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Organized sports were slow to develop at Indiana Asbury, though as early as 1866 a baseball team was organized which lost two games to Wabash in November of that year and May of the next, thus inaugurating the long athletic rivalry between the neighboring institutions. There is no record of another engagement until 1875, when Asbury turned the tables, winning by a score of 39-9. By 1879 an informal program of intramurals had begun, with baseball contests between classes and later between fraternities. On May 20, 1880, the first intercollegiate football game was played in Greencastle between Asbury and Butler University, won by the latter by a margin of four touchdowns. In the afternoon a baseball game between the two institutions ended in a forfeit to Asbury by the score of 9-1 when the Butler team walked off the field for some reason after the sixth inning. In the spring of 1884 Asbury played two baseball games with Indiana University, both won by the state institution, and lost another football match to Butler in Indianapolis.

The first "field day" took place on Washington's birthday in 1881, when the military department sponsored a two-mile go-as-you-please race, a wrestling match, a dumb-bell contest, a 200-yard dash, a standing and running broad jump, a wheelbarrow race, and a tug-of-war between classes (won by the freshmen), as well as a ladies walking match. In the meantime the gymnasium in West College was equipped for use by students on a fee basis under the direction of the military department. The 1881-82 catalogue listed its equipment, which included horizontal and parallel bars, a rowing machine, a single and double trapeze, along with boxing gloves, fencing foils, and Indian clubs.

The beginning of the decline in importance of the student literary societies may be dated from the late '70s, when their intellectual and forensic aspect yielded to a more social orientation, perhaps partly as a result of the introduction of coeducation. After 1877 they sponsored three evenings a term which were devoted to music and socializing, with only "short" speeches. Regular meetings were often marked by violent political squabbles between the various fraternities and between fraternity members and "barbs," as non-fraternity men and women were labeled. The faculty finally ordered the selection of a sergeant-at-arms to keep order, even in the all-female Philomathean Society.

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The Mirror was the forerunner of the yearbook.  Some 72 pages in length, it was published in 1877 by five of the seven fraternities and the two sororities and sold for 30¢. It preceded the Mirage by a decade.
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A major factor in the decline of the literary societies was undoubtedly the growth of the social fraternities. By 1884 slightly more than three-fourths of the male students were members of the seven fraternities on campus: Beta Theta Pi (1845), Phi Gamma Delta (1856), Sigma Chi (1859), Phi Kappa Psi (1865), Delta Kappa Epsilon (1866), Phi Delta Theta (1868), and Delta Tau Delta (1871). A smaller proportion of women belonged to the two sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta (1870) and Kappa Kappa Gamma (1875). There was also a small association of "organized barbs." The fraternities rented meeting halls, usually second or third floors of downtown Greencastle buildings, and furnished them like the literary societies, quite luxurious for that day. Here they had regular meetings, social activities, receptions. On Commencement they would have reunions and special meetings.

Historian George Manhart, in his DePauw Through the Years, reports a Delta Kappa Epsilon activity in 1883.

About 6:30 a.m. the boys with the ladies started a "jolly drive" of about two and a half hours to Raccoon, a distance of sixteen miles. The morning was given to swings, croquet, and exploration of the surrounding country. Food was served by a Greencastle caterer, and then followed "cool rest in the leafy shades ... strolls along the `forest aisles"' and finally the "trip home more delightful, if possible, than the ride out" enjoying a royal sunset, and reaching Greencastle "long after the moon had risen, lending a tinge of romance to the scene.

The literary societies, however, played a significant role in some of the first student publications. During 1847-48 the Platonean and Philologian appeared as a joint enterprise of the literary societies. In 1873 the two male societies were joined by the Philomathean in reviving the Asbury Review, which had begun publication in 1866 but ceased to exist two years later, after a confrontation with the faculty and administration over letters and editorials criticizing the introduction of coeducation and other matters. It halted publication again in 1876.

Then in September 1878, the university sponsored a new journal, the Asbury Monthly, with Professor Thomas J. Bassett as editorial director of a staff of five students. The next year the three literary societies took over its management, but by 1880 Philomathean dropped out, apparently because of dissatisfaction with the minor role assigned its members by the male editors. Despite this unfortunate disagreement and continuing conflict with the faculty and administration, the Asbury Monthly was relatively successful and continued publication longer than any previous paper.

Besides such legitimate campus publications, from time to time rather scurrilous sheets were put out by students, usually under the title Bogus. The first effort at producing a yearbook was made by five of the fraternities which issued the Mirror in 1877. It featured names of fraternity members, faculty, students, and trustees as well as information about the literary societies, athletics, and other campus activities. Not until 1884 was another Mirror issued, this time as a private enterprise of two members of the senior class, complete with commercial advertisements. Neither contained photographs, the main staple of such publications in a later era.

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