Athletics gained prominence as interest in facilitating a connection between physical education and intellectual growth emerged, and the Academy expanded its athletics offerings. Teams during the early part of the 1900s included football, ice hockey (played at Silver Lake), track and cross-country running, basketball, baseball, tennis, and shell-racing. The growing program forced Academy athletes in 1921 to hold their contests at fields that had been given to the school on Delafield Square. In 1931, a field house and additional athletic fields were acquired when the school purchased land off Todt Hill Road, and Staten Island Academy donated the land at Delafield Square to the City of New York, which created Walker Park from it.