HARRY L. HILLMAN
Death of Dartmouth Coach Mourned by College
PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
IN THE DEATH of Harry Livingston HillI man, Assistant Professor of Physical Education and long-time coach of the track team, men of Dartmouth everywhere feel deeply the loss of one of their great and beloved personalities, who served the College so generously and faithfully for thirty-five years.
Harry was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 8, 1881, and died in Dick's House on August 9, 1945, following an illness of two days. It is difficult to think of him as quiet and at rest, for during his life he was so active, alive and exuberant.
After he was graduated from the Boys' High School of Brooklyn, Harry served for several years as a teller in the Bank of North America in New York, and for a few years as a stock broker and salesman. In the early 1900's, Harry showed great interest in running and in military training, and rapidly developed into one of the nation's greatest and most popular track athletes. While he was a Lieutenant in the National Guard of New York—Company E of the old 13th Regiment of Brooklyn, known as the athletic company of the regiment, because so many national champions were included in its roster: Lawson Robertson, Harvey Cohn, Billy Kramer and Gus Eckman his prowess as a trackman became evident, but at the same time he was censured by his fellow officers for competing with men who were not commissioned officers. But his competitive spirit, coupled with his desire that his regiment make a good showing in the military games, and an inherent passion to help his friends, prompted him to break military precedent and tradition. So, regardless of the consequences, on April 24, 1909, he entered six events and won five of them: the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards, 220 yard hurdles and a three-legged race of 100 yards. Harry and his intimate friend, Lawson Robertson, the present track coach at the University of Pennsylvania, v\jpn the three legged race, establishing a world's record of eleven seconds in the event. This race is recorded in Ripley's very first cartoon on December 19, 1908, in his book, Believe It or Not.
Harry's success in track soon secured for him membership in, first, the Star A. C. of Long Island City, next the Knickerbocker Club, and finally the New York Athletic Club. On February 14, 1933, the latter organization honored him by electing him as an "Olympic Champion Member."
Harry demonstrated at the Olympic Games held in St. Louis in 1904 that he was one of the outstanding athletes of the world by winning three events and setting a world record in each of them. They were the 400-meter flat, won in 491/5 seconds; the 200-meter low hurdles, in 24.6 seconds; and the 400-meter hurdles, in 53 seconds. He was also a member of the Olympic team of 1906 at Athens, and a competitor at London in 1908, running second to Charles Bacon, a teammate in the 400-meter hurdles. While at sea, enroute to the Olympics of 1906, Harry was one of the men nearly washed overboard by a tidal wave. He injured his knee in this accident and was unable to compete in the games. His abilities were further recognized by being appointed an Associate Coach of the Olympiteams of 1924, 1928, and 1932. While serving in this latter position, a long friendship began with Lord Burleigh, the recent
Governor of Bermuda, and a member of the Olympic Team of Great Britain who sought, advice from Coach Hillman in hurdling. It was also while Harry was an associate coach of the Olympic teams that it was the writer's privilege and honor to suggest to the proper authorities that he be awarded an honorary "D," which was done in 1926, so that he could feel at ease among the coaches from other colleges who had been similarly honored.
Harry's success in all this competitionnumbering 56 championships and including those in the Military Games, the metropolitan area of New York, National, Canadian, International and Olympic contests won for him about a thousand medals. The contest which Harry enjoyed the most, judging from his many talks about it, occurred on March 12, 1907, in the old Madison Square Garden. This 600 yard race was between J. B. Taylor (the intercollegiate quarter mile champion), Mel Sheppard (national half mile champion), Eli B. Parsons of Yale (intercollegiate half mile champion), and Hillman (national quarter-mile champion). In a previous race, Taylor nosed out Harry in the last stride, with Sheppard and Parsons less than a yard behind. In the second race, Harry out-raced his opponents and led Taylor across the finish line by a yard.
Well do I remember Harry's account of his first coming to Hanover on January 10, 1910. Seated before a roaring fireplace in his home, while the writer was considering the possibility of coming to Dartmouth, he vividly described his dismay and feelings at a temperature of 25-below-zero, while coming up from the depot in an open sleigh drawn by four horses. To cap the climax, he added that the only track available for him at that time was out-of doors, and he did not know whether he or his candidates—much less his wife could survive such rigors. His first impulse was to give up the position after a short trial at it, but somehow or other he remained for thirty-five years as coach of the varsity track and cross-country teams, and trainer and conditioner of twenty-two football teams. The weather was cold and bleak when he came to Hanover, but it was warm and sunny when he left it, but oh so bleak.
Mr. Hillman was elected an Assistant Professor of Physical Education in 1919 and as Assistant Professor, without limitations, in 1922. He served as Chairman of the Department from 1921 to 1925, and established a broad and sound foundation upon which to build in the future.
All during his long years of service at Dartmouth College, Harry was very careful of the physical condition and welfare of his men, giving of himself without stint and unselfishly to his work. No injury was too small for his expert care, no personal problem too trivial for his sympathetic attention, no letter from any of his boys went unanswered, and he would meet them at any time that was convenient to them, be it morning, afternoon, evening, Sunday or holiday.
