ClubTimes Digital-July 2021

In 2023, Atlanta Athletic Club will celebrate its 125th anniversary. The club was founded in 1898 by a group of 65 Atlanta businessmen who enjoyed playing sports and camaraderie. This article is the third in a series entitled “125 Years: The Legacy of Atlanta Athletic Club.” The purpose of the series is so that members may become familiar with the history and heritage of the great club they belong to. THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPORTS An excerpt from “A Host to History: The Story of Atlanta Athletic Club”

With the opening of the Carnegie Way facility, the AAC ushered in the club’s “Golden Age of Sports.” Many of the sports that became popular at the AAC in this period were organized in the latter part of the nineteenth century. By the turn of the century, the AAC had formed teams in a variety of sports that were competing not only with club teams from other cities, but with Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and other colleges. There were teams for basketball, swimming, baseball, track, handball, and cross-country, led first by the club’s athletic director, Dr. Theodore “Ted” Toepel, who was hired in 1905.

John Heisman

Each of the AAC’s athletic directors has left a different legacy, and Toepel focused most of his energies on developing an indoor track team. On April 7, 1908, John Heisman, Georgia Tech’s full-time football coach for whom the Heisman Trophy was named, was hired part-time as athletic director and basketball coach at a salary of seventy-five dollars per month. Heisman’s contract with the AAC, which is on display in the club’s Heisman Room, specified his duties: “Under this agreement and during its continuance it shall be the duty of the party of the second part to organize, take

1908 Basketball Team

charge of, direct and coach outdoor baseball team or teams; indoor baseball team or teams; football team or teams; basketball team or teams and track team or teams and such other athletic team or teams of the Atlanta Athletic Club as may be required by the board of directors of such club . . . devoting the same time, attention and degree of care as is usually and customarily exercised by coaches of colleges or university teams of the same character.” Heisman was eventually followed by Joe Bean.