Trinity students bowling in the 1960s.

From 1890 to 1891, a group of sophomores participated in a bowling club. Later, the club expanded into a multi-class team, which lasted into the 1970s.

The 1881 Trinity Ivy Coaching Club illustration.

Based on the competitive sport popular throughout the 19th century in England, Trinity's Coaching Club was a student organization in which students raced stage coaches. One student would control the team of horses (four-in-hand or six-in-hand). Introduced in the 1880-1881 academic year, it was revived occasionally throughout the late 19th century.

Cricket team, ca. 1881. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

Cricket made its first appearance in the late 1870s as an alternative to baseball, which varied in popularity. The Cricket Club was founded in 1880 in large part by those Trinity students who originated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, but was gone by the spring of 1881.

The Cricket Club lost to Harvard in November of 1880 by a score of 40 to 50. Though the enthusiasm for it was short-lived, there was thought of Trinity's joining the Intercollegiate Cricket Association. It was the cricket team that engaged the first professional coach for a Trinity team–Charles Russell, a professional who had played on cricket teams in the New York and Philadelphia areas.

By 1881, the fad of cricket had passed in favor of baseball, which was not just a favorite at Trinity but throughout the United States.

Trinity College Cycling Team, ca. 1900-1910. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

Trinity's Cycle Club, which entailed racing bicycles, was formed during the 1890s, during a craze of bicycle clubs in the United States and England. The club's president was Professor Luther.

During the late 1880s, the bicycle evolved from the “ordinary,” in which the front wheel was more than twice the size of the rear, into the recognizable “safety” silhouette of today, in which the rear and front wheels became the same size. Thanks to the remodel, bicycling became efficient and transportive, leading to an increase in bicycling for recreation and competition. Colonel Albert Pope, a Hartford businessman, owned a factory that put out tens of thousands of bicycles per year, and the demand for bicycles led to a demand for better roads.

Almost every Trinity student in the 1890s owned his own bicycle and that was his main source of transportation.

The Trinity men in the 1890s who were interested in athletics participated in games and races put on by Hartford's Columbia Bicycle Club, and put on races for “Trinity Field Day” in Charter Oak Park. One Tablet details the results of the “Two mile safety bicycle race:” C. A. Monaghan, Class of 1893 won and broke a new record with a time of 00:06:43, which was beaten by J.A. Wales, Class of 1901, at 00:04:57.

The club lasted until at least 1898. However, two-mile bicycle races continued to be held as part of track and field meets in subsequent years.

Bowling

The Trinity Ivy (1969).

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 220.

Cycling Club

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 220.

Coaching Club

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 197, 210.

The Trinity Ivy (1881).