'No limits': FSU circus flew high for almost 80 years; it will again after tornado | TLH 200

EDITOR'S NOTE:The Florida State University Flying High Circus was dealt a heavy blow in the May 10 tornado outbreak that cut a wide swath of damage through the urban core of Tallahassee. The storm took out the Big Top, the majority of the seating and damaged equipment. It will costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for them to recover. Visit www.circus.fsu.edu/support-us to donate or learn how to help. In honor of the greatest show on campus and in Tallahassee, we present the history of the circus in this week's TLH 200 spotlight.

The Florida State University Flying High Circus was founded in 1947 by Jack Haskin and was one of the first ways of integrating men and women after the college became co-ed. Haskin introduced an activity he had used as a high-school teacher in Illinois: a circus of two dozen acrobatic, juggling and balancing acts.

FSU students, who are required to audition, are responsible for all aspects of the show; aerial and stage talents, from equipment setup and sewing costumes to lights and sound.

By the 1960s, the circus was internationally famous and appeared on TV shows such as "Wide World of Sports." In the 1970s, former circus director Dickie Brinson scheduled road shows all over the Southeast and Caribbean, found donors and fostered an alumni association.

A small percentage of student performers pursue a professional career after graduation.

When Democrat writer Gerald Ensley wrote about the circus in 2005, 60 years after its inception, it was "still attracting college students eager for a challenge, still wowing crowds with acrobatic derring-do, and still serving as one of the best advertisements for FSU."

"Welcome to the greatest show on campus," Ensley wrote.

On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the circus in 2022, Tallahassee Democrat writer Marina Brown looked back on the institution's rich history. Here's some highlights:

More on the origins of a co-ed circus 

It was shortly after the end of World War II and through the GI Bill, thousands of ex-combatants were heading into colleges across the nation. The University of Florida in Gainesville was inundated.

Some of the overflow young men were routed to what was then Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. Within the year, realizing the need, the Legislature changed the institution’s name to Florida State University — and made it immediately co-ed.

Administrators believed that the need for “culture” change and readjustment was obvious. They wanted to offer the newly admitted young men those things that might be expected from college life — football among them — and they wanted to make for a co-educational experience in which both the women already on campus and their male counterparts could share.

It was with the hiring of FSU’s first Assistant Football Coach, Jack Haskin, a recreational director from Wisconsin, that 75 years ago the university seemed to obtain both objectives: Haskins would work with the football team, but also establish an “Introduction to Circus,” a one semester course teaching juggling, tightrope walking, and rigging, that would appeal to both sexes.

And that it did. By 1948, Haskins had shed his football title and was the full-time Director of the Circus, booking the performers for a European tour and establishing a circus summer school in Callaway Gardens, Georgia.

More on the Italian-made big top 

Since 1947, FSU’s early big tops were American-made tents of canvas. Chad Mathews, who has worked with the circus for a quarter century, told the Democrat at the time they always had problems. “They would wear out every 12 years or so. We also only had bleacher seating, and a sawdust floor.”

All of that changed in 2011 when with a project costing $1.2 million, a brand-new, bespoke Italian-made tent, seating, and flooring were installed.

“Now we have two amazing cupolas over the rings with four winches controlling the rigging in each, a tent that can stay up most of the year, and one that can seat 1,300 people,” Matthews said in 2022.

Now with the tent topple and torn after the tornado, Mathews says it could cost over $400,000 to replace the top of the Big Top alone, which does not include the steel structure or poles.

"Losing our tent in the tornado that struck Tallahassee last Friday has been truly overwhelming. If you have been a member of the circus, you know that the tent is more than just a building, it is a cornerstone of the FSU Circus experience," the circus posted on Facebook.

"Rest assured that the FSU Circus staff are working with our campus partners to develop a plan on how to move forward. We are still early in the response but after initial conversations, the plan is to completely replace the tent and seating which sustained irreparable damage in the storm."

What performers have said about the power of the circus

FSU developed an oral history archive of short interviews with former FSU High Flying Circus performers who share the same sentiments as today’s student performers:

“We surrendered our egos for the sake of the “team,” their recorded voices say.

“I found that if I could do the high wire, I could do anything.”

“It brought me lasting pride. I pushed myself beyond my limits, so that in life, I learned there are no limits.”

This story is part of TLH 200: the Gerald Ensley Bicentennial Memorial Project. Throughout our city's 200th birthday, we'll be drawing on the Tallahassee Democrat columnist and historian's research as we re-examine Tallahassee history. Read more at tallahassee.com/tlh200. Ana Goñi-Lessan can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.