In a League of Her Own

New donor gift creates first sports archivist position on the West Coast 
 

Wherever history is being made, someone somewhere is recording it. Oftentimes, it’s people you know—family and friends who capture significant moments in time without even realizing it. Chances are, you’ve found some of these moments when clearing out an attic—a yearbook in which a relative was voted most likely to become president, or a trophy from when one of your parents won a local competition. At the University of Oregon, there’s a whole team of specialists dedicated to making sure that these moments live on in perpetuity. They’re called archivists—and one of them has a new role in Track Town, USA. 

Meet Lauren Goss, BA ’11 (history), UO's new sports archivist. Funded largely by a gift from an anonymous family foundation with deep Oregon roots and a love for UO Libraries, Goss’s position is the only one on the west coast and one of only a dozen in the US dedicated specifically to the preservation of collegiate sports history. In May, she finally made her debut in the form of Chasing Gold: the UO Olympics Trials Legacy Exhibit. The exhibit, located in the Knight Library, marks the 100th year since the university held its first Olympic team competition. 

“When I talk about this position with people outside the university, they're mostly shocked that it didn't already exist,” Goss says. “[Sports] history is intertwined with our identity, our brand, the physical landscape of campus. Why wouldn't you have somebody who's dedicated to maintaining [it] and making it accessible to the public?” 

Goss’s interest in sports archivism started during her undergraduate work at the UO, where she did her Clark Honors College thesis on the history of Title IX on campus. A runner herself, Goss says she was inspired by her mother, an athlete on the field hockey team during the 70s. The faculty papers of Becky Sisley—the woman's athletic director during her mother’s era—provided the foundation for her research. These papers can’t be found anywhere except at the UO Libraries and offered Goss tremendous insight into the world of sports and how athletics intersect with subjects like feminism or race. 

“It's really important to document and make sure that these stories and experiences aren't lost,” she says. 

Until recently, sports archivism wasn’t valued within academic settings. But, like UO’s recent shift into the Big Ten, history is being made every day and the world of sports is becoming more interdisciplinary. Sports are anchored in the humanities, in the sciences, and across many other fields. At the UO alone, students can design products for adaptive athletes one day, then work on bioengineering tissues to aid in the healing process for athletes with injuries the next.

“There's an opportunity for Oregon to really be a leader in the preservation of history and knowledge in this particular subject area on the national scale,” Vice Provost and University Librarian Alicia Salaz says. “This type of history, this type of academic work, the impacts and ramifications are felt in the world way beyond just our institution.” 

Salaz goes on to explain that since technology is rapidly accelerating and university collections are made available electronically, unique special collections are becoming more important. As the UO continues to grow, its libraries aim to establish Oregon as a leading research university in the nation by bringing in researchers from all over the world just to access these one-of-a-kind archives.

But the work to do so is complex. The outreach process alone can take years, and establishing trust with donors is crucial. Even after an acquisition is made, there are a host of requirements that need to be allocated for—from the physical processing of materials, to digitizing data and making it searchable, to climate control engineering and room security. 

“There are so many elements involved in being able to actually take care of these items and make them accessible when somebody wants to come use them. It’s similar to the way an athlete is supported by a diverse team of experts who specialize in everything from nutrition to training, uniform design, and injury prevention—all to help them be the best they can be on competition day,” Salaz says. “Caring for these materials and collections is a long-term commitment that relies on complex and highly professional systems.”
 

So, just how important are donor contributions to this process? 

Salaz says “extraordinarily critical.” 

She explains that the library’s day-to-day operations are largely funded by tuition dollars, but that it isn’t a reliable source of support for making sure that these special collections are given proper care regardless of economic failure or enrollment swings. 

“Long-term preservation of this irreplaceable cultural heritage and historical material is a responsibility that goes on in perpetuity,” Salaz says. “Donors and foundations really make it possible.” 

It’s clear that donors believe in the UO Libraries’ mission. Gifts helped create Goss’s new position and build brand-new cases for the Chasing Gold exhibit, but donors have been instrumental in some of UO Libraries’ large-scale projects for many years. In 2018, Goss worked with Todd Van Horne, former creative director at Nike, to create Hayward Hall. Housed at the base of Hayward Field Tower surrounded by the faces of UO track and field legends, Hayward Hall is an example of what can be accomplished when donors, archivists, and UO departments work together. Inside, 4,000 square feet of exhibit space tells the story of more than a century of UO track and field through photographs, letters, training plans, shoe designs, film clips, and more.
 

When asked about her favorite part of the exhibits she’s worked on, Goss perks up. 

“The early stuff,” she says immediately. 

She explains that most people don't know the history of UO sports prior to 1972, when the university was ‘put on the map’ after hosting a financially successful Olympic Trials. 

“There are these whole other fifty years of important things that were happening on this campus, important decisions by administrators, presidents, coaches and the Eugene community ... our experiences are part of this huge timeline that goes back to 1876,” Goss says. 

Within the Chasing Gold exhibit, four large aerial photos of the UO at different time periods show just how much the university has changed; individual workout sheets from Coach Bowerman provide insight into the mind of a sports legend; and visitors can see how sports equipment and uniforms have advanced over the years. All of it adds dimension and depth to UO athletics and contextualizes the entire Eugene community within sports history. 

One of the most exciting aspects of the expanding sports archival program is the potential for student and faculty engagement.

“This is a topical area that is very engaging and relevant to students,” says Salaz. “They automatically understand that the UO has such a strong athletics brand, and so many students are involved in athletics in some way, so it's exciting the ways that undergraduates can come into the archives and special collections and use this topic as an entree into understanding knowledge creation and preservation.” 

Goss has witnessed many students having that special ‘aha’ moment when they get to see—and sometimes touch—a primary source for the first time. She says that one of the best parts of her job is helping build those critical thinking skills in a hands-on environment—and she can’t wait to invite more classes to see more archival sources in the fall. 

“Looking at an original letter, [students] get to say ‘oh, I get to make my own interpretation of this document, not what my professor is telling me to think ... I get to see the actual material myself and form my own opinion’,” Goss says. 

In an era where anyone with a cell phone and a social media account can be a digital archivist, there’s a growing need to teach appreciation for historical preservation and spread awareness of truly rare artifacts like those found at UO Libraries. Anyone can do their part in helping document history, but one of the best ways is by supporting expert archivists like Goss in their mission to uplift the students and researchers making societal impact through their work derived from special collections. 

The Chasing Gold exhibit runs until September 6, 2024. You can find more information about it and UO Special Collections and Archives here.

—By Sage Kiernan-Sherrow, Editorial and Communications Specialist at University Advancement