Game Clubs

(Trinity) Chess Club

The Chess Club was a club for students interested in playing chess to gather and compete against each other, faculty, and occasionally other colleges.

The club was first formed in 1870, but reformed and reorganized in 1899 to encourage more participation, organize more tournaments, spend less time arguing about rules and more time playing during meetings, and to ensure that players of similar skills were matched against each other to make the games more entertaining.

The club was reformed in 1933. Their charter membership upon forming was six members with President Remsen Ogilby as the Honorary President. In 1934, the club prepared to play matches against Harvard, Yale, Northeastern, and M.I.T.

The Chess Club has since disappeared.

(Trinity) Cribbage Club

Cribbage is a card game typically played between two players. The first mention of Trinity's Cribbage Club was in 1872.

The Cribbage Club had advertisements in The Trinity Tablet and was listed under “clubs” in several editions of the Ivy in the early 1870s. Their feature in the 1876 addition of the Ivy included the tagline: “Not the golden, but the crib(b)age club.”

Euchre Clubs

Euchre is a card game typically played between two teams of two using a standard deck of cards. Its peak popularity in the United States was in the 19th century.

U(Cur) Club

The U(Cur) Club at least existed in 1876 with four members.

Ukur Klub

The Ukur Klub was another group for students interested in playing the card game euchre. The club was mentioned in the 1874 edition of the Ivy just under the other Trinity club dedicated to the game (aptly named Euchre Club).

Their motto in the yearbook was “Never turn it down,” and their members had titles using terminology related to the game (one member being a king, another listed as a counter). Following the list of members was the phrase “No jokers allowed.”

Whist Clubs

Whist is a card game typically played between two teams of two using a standard deck of cards. It was most popular during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Alpha Delta Phi Whist Club

The Alpha Delta Phi Whist Club existed at least in 1879 in which they played 1,046 total points.

Brownell Hall Whist Club

The Brownell Hall Whist Club was established in the early 1870s. They were featured in the 1874 edition of the Ivy, callings themselves “Champions of the College”. Along with the members' names, the number of games (114) and average game length (15 minutes) were listed.