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Rhetorical Impact
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming Football Program, 1949
Public spaces are able to hold power beyond their physical capacities; they can shape how communities create, preserve, and share memories that are created within a public space. John Corbett’s establishment of athletic programs and facilities at the University of Wyoming encapsulates these concepts within its physical boundaries. The building, gym, and pool that bear his name represent more than physical materials put together; they represent and embody human emotion, achievement, and countless individual moments that come together to create the shared history and public memory of Corbett's legacy. When a person walks through the John Corbett building, they’re not just walking through a physical space, they’re able to actively start engaging with layers of memory built up over generations.
Physical spaces, in a community like Laramie and on the UW campus, shape our understanding of what holds value. These spaces, like the Corbett Building, can teach us without words, showing us what tradition, excellence, and connection look like. This is what is referred to as an epistemic function, which is the way that something helps us gain knowledge and understanding. The John Corbett building has served this role for decades, effectively creating a framework through which students, athletes, and community members can learn about athletic excellence, performance, and pride.
The Corbett building has kept John Corbett’s legacy alive not just through plaques or formal memorials, but through the lived experiences that reside inside its walls. Each year that passes allows people to add their own memories while connecting to the memories of the ones who came before them. The John Corbett building provides the University of Wyoming and the Laramie community with a tangible link to their athletic history that makes up so much of their identities. In Corbett, the past remains the present because there is access to it through experience.
Duffy, William. What Is Rhetoric? A “Choose Your Own Adventure”, 2023.
Library Sports Grille, University of Wyoming Football Program, 1946
Institutions shape public comprehension and understanding through spatial and physical choices. This choice of relocation is the University of Wyoming essentially choosing a narrative for its identity to emphasize. This narrative is that of current athletic success and prominence over historical athletic foundations implemented by John Corbett that got UW to where they are today.
The relevance of the new facility opens doors (literally) to a new identity of athletic excellence, with newer amenities and access being positioned next to the university’s most visible athletic success. Simultaneously, it closes doors to the embodiment of historical context and experiences that Corbett Pool and the Corbett Building offered for so many years. There is not only an end to the ability to create new memories at Corbett, but there is an end to a particular kind of relevance that surrounds Corbett's legacy.
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Relevance and accessibility are other prominent components of John Corbett and his legacy. The two-decade discussion that surrounded Corbett pool and its accessibility for UW represents an institutional turmoil that follows institutions when they are faced with balancing tradition and evolution. The physical relocation of the new UW Aquatic Center goes hand in hand with cognitive effort and the reduced amount that it will require to make connections with Corbett’s legacy. The physical placement of the center is more accessible and visible across from War Memorial Stadium, which is inherently connected more with the university’s athletic pride and success.
Inherently, the physical and rhetorical relevance of the new UW Aquatic Center is increased tenfold due to barriers of accessibility being lowered by its physical placement. This placement also reflects a rhetorical message from the University of Wyoming that any proximity close to a physical space of current athletic success (War Memorial) matters more for contemporary relevance than any connection to foundational history.
Simon , Nina. The Art of Relevance. 2016.
Conceptually, erasing the public memory site that is Corbett is another compelling and important aspect of UW identity. Rhetorically erasing a physical space that has not been long associated discourse surrounding athletic success minimizes the significance of Corbett. Erasive rhetoric operates in many ways that can be harmful to public spaces like Corbett. An example of this is name changing spaces to sever and remove historical association. Referring to the new pool as the “UW Aquatic Center” without any relation to Corbett pool or the John Corbett, it verbally positions the space as an entirely new facility rather than a replacement.
Rhetoric is often associated with and thought of as speaking, and the verbalization of narratives; this physical disconnection of the new facility away from Corbett reinforces this kind of narrative. There is no continuation of Corbetts legacy or story within the new aquatic center. This construction should feel like continuous chapters of athletic success for the University of Wyoming, but it is inherently isolated in its core.
Dragga, Sam , and Gwendolyn Gong. “Dangerous Neighbors: Erasive Rhetoric and Communities at Risk.” Technical Communication, vol. 61, no. 2, 4 May 2014, pp. 76–94.
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