I’ve recently been publishing history on the Dayton Triangles football team, including an article, YouTube video, and a presentation on the team for Centerville-Washington History.
It’s been especially interesting not only for the significant sports history (the first NFL game being hosted right here in Dayton!) but for how the Triangles had so many intersections with other major local institutions, from the University of Dayton to two of Dayton’s most prominent industrialists.
Today I’ll zoom in on one particular element of the story, after the team has been established but before the involvement of Edward Deeds and Charles Kettering which led to its adoption of the Triangles name.
The team started as the St. Mary’s Cadets, but a couple of years later changed its name to the Dayton Gym-Cadets, due to it being sponsored by the Dayton Gymnasium Club (also referred to as the Dayton Gymnastic Club).
In my research I enjoy digging into old maps to find locations that are referenced in sources. In this case, I learned that the club was located on Wayne Ave near today’s Oregon District, and we can see exactly where it was located in the map below. (Look to the bottom left corner, at the corner of Wayne and Mc Lain.
This area east of Wayne was the former Haymarket neighborhood that later was cleared for urban renewal, so the streets were erased and all of the structures (aside from a small pocket on Wayne, visible here on the right hand side and the image below) were demolished.
The club later moved into a more modern building, which is still there today.
Here you can see those historic buildings to the right, and the former gym building that is today the Dayton Theatre Guild on the left.
Dayton Gymnastic Club History
The organization dates back to 1881 as the Dayton Gymnasium Club, and it was called in a newspaper article as the “oldest boxing club in the Midwest.”
It was founded with just nine members and was located at Fifth and Walnut Streets before growing significantly and moving to the Wayne Ave location in 1897.
They refurbished an old building that was previously a wagon and blacksmith shop owned by Adam Hofferberth and Michael H. Hoerch, and built a new 72×50 foot gymnastic hall behind it.
A newspaper article from March 7, 1914 included a picture of the club members and their families celebrating the organization’s 34th anniversary.
It also turns out that football isn’t the only sport that the Dayton Gymnastic Club sponsored.
In 1932, Westwood Field, where the Negro National League baseball team Dayton Marcos played, was known as the Dayton Gymnasium Club Ball Park. (You can also see in the newspaper clip above that the Triangles played football at the same field in 1915.)
It was located at Western Avenue and Dakota Street (Today James H Mcgee and Rosedale).
The Dayton Gymnastic Club remained until 1988, when it bought 22 acres of land in Bath Township. It had been looking for an outdoor facility to add to its Wayne Ave home but could not come up with one.
The organization sold that site in 2004.
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