FAVORING A CHANGE IN FOOTBALL SEATING

Washington, D. C., Nov. 12, 1920.

Editor of DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE:

Dear Sir—Please register one affirmative vote for the suggestion of Mr. G. W. Elderkin in the November issue of the MAGAZINE.

At the recent Cornell game, the writer was unfortunate in not filing his application for tickets sufficiently in advance to be located in the exclusively Dartmouth section of the stands, but he most certainly would have appreciated the opportunity to see his classmates without engaging in the limb-endangering snake dance in order to find them.

Then too, at a football game at which Dartmouth is a participant,, it is sometimes an advantage to sit with those who have a capacity for sympathy and forgiveness. This is apt to be found among one's classmates who know most all one's faults rather than among total strangers. I recall keenly the series of objections registered by an individual, who sat behind me in the Polo Grounds, at my insistence upon rising as every play started. I am sure a classmate would have wasted no such amount of breath. He would have either knocked me down or risen with me: probably the latter.

Then too, lolling in the seat closely adjoining us was a spectator, who had had the misfortune to have selected a drinking menu which did not dovetail with his dining program. His conduct and his subsequent collapse were not conducive to an uninterrupted enjoyment of the game. I feel reasonably certain that this experience would not have been necessary had I sat with my own classmates.

In closing I would like to suggest that these remarks are intended in no way as a criticism of the present handling of the situation, but are ventured in support of the improvement suggested by Mr. Elderkin.

Yours very truly,

Butte, Mont., Nov. 17, 1920.

Editor of DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE:

Dear Sir—I quite agree with the remarks of Elderkin '02 relative to the distribution of seats at the football games. Such a scheme should appeal strongly to the Dartmouth graduates of the last century, who, like myself, have not visited the old college but a very few times since graduation. We old sports don't see many real football games played or managed this side of "the Great River" by Dartmouth men. In the classic phrase of Capt. E. Pat Kelly '09, "We have the men and the guns" but little chance to use them. The chief point in Mr. Elderkin's letter seems to me to be the seating of the classmates together, and I know of a case in point. My parents saw to it that I attended the 100th anniversary of the founding of Dartmouth. Last year I was present at the 150th anniversary of the founding of the same college. There was no football game at the 100th celebration. I may be mistaken. Ask Sam Powers, of '74; he knows. Last year I found a ticket for the Dartmouth-Penn State game awaiting me at the Newton Inn, Norwich, Vt. "Weeks" Morrill, one of my classmates, lives in Norwich —sometimes. I went to the above entitled game and was given a good place from a view point, surrounded by total strangers, Dartmouth men, to be sure, but graduates of the 20th century. They were quite happy among themselves, either classmates or classmates associated. I knew very little of football tactics, and, "too proud to fight'" for information. All things were new to me; the cheers, the songs, the players. The only pleasure I got out of that game was the Dartmouth victory and the display of the Dartmouth spirit 150 years old. Had I been seated with the men of my class, 74, it would have afforded me far more pleasure than any class reunion I ever enjoyed. Seated together, I would have listened to the explanation of the various moves in the game from those athletes, Sam McCall, Bill Morrill, Sam Powers, Judge Parsons, and the rest, who have played politics for many, many snows, and football and politics "are sisters under their skin." I hope the Athletic Council will assign me a seat with my classmates at the football game played at the 200th anniversary of the founding of Dartmouth.

Signed

Member of the Council of the Alumni of Dartmouth College.