Heinie Sage

I THINK MOST of us associate the name of Heinie Sage with a little guy getting up from the bottom of almost any play in almost any football game, his white hair sticking out from underneath a dark green helmet that had just been half knocked off his head. He always got up, and always was ready to be on the bottom of the next play. He never quit, and he never took it easy. When the going got tough, he was in there just the same. Probably the best example of this was the 1925 game with Brown. The going was tough that day, as you will remember. You will also remember that Heinie blocked two punts that resulted in the only two touchdowns we scored. The 1924 game with Harvard was another day when the going was tough, and it was little Heinie who knocked down big Harvard backs, passes, kicks and everything else. He more than anyone else was responsible for our win that day, I think.

There is no doubt that most of us will remember Heinie primarily as a football player—one of the great. Neither is there any doubt that many of us will remember Heinie as a friend—one of the greatest. On my lists of Dartmouth football players and Dartmouth friends he ranks at the top on both. And he didn't belong exclusively to me. Bob Cleary was the only one from college who attended the funeral, but as I wrote the father, had it been possible there are many more of us who would have been there. He was a real one.