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I am researching a relative whose name appears in the book Michigan: Champions of the West. Much of the book consists of names, abbreviations, and years. Here is an excerpt:

Bailey, Debi       VB   1986
Bailey, Donald A.  FB   1964,65,66
Bailey, Eric R.    MSW  1989,90,91,92

I can imagine FB standing for football or fullback. What does MSW stand for?

Other abbreviations are SB, IHO, MTN, MBK, and MTR.

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  • MSW can mean Master of Social Work, and MSU did offer that degree in the late 80s and early 90s, although I doubt that would make it into a sports records book..
    – sempaiscuba
    Jul 5, 2018 at 19:42
  • Where are you getting the information? The book should have a list of abbreviations in the front matter. (I understand you may be seeing someone else's extracts and that they didn't bother to copy the abbreviations.)
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Jul 5, 2018 at 20:27
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    I used Google Books and provide a link in the question. I was not able to find a key to the abbreviations.
    – Ellen Spertus
    Jul 5, 2018 at 20:56
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    Thanks for the clarification. I did look at Google Books via your link to confirm that the preview there wouldn't show you a page with the abbreviations on it. It's useful to state these things explicitly in your Q so people can see what you've already tried.
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Jul 7, 2018 at 22:24

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That's a list of people who competed in sports. So in your example it seems likely that VB is volleyball, FB is football, and MSW is men's swimming. I would presume that any three-letter abbreviation in that list which starts with M is men's something. So MTN men's tennis, MTR men's track, etc.

The years are presumably when the person competed in the listed sport.

Edit: More likely meanings: IHO intramural hockey, SB softball, MBK men's basketball.

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