Early Day Legacy...

'04- Baseball
'09-Baseball 1
'09-Baseball 2
'09-Sapulpa
'09-Sapulpa
'36-M'Gill Bros.
M'Gill Swim Pool
The Teacher
St Louis Browns
King of Sports
M'Gill Boys
April 27, '09

Baseball Legacy...

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WWW Publishing

A Grandfather's Legacy

McGill Bros Swimming Pool

At the close of sultry summer day
Join the crowds that wend their way
To plunge in water fresh and cool
At McGills' most popular Swimming Pool.
And just a few steps from the door
You'll find their Famous Furniture Store.
There, too, your needs will be supplied,
And all your tastes be satisfied.
McGill Brothers, S.W. Cor. Square
Poem by - Wm J. McGill

HELP! I need your expertise! Does anyone recognize the Year that this photo was taken? It is a picture of the "McGill Bros. Swimming Pool that was located to the west and behind the Bros. Furniture Store. In the background you can see an add for "Central National Bank", "St. Nicholas Hotel (block west)", "McGill Bros. Furniture", "W. W. Starr". The young boys swimming in the pool with the grownups standing in background. The white haired tall fellow towards the back looks like my grandfather (Wm. J. "Will" McGill). If you know of anyone else or thing about this picture, please Email Linda.

This is the swimming ticket that
McGill's Swimming Pool issued back
in the 1920s to the student's for a price of $6.

A few people have written me with memories of "McGills' Swimming Pool", etc. I would like to share some of those memories with you now.

"The swimming pool was not behind the store but west of the store. It was next to the DeGreer building. I am not sure but I think the "old blue front furniture store" that Jim started was west of the store that you would recall. Bill was playing baseball and as he traveled around with the ball team he would buy furniture and ship it back to Alva. I sometimes wondered if Bill knew he was suppose to sleep some in a 24 hour period. Jack says that the swimming pool was the first in Alva but my sister remembers swimming in a pool back of the college. I would not know dates of either pool. When water became to high you needed to drain the pool every week and it was not making money. So ----Jim and Bill offered it to the city to run and they said they couldn't afford to run it either. Your Dad (Gene) and Jack used to take turns running it. Kids would slip in at night and swim and sometimes in the nude and so Gene and Jack would sleep over at the pool and chase them out. They also would dive off of the two story DeGreer building into the pool through electric wires which could have been really bad."

Another reader adds this slice of spice to the Memory of "McGills' Pool", "I know about Gene diving from the roof of the building on the west side of the pool. I'll see if my memory comes up with anything about the college pool. I have a vague sense of hearing something about the college pool but can't recall what just now. I do know that the college girls practiced swimming routines at the McGill pool. Have you ever seen any of WJ's athletic pictures at NWOSU? I know they used to have pictures of him in one of the hallways, but I can't remember whether it was about his baseball, golf, or tennis playing. Bob Reneau used to be a walking encyclopedia of WJ's sayings and doings. Is Reneau still alive? He told me about WJ's tennis-playing as an amateur at the regional level and that people from all over would beg WJ to play pairs tennis with them. WJ and somebody won a regional tournament at Kansas City."