New Canaan Country School Opens Athletic Archival Exhibit

New Canaan Country School announced the opening of an on-campus archival exhibit: “The Early Years of Athletics at NCCS” featuring photographs and artifacts that document the rise and development of the school’s athletic program and facilities from 1916 to today. The exhibit, a reflection upon the steady increase in popularity of athletics within the community, also provides a glimpse of the often humorous evolution of athletic uniforms and equipment over the past century.

“The discovery of a girls’ basketball trophy from the 1925-26 season provided evidence that a competitive athletic program existed at Country School all the way back to the earliest years,” said School Archivist Mark Macrides who assembled the exhibit. “The more I dug, the more I found.”

While local alumni will find it entertaining to look for themselves in one of the numerous team photos on display, others will find the exhibit interesting in that it highlights the school’s 1936 relocation from Seminary and Park Streets to its current location on the corner of Ponus Ridge and Frogtown Roads. Limited by the school’s location in the center of the village of New Canaan, there was not enough room for athletic fields or a suitable gymnasium necessary to sustain team sports such as football, field hockey and basketball. Worried that boys might be tempted to depart for more robust athletic programs, in 1935, the school looked to expand its program and facilities.

Vast expanses of former farmland on the corner of Frogtown Road and Ponus Ridge became a very attractive solution and the school was moved. As it settled into its new location on the west side of town, complete with fields for outdoor sports and a proper gymnasium, enrollment grew quickly. Students, primarily older boys at first and gradually also girls,became active in the diverse, competitive and instructional athletic program in the 1940’s, a hallmark of the NCCS program still today. The addition of hockey and ice skating programs in 1957, and racquet sports such as platform “paddle” tennis and squash in subsequent years, rounded out the school’s athletic offerings to its current fifteen.

The school is currently constructing a new Athletics & Wellness Center slated to open in Fall 2020. For more information about the project, please visit the school’s website.

The archival exhibit is on display in the lobby of the Grace House Building on the school’s campus located at 635 Frogtown Rd., New Canaan and is open to the public. For more information about the school’s history, please visit www.countryschool.net/our-history and for information about its athletic program, please visit www.countryschool.net/athletics.

New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent day school for students in Pre-K (ages 3 & 4) through Grade 9.