Department of Recreational Sports - University of Michigan

Recreational Sports in the United States started at two Big Ten universities. In 1913, the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan created new departments dedicated solely to intramural sports. In 1919, Elmer Mitchell, a graduate student at the time, was named the first Director of Intramural Sports. In 1928, the first recreational sports facility in the country opened: the Intramural Sports Building at the University of Michigan. Now, we rapidly are approaching the centennial of recreational sports in the United States and here at the University of Michigan.

1998 IM GFS 3-on-3 Basketball Champion

Recreational Sports Today

Today, over 35,000 students, faculty, and staff utilize our programs and services every year. To date, approximately 1,000,000 men and women have participated in recreational sports at the University of Michigan. Our activites made a positive impact on every one of those individuals. We are sure that you have a story to tell from your days of playing, participating, or working within our department. We would love to hear your stories, so please relay them to us. There is a form at the bottom of this letter that you are welcome to use to get those stories to us. Feel free to use more conventional methods, as well: e-mail, telephone, or letter. We would love to hear from you.

Throughout our history and continuing to this day, we have received generous financial and administrative support from the University's leadership. However, demands for extended facility hours and expanded programming, coupled with the cost of maintaining aging facilities, have caused an unavoidable rise in our expenses. Given the difficult economic climate of our city and state, our capacity to generate additional revenue has reached its upper limit. In response, we have made difficult cost-cutting decisions. While we have been able to maintain most programs, our ability to continue to provide that positive impact that we all enjoyed as participants is becoming increasingly difficult.

IMSB Weight Room Renovation

How You Can Help

To strengthen our ability to create and maintain those opportunities to provide that vital positive impact, we are launching yet another first for our department: a new giving program. We are asking for individuals to help us sustain the positive impact of recreational sports. We challenge you to remember your stories and to embrace our great tradition. We need your help. We need it now.

We are asking a select group of individuals to form A League of Our Own. In essence, this would involve making a long-term commitment to facilitate the department's capacity to effectively plan for the future. Use the links on this page to join the League and to help us in this effort. While any pledge amount will be appreciated greatly, for a pledge of $600.00 per year, we will send you your very own MVP League Pass. This pass will enable you to visit, tour, or workout at any of our open facilities any time that you are on campus or in the area.

IMSB Weight Room Post-Renovation Again, please share your stories. We will use some of them as we prepare for our centennial celebration - just five years away. We are developing plans both at OSU and here at Michigan to commemorate the history and traditions of collegiate recreational sports.

We are Michigan. We are "the Leaders and the Best." Thank you for helping us continue to be so.

Join A League of Our Own: Give to the Department of Recreational Sports

TELL US YOUR STORY

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Tell Us Your Story

* The contact information that you provide here will be used only to contact you regarding your story. It will not be used for any other reason, nor will it be distributed outside of the University of Michigan Department of Recreational Sports.

By clicking Submit, you permit the University of Michigan Department of Recreational Sports to use your story in promotional materials. While your name may be attached to the story in such materials, your first and/or your last name will be abbreviated.

Day Passes Available at Quantity Discounts - Get a "Bunch of Passes!"
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Maintained by the University of Michigan Department of Recreational Sports.
Please send comments or questions to recsports@umich.edu.

Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.

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