"W" Club President Bill Salter (left) and Archivist Robin Keirstead want to preserve decades of sport history by digitizing game films.
Legendary pro football coach Vince Lombardi once suggested, “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”
It is apparent that Western’s rich football history will be one of the winners thanks to a team effort between the “W” Club and Western Archives to digitize vintage Mustang football films.
This three-phase project will eventually see the digitization of over 260 game films chronicling more than 40 years of Mustang football. Since their inception in 1929, Mustang football teams have captured 26 provincial and seven national championships. The films being preserved capture games from 1947 to 1989.
“W” Club President Bill Salter (BA ’58) [MR1] considers the project a natural fit for his organization. “The relationship between football and Western is an important piece of the school’s identity and we are interested in recognizing and supporting this legacy.”
The $6,000 pledged by the “W” Club towards this $26,000 project will enable Western Archives to accomplish phase one and two of the project. In these first phases all the films will be transferred to protective canisters to help preserve them, and 49 of the films most at risk of perishing will be digitized.
“Besides preserving this history we really see this project as also opening up access to these films,” says Salter. “For example we’ve already started talking about allowing visitors access to copies of these digitized game films in the Metras Museum. Longer term we are hoping films of other sports like basketball or maybe even some footage of my former sport of wrestling can be digitized.”
University Archivist Robin Keirstead shares Salter’s enthusiasm for the project, which is very much in line with Western Libraries’ commitment through its “Digital Zone” initiative to provide leading-edge digital access to both historical archives and current library materials.
“From our perspective there are a number of interesting things about this vintage football film project,” Keirstead explains. “It represents another step towards development of a digital culture at Western, and the content itself is quite fascinating. It will be of interest to those directly associated with Western athletics and to those from the community at large.”
Keirstead adds that another important feature of the project is an opportunity to cooperate with members of the community. “We anticipate we’ll need help from members of the “W” Club to identify content in some of the films.”
In order to fund the digitization of the remaining game films, the project will look for additional financial support from individual members of the “W” Club along with community members.
Groups such as the 1959 Mustangs Football Team have already shown their commitment to this project by raising over $1,200.
To contribute, contact Alumni & Development Officer for Mustang Athletics Holly Gati at hgati@uwo.ca or Sherry Foster, Alumni & Development Officer for Western Libraries at sherry.foster@uwo.ca.
