The Multnomah Athletic Club (MAC) is a private social and athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, a coordinating body for team and individual sports such as track and field, football, and basketball and fielded its own competitive teams against collegiate competition. It is currently a 21,000 member institution, providing athletic and dining facilities to its dues-payers.
The Multnomah Athletic Club was originally founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club. It is located in Portland, Oregon's Goose Hollow neighborhood, occupying two buildings adjacent to the Providence Park sports stadium.
The club hosted an annual outdoor athletic games in Portland, with the inaugural event taking place in September 1891.[3] The event included a traditional spectrum of track and field events, including sprints, middle distance races, and a one-mile run, hurdling, high and long jumping, pole vaulting, the hammer throw and shot put, as well as a one-mile race walk and a two-mile bicycle race.[3] These annual competitions were open to any member of a valid athletic club, military unit, or institution of higher learning.[3]
Bicycle racing was an important part of the club's activities during its first decade, with one of its members claiming world records in the one-mile and ten-mile bicycle race from a standing start in 1894.[4]
Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club also served as the organizer of its own teams, playing football against other clubs from its inception.[5] Chief rivals on the gridiron during the ensuing two decades included the teams of the Seattle Athletic Club and Spokane Amateur Athletic Club;[5] regular games against Oregon college teams were also played.
The entrance to the Multnomah Athletic Club photographed in 2014.
The club is known for its exclusivity[6] and was historically male-dominated. Women members were not given full voting privileges until 1977. Jews were also not allowed to be a MAC member until 1958.[7]
New memberships are chosen by a lottery, however applicants who don't know a current member may be asked to present a reference letter.[8]
It has been called "the only club in town that matters" and Nike had paid for one of its former executive's MAC membership on company expense to "help him integrate into the Portland business community"[9][10]
Facilities
The club's primary facility is an eight-level main clubhouse located adjacent to Providence Park. The club's facilities total 600,000 square feet (56,000m2), making it the largest indoor athletic club in the world.[11][12]
1 2 C.N. MacArthur, "Foot Ball in the Pacific Northwest," in Walter Camp (ed.), Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, 1907. New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1907; p. 81.
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