Tumbling Through the Decades: A Look at the Early Years of the Andrews University Gymnics

Founded in 1968, the Andrews University Gymnics is a traveling acrosport gymnastics team that uses multiple tumbling techniques, handstands, teeterboard, flying, aerial silks, lyra, minitramp, and wall walking to share messages such as anti-drug use and anti-bullying across the country and even around the world. Through the years, the different Gymnics teams have performed in Canada and California and have taken numerous trips around southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and Illinois. The early teams are known to have been as far as Russia and Europe. Their audience mainly consists of academies, public school rallies, youth groups, college and NBA halftime shows, and other venues that support and uplift healthy lifestyles. Among the hour-long performances this group puts on, they also offer clinics for those interested in gymnastics and provide wellness rallies at middle and high schools, as well as vespers and church services. The formation of the Andrews University Gymnics goes back to the late 1960s when a man found himself in Berrien Springs, Michigan, after moving from San Pasqual Academy in Escondido, California. 

According to a term paper done in 1978 by a then-student here, Buz A. P. Menhardt, Robert Kalua conducted a screening clinic for the students interested in being a part of a new gymnastics team. Meeting Monday through Thursday from 8:00-9:30 pm, the goal for Kalua was to discover talent, get acquainted with his new environment and for students to meet one another, and to find people who could be depended upon to meet regularly. From this clinic, thirty college, highschool, and elementary students were chosen who then were “required to practice two hours every evening Monday through Thursday while maintaining a C average in their work.” The night of February 1, 1968 the Andrews University Gymnics made their debut on campus and eight trips to surrounding academies around the Lake Union area followed shortly after. The team also traveled to Kingsway College in Canada, Kettering Medical School in Ohio, and made an appearance in Chicago. In 1969, twelve team members were presented with the opportunity to perform at the World Youth Congress in Zurich, Switzerland and were the only gymnastics team from the United States to attend. Later that year during their U.S. tour, an idea came up that led to adding hymns to the routine that they would sing and in 1970, Coach Kalua asked Jim Bingham, “a graduate music student,” to lead the troupe in making them sound more like a choir. After pushing through a few rough patches, they added two songs to their performance thereby splitting their routine into two portions, tumbling and music. The attraction to the Gymnics team continued to grow and during the fall of 1970, 175-200 students enrolled in the four-week screening clinic. Out of this number, 42 made the team and in the summer of the same year, Coach Kalua led twenty-two on a summer tour across the country, traveling some 20,000 miles and performing in front of some 70,000 people in total.

This is only the beginning of the Andrews University Gymnics journey, through the decades to where they are now and through the shifts and changes of time. The Gymnics continue to awe and amaze those who have the opportunity to witness their performances and there is no doubt that this will continue to be the case in times to come. 

Note: The information used in this article can be found in a paper entitled “I Belong . . . A History of the Gymnic Ministry” by Buz A. P. Menhardt, located in the Center for Adventist Research in the James White Library.