The History of the Yale Debate Association
Yalies began to debate competitively in the 1890s, with ad hoc debates against Harvard. A more formal association of Ivy League debaters began in 1908 when Harvard, Princeton, and Yale agreed to hold three annual debates, known together as Triangulars. Debaters at each college fiercely competed before faculty members for the coveted slots. These were high-caliber debates: overflowing audiences watched each debate, and judges included university presidents, mayors, U.S. Court of Appeals judges, and even former U.S. president Grover Cleveland. Some debates were reported on by widely circulating newspapers like The New York Times. One Times journalist remarked in 1896, "It is generally as important to win this debate [Yale v. Harvard] as to win the football debate in the fall."
Resolution topics ranged from current political and economic events, such as the independence of Panama (1904) or the repeal of the prohibition amendment (1919), to social questions like women's suffrage (1914) or the purpose of a college education (1895).
Triangulars: An Ivy Beginning
Intercollegiate Leagues Debate Becomes Less Exclusive
Eventually, Yale invited other colleges, including Columbia, Wesleyan, Amherst, and Vassar, to similar three-on-three debates. Yale organized an inter-collegiate debating league in 1922, cooperating with Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Bates, and Cornell. Wesleyan, Brown, and Columbia were charter members. West Point hosted the first national debate tournament in 1947. Each team was composed of three men, and the debate topics were announced in advance for each of the five rounds.
Despite the rise of these organized tournaments, most debate between the Ivy League institutions continued in ad hoc invitational style. Yale began a bilateral tradition of annual "humorous" debates with Princeton in 1949 that endured for nearly a decade. When the national debating league attempted to institutionalize national tournaments, Yale had a falling out with the league and refused to participate for several years. Ironically, the YDA now debates primarily in a similar national format, standardized by the American Parliamentary Debate Association founded in 1982.
Oxford invited Yale to debate for the first time in 1922. The debate, held in New Haven, discussed whether the United States should cancel the war debts of European states. To avoid nationalistic division, the sides were split between schools: one American and two British versus two Americans and one British. Though the British-majority side won that first debate, it was not the end of Yale's debates with Oxbridge.
By the 1930s, Yale was debating Cambridge and Oxford almost every year. One particularly famous 1933 debate against Cambridge was held over the radio for international listeners. Today, Yale still debates at the annual British Parliamentary tournaments at Cambridge and Oxford; in 2006, we were proud to win both.
International Debate: Britain v. United States
Coaches
The YDA’s first coach was Professor John Chester Adams (Yale Class of 1896), who coached from 1914 until his retirement in 1948. Our second (and last) faculty coach was Rollin "Rolly" Osterweis, who took the position immediately after Adams' retirement.
Training under Osterweis was rigorous. The team was split into freshman and varsity teams, each with regular practices. Since debate topics were often known in advance, members were expected to do extensive research before each competition - our archives are filled with receipts for handbooks and research manuals. Osterweis emphasized refining speaking style: debaters even had to tape-record and evaluate their speeches. Osterweis's pupils often made debate the center of their life at Yale, joining the Yale Political Union (YPU), debating for their residential college teams, and competing in numerous public debates held on campus. Osterweis also advised the YPU and taught a course for YDA members called The History of American Oratory, which trained students in rhetoric by examining historic political speeches.
Upon the retirement of Osterweis in 1979, Yale faculty founded in his honor the Osterweis Memorial High School Tournament to promote debate in local public schools; the YDA continues to host this tournament annually in commemoration of this beloved coach's life and debate work.
The Yale Debate Association Today
Currently, the YDA travels to colleges across the East Coast each weekend to compete in American Parliamentary Debate. Although the YDA no longer has a faculty coach, we have several former-debater, current law school student coaches who host workshops and judge practice rounds. International debate is an important part of our competitive activities as we travel each year to the United Kingdom, Canadian tournaments, and the Worlds University Debating Championships, held in a different world city each time.
