“I’ve decided to stop thinking about it and just do it,” said Aquinas Head Track Coach and Associate Athletic Director David Wood, of the newly finished, “Houseman Field: The History of City League Track and Field.”

The book, a compilation of oral history, newspaper articles, high school yearbooks, and museum archives, combines Wood’s long-held interests in history, teaching, and athletics into a working reference for the Grand Rapids City League. Using local Houseman Field as a jumping point, Wood explores the history of the league, a collection of Grand Rapids’ high school’s most talented runners, from 1890 to 2008. After two and a half years of research, he has recorded their names, accomplishments, and journeys to culminating conference at Houseman Field at the end of each year while demonstrating the rich history of Grand Rapids athletics.

“I’ve always enjoyed history,” said Wood. A graduate of Central Michigan University with a major in communications and a minor in history, Wood has long-appreciated the record-keeping and statistics of athletics. After graduation and a four-year teaching position at Grand Rapids Public Schools, he pursued his passion for sports, and began coaching full time. In 1994, Wood accepted his current position at Aquinas as Head Track Coach. During these several positions in the Grand Rapids area, his teams frequently competed at Houseman Field, a well-known athletics arena just a few blocks west of the AQ campus.

“People have been running track meets at Houseman Field since the 1920’s,” said Wood, of the unique experience shared by athletes spanning many generations. “They are running on the same track that people ran on 20, 30, 40 years ago.”

As Wood began his research over two and a half years ago, he utilized his own background knowledge, as well as useful tidbits such as school board minutes of the competing local high schools. “It’s been an amazing experience, it’s just an incredible amount of work,” he said.

In addition, as Wood poured over thousands of newspaper articles in the microfiche archives of local libraries, he discovered the importance of the Grand Rapids City League to both athletes and community members. At one particular meet, Wood said, there were approximately 3,000 people in the stands of Houseman field. “It was really a big deal,” he said. The field also frequently housed community field meets that invited Grand Rapidians of all ages to enjoy the facilities and the energy of athletic competition.

The book itself, which spans over a century of athletic history, consists of four evolutionary parts. The beginning; which includes the establishment of the league and its original members, the early years; which tells the story of the first city meet at Houseman Field in 1928 and the organization’s budding development, the golden years; in which the league experienced heightened popularity and increased audience members; and the modern years, which discusses the league’s eventual disbandment and the 2008 remodel of Houseman Field.

As Wood anxiously awaits the book’s publication in September 2011, he reflects on the project itself, as well as the abundance of information that united a town through sport. “There are just a lot of connections,” he said. “It’s really all about names - a lot like a high school year book.”

“I actually want to do another one now on basketball,” said Wood, who ambitiously utilized his passion for history and athletics to share the story of a community. “It’s really been fun to do.”