before 1950: 0.
Satellite launches after 1950: 7500+
Obviously gravity significantly decreased somewhere around that time.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:39 AM ^
I see two fouls in that picture alone.
-- Teddy V's Great Granddaddy.
March 21st, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
you mean there were Ohio refs even back then?
March 21st, 2017 at 11:47 AM ^
When I was a little kid, I thought color had been invented just in the '60s or thereabouts, since all the photos/films from before then were in black and white.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:42 AM ^
I used to play pick-up basket ball there just before it was demolished. One night we were finishing up as the gym was closing when the student worker asked us to keep playing for few minutes. He had discovered someone in the locker room breaking into lockers, and the police were on the way. He was afraid that if the gym went silent, the thief would bolt.
Classic old gym.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
CCRB? Does the CCRB still have the elevated track? That was awesome!
March 21st, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
Yes. Though by modern standards the CCRB has to be one of the worst college gyms.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:54 AM ^
Yes and so do many high schools built recently do too, doesnt seem like a very out of the ordinary thing. nice thing to have. On the other hand those empty racket ball courts were pretty dated. just took up space.
March 21st, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
Empty racquetball courts just mean there's a place for you to play immediately. Pretty much got through Ann Arbor winters solely because of the amazing old courts in the IM Building. Your loss if you didn't take advantage!
March 21st, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
I'd go in and do non-raquet ball things so i guess I did benefit. just wished the space could be used for more workout equipment or something.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
Thanks for posting this - top quality stuff.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
Those outfits!
March 21st, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^
HAWT!
March 21st, 2017 at 10:54 AM ^
U Chicago's old gym had one in its old field house. Classic.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
Didn't the NCRB have an elevated track as well? Or am I thinking of something else?
March 21st, 2017 at 11:12 AM ^
Yes, it did.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
I remember running on that track as an undergrad in the early/mid seventies! Hard on the knees with the sharp turns. Also, students of my era will recall registration at Waterman where each department in LSA had a table in the gym and you went from table to table to register for your classes. Old school. One of my friends had a "Wake for Jim Waterman" just before it was torn down. Much beer and cheap,bad wine was consumed along with "mystery punch." Sent Jim off properly!!
March 21st, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
Much more efficient <sarcasm>. I tell my current UM student , daughter, about registration and also programming with punch cards at NUBS and she looks at me like we didn't have plumbing or electricity. Actually life did not exist before iPhones....
March 21st, 2017 at 11:47 AM ^
...good times. Also standing in line to wait for a print out was awesome.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:57 AM ^
Yep, my parents have all sorts of "wax poetic"-type stories about the process of waiting in lines for hours on end to register for classes at Waterman in the early 70s. The way they describe it, the building was about ready to fall in on itself by then.
March 21st, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
Registration at Waterman from 1964
Your parents speak the truth Bando. By the time it met the wrecking ball there wasn't a level floor or straight wall left in the place.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
Thanks for sharing WD!
March 21st, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
March 21st, 2017 at 11:33 AM ^
I used to run on one of those balcony running tracks in Jr. High School in an old early-1900's school building.
I used to check out the grils playing volleyball while I was running.
The cornering was not optimal, but the balcony running track was kind of cool, actually.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
B Ball at waterman as undergrad. What scared you as you drove the basket were the runners above making those sharp turns and hearing footsteps from god. Had to go strong to hoop.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:31 AM ^
There are lots of old-timers on this blog. Anybody ever see a Michigan Basketball game in Yost Field House? What was it like?
March 21st, 2017 at 11:52 AM ^
Watched on black and white TV.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^
I just marvel at what a $20,000 donation could get you in the 1890s. Now, I think you get a brick with your name on it and some discount coupons to Panda Express in the Union or something only somewhat useful like that.
There used to be Barbour Gymnasium immediately to the north, if I am not mistaken, but it was torn down about 30 years prior to Waterman's demolition, I think.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
My high school used it for indoor track practice. Being in 9th grade, I thought having a track inside a building was pretty cool, even if it was hot and smelled pretty funky.
March 21st, 2017 at 11:49 AM ^
which is not an intersection anymore. Sounds like it used to be where the Chem building is now
March 21st, 2017 at 11:53 AM ^
March 21st, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
It got real interesting in the winter when the football players showed up.
Great showers in the basement - good water pressure and a lot of hot water. Always showered there before heading back to the dorm. I lived in Bursley freshman year and there was no Rec Building on north campus, so we had to go to Waterman.
On the other hand, the adjacent (and connected) Barbour Gymnasium was a dump.
Yes, I remember registering in Waterman.
March 21st, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
I used to play at Waterman Gym my freshman year - 1973-74. It was the closest gym to Alice Lloyd before CCRB opened a few years later. You could not shoot from the corner, or your shot would be blocked by the track that overhung.
In answer to an earlier comment about Yost, I attended a game there in 1967 against Purdue as a 6th grader with my brother who was a freshman. The team wasn't very good - it was the first year after Cazzie left and the last year before the games moved to Crisler. Purdue won, as I recall, with Herm Gilliam and Billy Keller. I had heard about the bats and birds flying around inside, but I didn't see any. I had previously been to a wrestling meet there a few years before.
March 21st, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
Nice post WD. Very interesting stuff.