Club History
Note to reader: This club history has been pieced together from old newspaper articles, photos, and documents found in the juggling dossier. We apologize for any inconsistencies, glaring omissions, and unintentional fictional elements that may arise. That having been said, the Syracuse University Juggling Club was apparently formed in 1982 by mechanical engineering major Paul Norton, and another individual whose name we do not know. Within a year, Norton formed a professional juggling group called the "Perpetual Motion Juggling Troupe" with friends Erik Daly and Shidan Habibi. Early members of the club in 1982 and 1983 included Sarah Pickett, Jennifer Staples, treasurer Denise Robischau, and vice president Suzanne Shepard. At the time, the club was practicing on Saturday mornings in the Women's Building. Performances included a Syracuse Symphony concert at the Civic Center, and a roller-juggling presentation at the War Memorial.In 1988, the Juggling Club consisted of only two members, after the graduation of ex-president Mark Nichols. Tom Hamill, an aerospace engineering major, and Howard Bloom kept the club alive by practicing every Saturday in an upstairs gymnasium of the Women's Building. It is known that they intended to perform in dormitories, and at the fourth annual "beach party" sponsored by the Central New York Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.
By 1992, the Juggling Club had moved to the Flanagan Exercise Room, and was meeting twice a week. Members included Gil Pontius, a doctoral student at the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry, and club president Ken Orlowski. By 1993, Pontius was working on an original act, the history of the world in eight minutes of juggling. The club was meeting on Wednesdays at 9 PM in the Flanagan Exercise Room, and was performing sporadically for the children at Slocum Heights, and at Margaux's restaurant. Ex-member Paul Longchamps even remembered a few members of the past juggling with the Moscow Circus.
The year 1997 marked the graduation of most of the juggling club, which had reached a weekly attendance in the double digits. In the fall of that year, sophomore illustration major Tim Dose began running the club. Meetings were Monday nights in the Flanagan Exercise Room, and the club performed at the Madrigal Dinner, the Comstock Kidfest, and for the boyscouts. During 1998, the club moved temporarily to the Archbold Exercise Room, and experimented with meetings two nights per week. In 1999, the club moved back to the Flanagan Exercise Room, and began holding meetings on Sundays from 3-5 PM. Members included Ben Henry and Deb Varsik. After Dose graduated, senior film major Mike Longo spent a year at the helm before handing the responsibilities over to sophomore Dan Sayut starting in the fall of 2001. For the next 3 years the club consisted of Dan, John Haffner (So called Self-Appointed Vice President), and Ozgur. Times flucuated around Sunday. We (John) were worried about what would become of club in the next coming year.
John took over responsibilities in the beginning of Summer 2004. That summer, several newsworthy events occurred in the world of SU juggling. John was nearly hired to juggle torches outside of a local Syracuse downtown bar for an exorbitant amount of money. The bar owner had been driving past John's house when he saw him juggling torches in his front yard. The owner liked what he saw, and negotiations started. That opportunity needlessly fell through because the owner of the place insisted on talking to the fire marshal himself. Of course, the local bar owner never got around to talking with the fire marshal. Later in the summer, John was juggling on the quad on an exceptionally hot day without a shirt or footwear when the following conversation took place (abridged):
Stranger: Hi, do you do this [juggling] often?
John: Yes, I do. My name is John.
Stranger (Ernie): Hi, my name is Ernie. I run Late Night at the Gym here at SU. Do you think you can teach people how to juggle?
John: Yes, I do it all the time. I am just now starting as President of the Juggling Club here.
Ernie: Would you like a job teaching people how to juggle?
John: YES! I would do it for free!
Ernie: Don't worry, we'll pay you anyway. Stop by my office in few minutes.
The moral of these stories are: Don't trust anyone to call the fire marshal, and always juggle outside—you never know when someone might want to give you money. Less clothes help too. Now there is a Late Night at the Gym class Saturdays at 10pm.
Promotions for the first week were intense, and John wouldn't have handled it without Martin Sweeney, Allison Jackson, the Owsego Jugglers, and the help of many others. As a result the club is as strong as ever. Thanks! 2004 also brings a new name forced on us because of legal reasons. We are now the Juggling Club at SU.
Current regular members of the Juggling Club at Syracuse University include John Haffner, Ted Cox (advisor), Tom Baldwin, Joe Showers, Madhan Subramaniam!, Megan Moore, Steve Stuart, BT O'Neil, Jeff where are you!?, and Allison Jackson.
designed by megan moore
logo by tom baldwin
