Talk:Multnomah Athletic Club

Notable members

If they're notable, they need to have Wikipedia articles. Katr67 17:40, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

i dont think that this is a needed section hornplayer2 (talk) 03:09, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

WP:FOOD Tagging

This article talk page was automatically added with {{WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Restaurants or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. You can find the related request for tagging here -- TinucherianBot (talk) 10:30, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

An omission

Hmm. Nothing about its social/economic clout in Portland -- which is the Club's primary claim to notability; almost all of the city's movers & shakers are members. (BTW, another famous member is Homer Groening, father of Matt Groening.) -- llywrch (talk) 17:10, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Citation for claim broken

The citation to the following statement:

"It now fills two buildings totaling 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2), making it the largest indoor athletic club in the world."

Is missing. The citation points to http://oregonsportshall.org/multnomah_athletic_club.html, which has returned a 404. The wayback machine has a backup from march 30th 2012, at https://web.archive.org/web/20120330075057/http://oregonsportshall.org/multnomah_athletic_club.html where it does say:

"Membership has surpassed 20,000 and the current clubhouse of 550,000 square feet has allowed it to be called the largest indoor athletic club in the world. It was inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.". I will replace it with the following two citations: https://themac.com/history https://pdx.eater.com/2015/12/17/10341900/dining-at-the-multnomah-athletic-club-james-beard-chef-boulot-history. The reliability of these sources should be checked, as the first is from the MAC's website, and the second is from 2015 (these statistics can change from year to year). KazMalKen (talk) 03:50, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

Request to improve historical coverage and overall balance

Hello. I will not edit the article directly and am submitting this request for review by independent editors.

I am not requesting the removal of relevant criticism or the 2026 attack. My concern is that the article currently provides limited coverage of the club’s 135-year athletic, architectural, and civic history, while giving substantial prominence to a small number of controversies and recent events. I believe the article could be made more representative of the available independent sourcing.

The Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of Portland State University and the Oregon Historical Society, provides extensive independent coverage of the club’s history:

Multnomah Athletic Club – The Oregon Encyclopedia

The Oregon History Project also documents the club’s role in developing Multnomah Field and constructing Multnomah Stadium, now Providence Park:

Civic Stadium – Oregon History Project

Based on these sources, I would appreciate consideration of the following changes:

1. Expand lead

The current lead moves quickly from the club’s founding to the May 2026 attack without summarizing several of the subjects covered in the body or in independent historical sources, including the club’s role in Portland athletics, the construction of Multnomah Stadium, and its history of producing Olympic athletes.

Suggested wording:

“The ‘’‘Multnomah Athletic Club’’’ (’’‘MAC’’’) is a private social and athletic club in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, it played a role in the early development of organized athletics in Portland and constructed Multnomah Stadium, now known as Providence Park. Athletes affiliated with the club have competed at national and Olympic levels in track and field, swimming, diving, wrestling, and other sports.

Located in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood, the club operates an eight-level athletic and social facility and had approximately 21,000 members as of May 2026. In May 2026, the clubhouse was damaged when a former employee drove a vehicle containing explosive devices into the building. The driver died, but no club members or employees were injured.”

This wording retains the 2026 incident in the lead while providing a broader summary of the organization’s historical significance.

2. Expand the History section

The Oregon Encyclopedia supports the addition of a chronological overview that could include:

The club’s founding by 26 members in 1891. The establishment of an athletic field in Goose Hollow during the 1890s. The opening of its first Goose Hollow clubhouse in 1900. The destruction of the clubhouse and athletic facilities by fire in 1910. President Theodore Roosevelt laying the cornerstone for the replacement clubhouse in 1911. Completion of the Morris Whitehouse-designed clubhouse in 1912. The club’s financing and construction of Multnomah Stadium in 1926. The change from “Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club” to “Multnomah Athletic Club” in 1936. The expansion of indoor athletic facilities during the 1960s. The sale of Multnomah Stadium to the City of Portland in 1966. The replacement of the 1912 clubhouse with a new principal structure in 1973. This material would provide context for the existing paragraphs about the club’s earliest athletic competitions.

3. Add an Athletic programs and notable athletes section

The Oregon Encyclopedia describes the club’s track-and-field program as having received international recognition and identifies numerous MAC-affiliated Olympic athletes. A concise section could summarize the club’s historical contributions to track and field, swimming, diving, wrestling, and other sports.

Athletes identified by the source include Bert Kerrigan, Forrest Smithson, A.C. Gilbert, Martin Hawkins, Thelma Payne, Louis Kuehn, Robin Reed, Chester Newton, Suzanne Zimmerman, Carolyn Wood, Kevin Freeman, Rick Sanders, and Joni Huntley.

This does not need to become an exhaustive list. A short overview would help explain the club’s athletic significance beyond the detailed description of its 1891 games.

4. Review potentially disproportionate or unclear passages

I would also appreciate independent review of the following passages under Wikipedia’s policies concerning due weight, context, and precise attribution:

The categorical statement that Jewish people were not permitted to become members until 1958 appears to conflict with published historical reporting that nine of the club’s original 26 founders were Jewish, including two members of its first board of trustees: Jewish Founders of the Multnomah Athletic Club. I am not asking that the history of discrimination be omitted, but the apparent conflict between these sources may warrant clarification and more precise wording.

The statement about a former general manager’s 2017 compensation appears as a standalone fact without broader historical or governance context. Review of whether this represents due weight in an institutional history spanning more than a century.

The quotation describing MAC as “the only club in town that matters” is currently presented without much context. It may fit better within a broader discussion of the club’s historical place in Portland’s business and social community.

The “Sexual harassment incident” subsection contains relevant, sourced reporting, but its placement and length may give one employment matter disproportionate structural prominence within the overall article. It may be more appropriate to summarize the documented findings within the 2026 attack section, with careful distinctions between allegations, agency findings, and established motivations.

Again, I recognize that reliably sourced criticism and negative history belong on Wikipedia. My request is that independent editors consider whether the article would be more encyclopedic with fuller coverage of the club’s independently documented history and a more proportional treatment of its major subjects.

Thank you for reviewing this request. I am happy to provide proposed article text and properly formatted citations for any individual section if that would be useful. I am not savvy enough to lead edits on Wikipedia and will defer to those with experience in this space.

~2026-43535-38 (talk) 18:37, 7 August 2026 (UTC)

References