Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) is a privately-owned athletic club and social club located in Los Angeles, California, US. It was established in 1880. club is most famous today by its John R. Wooden award given to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball player of each year.History
The Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) was founded on September 8 of 1880. It was at the end of its initial month of existence, the club had enlisted 60 members. The club was able to rent its first venue, two halls located in Stearns Hall located on Los Angeles Street in downtown Los Angeles. A 19th Century history indicates that the club served the dual purpose consisting of “providing its members with the means of physical development” as well as “the advantages of a gentlemen's club.
The club relocated for the very first time back in 1881. They moved to more commodious accommodations inside the Downey Block, before moving another time to a larger home situated in the Stowell Block. A fire in 1893 necessitated the club to move to temporary quarters in the Workman Block, next door to the earlier Stowell Block location. The membership at this particular location soon topped 400, which prompted the building of the club's own permanent building built on four levels with a huge gymnasium that was located on the 3rd floor of an expanded. It was situated on the east of Spring Street between 5th and 6th. Its architects were McCarthy & Mendel.
The club offered a facility for gymnastics, athletic training, and team sports, including organization of a civic football team that played its first intercity game with San Francisco in January 1892. Through its first two decades of existence the club also set up an athletic park outdoors, which included a running track and path for cycling as well as a baseball diamond, tennis courts, and croquet facilities. It also provided rooms designed for socializing, such as an expansive reading room, and designated areas for billiards and cards.
1912 relocation
In 1912, it was moved into its own Los Angeles Athletic Club Building located at 431 West Seventh Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The twelve-story Beaux-Arts kind of clubhouse designed for LAAC LAAC in 1912 by John Parkinson and George Bergstrom and is now an Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The clubhouse is famous for being the first structure in Southern California to have an indoor swimming pool that was built on the top floor.
Let's have a look at diferenet famous sports & their rules.
- Baseball & it's rules
- Basketball & it's rules
- Basque Pelota & it's rules
- Beach Handball & it's rules
- Beach Tennis & it's rules
Because of its role in the growth and development in Los Angeles, the LAAC enjoyed a significant amount of success over its first 60 years and its membership reflected its place on the scene of Los Angeles society and early Hollywood culture. In its glory days, the LAAC was the genesis of a number of additional institutions, like it's California Yacht Club (1922) and Riviera Country Club (1926). They are now separate organizations.
The club was hit with substantial financial pressures due to World War II and the development of suburbs.
Athletes from the LAAC have earned numerous medals during the Summer Olympics, with a particular high number of medals during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad. In total, the Olympic medal tally for the LAAC totals 97 medals comprising 47 gold.
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