N.O. Athletic Club Has 125th Birthday Rescuer Saved It From Demise Submitted by Larie Tedesco Times-Picayune 09-02-1997 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ By the time real estate speculator Bill More intervened, the New Orleans Athletic Club's membership had dropped from thousands to a few hundred. Utility bills hadn't been paid for months at a time. The bank, eager to collect on its overdue $450,000 mortgage, was nearing foreclosure. More, a longtime club member, went to work in 1991, taking over the loan and finding lenders to help cover the costs of renovations and new equipment. Today, as the nation's second-oldest private athletic club celebrates its 125th anniversary, he is optimistic that the Rampart Street institution will survive. "It is a project that offers a chance to preserve the history of New Orleans, its architecture and tradition," the New Orleans native said. "And at the same time, you are taking the club into the 21st century. It's a very positive experience." Started by 14 men, the Independent Gymnastic Club was founded on Sept. 2, 1872, in an Esplanade Avenue backyard. In 1929, James Gallier Jr. designed the present clubhouse at 222 N. Rampart St. On its 100th anniversary, club membership totaled 2,583 white men. But, sparked by contemporary pressures, vanishing membership and impending financial doom, the club opened its doors to black people in 1986 and to women in 1989. Two years later, More, 53, worked out a deal to buy the bank's note, and by the end of this year, will have poured about $1.5 million in renovations and new equipment into the club. A landmark that welcomed the likes of boxing great John L. Sullivan, movie heartthrob Clark Gable and noted playwright Tennessee Williams, the building had undergone only minor upgrading and repairs until More bought it. For every room he renovates, another awaits with peeling plaster. "But you could see it was a diamond in the rough," More said. "And we really have established ourselves as an anchor for this part of Rampart Street," an area spotted with architecturally rich, unused buildings. Around the time of the Spanish American War, the NOAC housed the Louisiana Field Artillery. In the summer of 1889, Sullivan trained at the club for his world championship bout with Jake Kilrain. And the NOAC's Walk Club garnered worldwide attention when member Harry W. Fitzpatrick captured five world records. Through the years, the club has produced many award-winning athletes, including world weightlifting champion Louis Riecke Jr., national amateur singles tennis champion Linda Tuero and sailing champion George "Buddy" Freidrichs Jr., who won a gold medal in the 1968 Olympics. The walls are lined with sepia photographs of 20th century athletic heroes, and with portraits of dozens of NOAC presidents, including Charles Claiborne, Joe DiRosa and Harry McCall Jr. It is a rich history, and a corps of vintage members share More's drive to save it. Members like David Spizer, 76, a retired pediatrician who joined the NOAC when he was 18. "My membership was interrupted twice," Spizer said after a recent workout on a treadmill. "I was a doctor in World War II and the Korean War." Spizer recalled the heyday of the 1950s, when "all the city's politicians and legal people came over here." "It was hard to find a place at the bar at 5 p.m.," he said. "But if you did, you'd hear all the rumors, and sometimes, they turned out to be true." Though the club offered athletes a place to train and excel, it also provided a setting for men to play cards, shoot guns and bowl, said club historian J.C. Williams, a lifetime member who joined in 1953 and still shows up to play cards. "Bill More has brought it up to modern times, but it used to be more of a social club," Williams said. "It was a situation where if you were anybody in the city of New Orleans, and didn't belong to the NOAC, you were nobody." Most days, Williams can be found with his pinochle buddies in the card room, but the bowling alley and the rifle range are things of the past. So are the days when members of the all-male club splashed nude in a world-class pool fed by saltwater from an artesian well - a pool where Johnny Weismuller, the famous movie Tarzan, swam. A long wooden bar that once stretched the center hall has given way to Nautilus machines and Stairmasters and stationary bicycles with television screens. Soon, the cloth-covered tables in the club's dining room will be replaced with first-class cardiovascular equipment. Dues have increased from 50 cents a month to an average of $50 a month, not including a membership fee that is usually $500. The club is keeping pace with the times, but new members - about half of the 2,400 members are women - say they also are enjoying high ceilings, ornate interior columns, crystal chandeliers and a peek at a rich past. "We've gone to a few clubs that are completely high tech, but there's more character here, which is the reason we moved back to New Orleans," said Robin Burgess Blanchard, who joined the NOAC about two months ago with her husband, Grammy-nominated trumpeter Terence Blanchard. "This is much more comfortable for us."