Sutcliffe's Athletic Apparitions
Sutcliffe Hall has been used by students and athletes since the 1960’s and despite being a well-loved place, there is another story behind Centre’s athletic building. People have reported strange and weird phenomena while inside the building, the witnesses of which claim to be the work of the paranormal. Rumors have spread for years that Sutcliffe Hall is haunted.
I will shed some light on the history of Sutcliffe Hall, so we can understand the haunted stories that originate from it. Originally the Boyle-Humphrey Gymnasium built in 1892, the building would not be known as Sutcliffe until decades later. In 1961 the gym was renovated into a student center and then named after the then-current chair of the board Gary Sutcliffe. It featured a ballroom, racquetball and basketball courts, plus more. In 2005 the building was renovated again. Most of the original student center was demolished, and many new offices, basketball courts, and other facilities were added. Not of the original was destroyed, however as places like the old racquetball courts remain.
Sutcliffe Hall during the early 1960’s
To investigate these rumors, I interviewed someone who has worked at Centre for decades, and someone who has witnessed several unexplained events firsthand. Donald (Don) Taylor has worked with the custodial services since the early 1980’s and he has claimed to have experienced the paranormal several times in the building. Don’s first experience occurred when he and some other custodians were waxing the floors of the gymnasium, after which something strange happened. They locked up the doors to the gym and exited to the back where their cars were parked, when suddenly, the lights in the gymnasium turned on. Suspecting that a door was left unlocked, Don and his coworkers went back inside believing that some kids had snuck in to play basketball. But that is not what they discovered.
We might want to make sure we weren't going to get in trouble, so we went back to the gym and when we went into the gym and opened the door no one was there. But all of a sudden, a basketball was rolling across the floor.[i]
Perplexed, they began to search the building, suspecting that whoever had bounced the basketball had ran away. They found no one. The custodians then checked again that all the doors were locked, and lights turned out and then walked out back to their cars again. But when they arrived in the parking lot the lights began to turn on again. They reentered the building again only to find the same scene, the lights were on, a basketball was rolling, and no one was to be found. Now thoroughly nervous, the custodians shut down the building again and waited outside in case it happened again. Only after the lights stayed off for several minutes did they decide to leave.
The next unexplained event that Don witnessed happened in the racquetball courts. He had come into the break room one morning to get his schedule for the day when he thought he heard racquetballs bouncing in the racquetball courts. Cleaning the courts was on his schedule for the day so he decided to go down there first to see who was playing. However, after walking downstairs he sees that the lights were off. He checked the transformer since heat would have been generated if someone had turned anything on. However, the generator was cool to the touch. He then turns on the lights to investigate: “Open up the door what do I see? A racquetball rolling across the floor. No one there. Serious business, and I’m tripping out because I think I’m going crazy…”[ii] If someone were to have ran away after bouncing the ball, there was only one exit they could have taken: up the stairs and past Don. But Don saw no one on his way down.
Sutcliffe Racquetball Rooms (Modern Day)
Sutcliffe is place that makes people uneasy. There seems to a kind of collective fear that surrounds it, but what about the place gives it such a reputation? One explanation is the sheer raw emotion that is associated with it. Sutcliffe is the home base for all of Centre’s athletes, and athletes experience lots of strong feelings throughout their careers. The nervousness before a game, the fear of losing, the pain of being injured, the aggression to achieve victory. When athletes compete, they are not only trying to beat the other team, but they are also trying to defeat their former selves and improve. That sometimes involves facing your inner demons. Perhaps all these negative feelings have engaged the attention of the paranormal.
Another point worth mentioning is that Sutcliffe fits the profile for an old, haunted building perfectly. Even former President Roush, who dislikes the idea of hauntings on Centre’s campus admits that he felt afraid when lifting weights alone. He states: “…the old Sutcliffe was twice as scary. I mean, it was really an old and not, not in very good shape building. It was an embarrassment of sorts.”[iii] Sutcliffe has had the reputation for being a creepy, old building for years. The original gym that the student center was built on top of first opened in 1892 giving it more than enough years to accumulate horrific stories. One story features a dancer who was dancing in the ballroom until she suddenly died due to a heart complication. Another features an athletic trainer who decided to commit suicide in one of the training rooms.
It is without a doubt, however, that Sutcliffe Hall carries a reputation of the paranormal because of its history. Whether it be angry spirits who have unfinished business or specters
Endnotes
[i] Donald Taylor, interview with Benjamin Hodges, Centre College Archives
[ii] Donald Taylor, interview with Benjamin Hodges, Centre College Archives
[iii] John Roush, interview with Mark Kaczocha, Centre College Archives
Bibliography
Thomas, Charles A., “Sutcliffe Hall,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed January 25, 2021, https://centre.omeka.net/items/show/1056.
Thomas, Charles A., “Sutcliffe ballroom,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed January 25, 2021, https://centre.omeka.net/items/show/1052.
Johnson, Diane. “The Story Behind the Name: Sutcliffe Hall.” Centre College. Centre News, September 18, 2018. https://www.centre.edu/story-behind-name-sutcliffe-hall/.
Donald Taylor, interview by Benjamin W. Hodges, January 19, 2021, Zoom, transcript and recording, https://centreghosts.omeka.net/admin/items/show/id/30.
John Roush, interview by Mark Kaczocha, January 18, 2021, Zoom, transcript and recording, https://centreghosts.omeka.net/admin/items/show/33.