Agallian Club of Middletown

Pre-pro Baseball

Middletown, CT Firsts, Games, Clubs, Fields, Predecessor Games Greater New York City Firsts, Games, Clubs, Fields, Predecessor Games CT Firsts, Games, Clubs, Fields, Predecessor Games United States Firsts, Games, Clubs, Fields, Predecessor Games

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Nick Name	Agallian
Earliest Known Date	1864
Last Known Game
Location	Middletown, CT, United States
Modern Address
NABBP Status
Nine Class	Senior
Tags
Description	Peverelly (1866) p. 506 lists the Agallian Club of Middletown. The Hartford Courant, Oct. 3, 1865 mentions the Agallian BBC of Wesleyan U., Middletown. The club was composed of Wesleyan U. students. See the Middletown Constitution, Sept. 26, 1866
Sources	The Hartford Courant, Oct. 3, 1865 the Middletown Constitution, Sept. 26, 1866
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Has Source On Hand	No
Comment	The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University. It was formed in the autumn of 1864 and played its first matches against other teams the following spring. Baseball had been played informally at Wesleyan back to at least 1860. Baseball letters were given (often at a considerably later date) to Wesleyan athletes in baseball beginning with the 1861-62 season. The name Agallian was given by professor of Greek James Van Benschoten as a derivation of the name Agalles, who was said to have invented the first game of ball-playing in ancient Greece (cf. College Argus, June 11, 1868). The club played its first match against the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Hartford in the spring of 1865, losing 22-12. Its first intercollegiate game, which was also Wesleyan’s first intercollegiate athletic contest, was against Yale on September 30, 1865, with Yale winning 39-13. One of club’s founders, Charles L. Bonnell, class of 1868, served as captain for his entire playing career. The first practices and home games took place on the Washington Street green in Middletown and on a nearby vacant plot of land on Washington Street. Later photos exist of games being played on the Wesleyan campus on what is now Andrus Field, which at the time was essentially an undrained swamp or wetlands. The Agallian club was not a formally sponsored university team but a club composed of members of several Wesleyan classes. A later organization, the University Base Ball Club, founded in 1869, seems to have had a more formal endorsement from the administration. The Agallian B.B.C. ceased to function after 1871, when baseball began to be eclipsed by the popularity of rowing as a collegiate sport. Aside from informal contests between class teams, Wesleyan was not to have an organized baseball program again until 1888. https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/sca/resources/wesleyan_university_agallian_base_ball_club_record Edit with form to add a comment
Query	The Baseball Research Journal Spring 1984 has a photo purportedly c. 1867, of baseball being played at Wesleyan. It is credited to the Rucker Collection. Edit with form to add a query
Found by	Bruce Allardice
Submission Note
Entered by	Bruce Allardice
First in Location	Middletown, CT
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Ballgames

Page	Date	City	Borough	State	Team 1	Team 2	Score	First in	Contributor
Ballgame	1865-06-10	Hartford		CT	Charter Oak Club of Hartford	Agallian Club of Middletown	22 - 12		Bob Tholkes
Ballgame	1865-09-30	New Haven		CT	Agallian Club of Middletown	Yale Club of New Haven	13 - 39		Bob Tholkes

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