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SHARP SHOOTERS
They were kids fresh from combat in Korea, or ROTC cadets, or just regular students who liked a good sport. They liked shooting, and they swelled the ranks of Northeastern's Rifle Club to nearly 600 in the early 1960s. The campus rifle range in Cabot Gym-now a weight room-rang out with the shots of young sharpshooters all day long. Men, women, athletic or not, tall or short-shooting was a sport many could enjoy. They used .22-caliber rifles that were small and easy to handle, and the targets in the rifle range were easy to hit. ("Although some of us had problems," quips Tony Bajdek, an undergraduate and ROTC cadet in the late 1950s who is now associate dean of student affairs.) From the ranks of the Rifle Club came the Rifle Team, which posted the best record of any Northeastern athletic team for several years running. In 1958, Major Mac Seldner of N.U.'s ROTC unit had this to say: "Northeastern is just small stuff in football and basketball, but in rifle we're big league." But shooting fell out of favor with the onset of the Vietnam era, and the Rifle Club became a "dinosaur," Bajdek says. Still, some think fondly of the good old days. Former Rifle Team member Dick Campbell, E'62, recalls shooting as an "incredible" sport. "I still have my trophies," he says. "I come across them every now and then and I think, 'That was a good time.' "
