Also in 1962, Helen Brown ’37, professor of health and physical education, worked with department colleague Dr. Frank Sills to spearhead the purchase by the Women’s Recreation Association of a 119-acre farm in Marshalls Creek for $15,000. They named it Stony Acres and it was donated to the student body and fixed up by faculty and students to become a retreat for hiking, camping and picnics. Student groups still use Stony Acres for recreation, including its ropes course, lodge and pond. In 1965, East Stroudsburg got its initial taste of a technology that would change the world: The first computer was housed in a renovated laundry building next to Stroud Hall. The first social fraternity was Sigma Pi, introduced in 1961, and Sigma Tau became the first sorority in 1966. Joan (Stanley) Merring ’67 M’92 was a member of Sigma Tau’s first pledge class. She has vivid memories of the curfews for women living at Stroud Hall during that era. Dean of Women Ruth Jones watched her charges like a hawk. “We would have to sign in and sign out and Dean Jones would sit there and watch us,” Merring recalls. She remembers going back to her dorm to change after she had accidently sat on some beer at an off-campus party. She doused herself in perfume to hide the smell only to be accosted by Jones who said: “Wow, you have too much perfume on!” But Merring said Jones’s watchful eye was also reassuring in a way. “She was the mother or grandmother away from home,” she said. Merring’s husband, Dick Merring ’57, played for the 1954 Conference Champion football team and went on to serve as assistant football coach from 1964-66. He fondly recalls the dances on Wednesday and Friday nights and frequenting the nearby student hangouts of Rosie’s and Fred’s. The 1944 yearbook published pictures of ESSTC male students serving in World War II. Enrollment shrank from 468 students in 1941-1942 to 212 in 1943-1944 and several sports seasons were canceled. Photo from The Stroud yearbook, 1944.
Warriors on the Move
Ever since East Stroudsburg University opened its doors, young people in motion have been an intrinsic part of the fiber of the school.
Men’s soccer former head coach Jerry Sheska ’68 holds the all-time PSAC record for career wins with 424, retiring following the 2010 season. File Photo
The football team can trace its roots back to that first fall in 1893, and the baseball team played the following spring. The construction of Wayne Gymnasium in 1896 allowed for the expansion of offerings to include gymnastic exhibitions, indoor track and some basketball, according to “Pride and Promise: A Centennial History of East Stroudsburg University” by Lawrence Squeri, Neil Hogan and Peter Nevins. ESU has a treasure trove of historical information about its sports thanks largely to Nevins, who was the university’s sports information director 1969-2002. The college was a pioneer in women’s sports, adding women’s basketball in 1902, the same year as it started a men’s team. Other early women’s sports were field hockey in 1941 and tennis in 1943.
Sheska also started the women’s soccer program in 1992, and in 1994, they won the first conference championship awarded in the sport. The women continue to be a powerhouse, winning each of the last four PSAC championships (2014-17) for six total in the first 25 years of PSAC women’s soccer. Field hockey has brought the most recent national hardware, winning the Division II championship in 2015 and playing in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three years.
Football Head Coach Denny Douds has set Oscar Liljenstein joined the faculty in 1926, and records of his own. He arrived as an assistant organized a co-ed gymnastics exhibition team coach in 1966 and took over as head coach in that performed in the region for decades. 1974, becoming the winningest football coach “Our tradition as a center for health and physical in PSAC history with 263 career victories. The education instruction played an important role team won PSAC championships in 1975, 1976, in how athletics developed because many 1978 and 1982. In 2005, it won the Northeast of our students who came here were also Regional championship. standout athletes,” says Greg Knowlden M’04, This year, for the first time in ESU history, ESU sports information director. the men’s basketball team advanced to the The 1960s and 1970s were boom years NCAA Division II Elite Eight after winning its for athletics, with the Warriors winning first-ever Atlantic Region championship. The championships in football, baseball, wrestling, Warriors have won the PSAC championship men’s tennis, and men’s soccer. The archery in three of the last seven years (2012, 2014, team was national champions in 1975, 1976 2018) and played in five NCAA Tournaments and 1977. By 1981-82, the university had in the last nine seasons under head coach 25 varsity sports. Men’s gymnastics won the Jeff Wilson ’86. – By Margie Peterson NCAA Division II national championship in 1983 and 1984. The men’s soccer team won the NAIA national championship in 1962 and has won 20 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships – most recently in 2017 – tying for the most in the history of the conference. Former head coach Jerry Sheska ’68 holds the all-time PSAC record for career wins with 424, retiring following the 2010 season.
A LEGACY OF CHAMPIONS See the incredible accomplishments of ESU’s athletes by visiting www.esuwarriors.com/championships
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