<p>From games played in schoolyards to professional championship teams, sports have occupied an important place in the cultural development of the Tacoma area. Playgrounds to the Pros provides an extensive overview of the sports played in the region during the last 150 years. It is not limited to such crowd favorites as baseball, football, and basketball; it also includes archery and auto racing, bowling and boxing, horseshoes and hydroplanes, marbles and mountaineering, soccer and swimming, and much more. This history of more than 40 sports acknowledges the many men and women athletes who have contributed to their sports over the years, including Lois Secreto, who epitomized ice skating in the 1940s; pro golfer Ken Still, who competed in six Masters, 13 U.S. Opens, and seven PGA Championships; Ryan Moore, who won the 2004 U.S. Amateur Championship; Doug Stevenson, goalie of the riotous Tacoma Rockets in the late forties and fifties; and Gertrude Wilhelmsen, 1936 Olympic athlete and star shortstop of the Tacoma Tigerettes. It is also a tribute to the colleges, schools, organizations, owners, managers, coaches, referees, umpires, and fans who have helped make sports such a significant part of Tacoma and Pierce CountyÕs community, a place where love of a game, any game, is honored and enjoyed. Historian Caroline Denyer Gallacci is the author of The City of Destiny and the South Sound. Marc H. Blau is president of the Shanaman Sports Museum, assistant executive director for the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, and a longtime member of the Tacoma Athletic Commission. Doug McArthur is a sports broadcaster, journalist, and former athletic director at University of Puget Sound.</p>

Playgrounds To The Pros: An Illustrated History Of Sports In Tacoma-Pierce County

History

Gallacci, Caroline Denyer

McArthur, Doug

Blau, Marc H.

Americas

Tacoma Athletic Commission

In 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad selected the south shore of Commencement Bay as the terminus of its transcontinental line. Connected to, but independent of the railroad, the Tacoma Land Company created a city adjacent to the terminus. By the early years of the 20th century, downtown Tacoma was the place to go for a wide array of activities from retail shopping and government activity to entertainment. Streetcars, and then automobiles, contributed to the ever-changing vitality of people and place. After the late 1960s, when developers constructed a mall south of the central core, city planners created a new type of urban experience centered on amenities designed to lure tourists and Tacomans alike.

Downtown Tacoma

Karabaich, Ron

Arcadia Publishing Library Editions

<p>The City of Destiny remains unsure of what its destiny should be. The land is much changed from that which George Vancouver called "the most lovely country that can be imagined" where "the labour of its inhabitants would be amply rewarded in the bounties which nature seems ready to bestow on cultivation." Even so, an anonymous visitor to the Pacific Northwest, quoted in the January 12, 1894, issue of Harper's Weekly, had it right: "Well gentlemen, if I were a man of wealth seeking a home and investments on Puget Sound, I would live in Tacoma and invest in Seattle." (Murray Morgan)</p>

The City of Destiny and the South Sound: An Illustrated History of Tacoma and Pierce County

Heritage Media Corp.

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