His thirty-five years of service gave him the distinction of having the longest tenure of any coach at Dartmouth College. There are only three coaches in the country, at present, with a longer record at one institution. This length of service enabled him to develop many collegiate champions and one Olympic champion, although several of his men were members of Olympic teams. Some of the intercollegiate champions were Russ Palmer ' 10, Roy Brown '23, and Tom Maynard '29 in the high jump; Mark Wright '13, C. E. Buck '13 and Laddy Myers '20 in the pole vault; Bud Whitney '15, Jack Shelburne '19, W. C. Beers '21, and Tony Geniawicz '37 in the shot; L. H. Weld '21 and A. H. Tilley in the hammer-throw; P. G. Nordell '16 and Harry Worthington '17 in the broad jump; Mel Metcalf '32 in the javelin; Don Burnham '44 in the mile; Gus Braun '15, Monty Wells '28, Jack Donovan '38, and Earl Thomson '22 in the hurdles. Thomson was Olympic Champion in the high hurdles, and is the present coach of track and field at the U. S. Naval Academy.
Thousands learned to love and respect Harry, and to appreciate his great contributions to the College, as well as his influence for good with all his men, a genial friend and a real sportsman. His colleagues in track showed their trust and confidence in him by electing him year after year as Secretary-Treasurer of the College Track Coaches Association of America. Harry took great delight in playing golf with a bag and set of clubs which they gave him in appreciation of his faithful work.
In 1935 he was chosen Manager and Trainer of the U. S. Davis Cup team, and succeeded in convincing the players of the value of the use of salt tablets to replace the salt lost from the body during hard competition in hot weather. He also introduced certain football training techniques which proved of great benefit to the footwork in tennis. Harry always remembered his association with the members of this teamAllison, Budge, Van Ryn with lasting pleasure.
It was in this same year that the New York Alumni honored Harry with a gift for having completed twenty-five years of coaching at Dartmouth College. On May 16, 1944, he was similarly honored with appropriate gifts by the Dartmouth College Athletic Council and by the Department of Physical Education and Hygiene, at the beginning of his thirty-fifth year of coaching.
Harry wrote numerous articles on Track and Conditioning for such newspapers and magazines as The Boston Herald, The NewYork Times, The Athletic Journal, TheScholastic Coach, the New York AthleticClub Journal, the A. A. U. Bulletin, and Spalding's Almanac.
Harry's ability as an experienced, patient, thorough and inspiring teacher was used by Columbia University in the summer of 1922, and by Harvard University in the summer of 1930. Here in Hanover, he was Director of Physical Education at the summer session in 1917.
He took great satisfaction and pride in the supervision of the construction of the present indoor track at the Gymnasium, which has the reputation of being one of the fastest in the country. Here, on March 3, 1938, Glenn Cunningham ran the fastest mile 4:04.4 recorded up to that time.
Harry's association with youth all his life gave him many of their attributes. For one thing, he had a great flair for sporty clothes and had the reputation of being one of the best dressed men in Hanover. For another, he enjoyed matching wits with any one who was gullible enough to fall into the trap. This was all done in a jesting manner, but sometimes with a grim purpose behind it all. The person who knew Harry the best, outside of his family, was his colleague and office mate, Jeff Tesreau. Theirs was a lasting friendship of over twenty-five years, and one could witness "kidding" and joking at its best by visiting them in their office in the basement of the Field House. Some of the wildest rumors and schemes ever to come out of Hanover began in this very room, as well as one of the strongest of friendships. And finally, Harry's zest for life, and his innate desire for play were often expressed in the form of practical jokes. On one occasion, Harry put a blank cartridge in Harvey Cohn's pipe, a gift from his freshman track team, because earlier in the day Harvey had played a trick on his fellow coaches. What happened to the pipe? Well parts of it probably are still in the top of some trees on the corner of Park and East Wheelock Streets. Harvey's face did not recover for a long time from powder burns, but singed eye lashes, eye brows and hair, did grow out again.
Harry had such a youthful outlook on life and was so alive, that he could not bear to think that he was growing old. When his wife suggested to him that he ought to ease up on his strenuous life, he replied that he preferred to die in his favorite sports rather than to act like an old man.
Meticulous as Harry was in his attention to detail and split-second timing in his track work, he was just as particular in his duties as head of a family, ever sensitive to their welfare, happiness, and comfort. He was married 37 years ago, on May a, 1908, to Hazel Quantin of Brooklyn, who survives him with their son, Harold Quantin Hillman '40, and their daughter, Madeleine Rogers Hillman. The Hillman house, the lawn, the garden, Harry's personal affairs, and his track records—all received his systematic and painstaking attention. Incidentally, the varnished bean poles and white painted tops were the result of the doubtful advice of a recent victim of one of Harry's pranks. But he claimed, of course, that he did it in order to find out who were the curious people of Hanover.
Harry will be remembered by his friends everywhere for his human and homely qualities. He was simple, sincere, a gentleman and a true sportsman. He had a great love of people and interest in them with a kind word for all. He was gay, cordial, and friendly. He had a keen sense of humor, a youthful outlook on life, and a great loyalty for the College and his family. His consuming passion for being with people and his great natural gift for liking them are evidenced by his membership in various organizations the Masons, the Royal Arch Chapter of Lebanon, Elks, Lions, American Legion, 40 & 8, and Dragon.
Harry's life was a full one and an active one. He was blessed with a host of friends, a loving and understanding wife, and children of whom he was very proud. His son, Harold, was a Captain in the Army Air Force and holds the Air Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster. Recently he was liberated by the Third Army from a German prison camp, after having been reported as missing in action over Yugoslavia. Madeleine was in the Waves, stationed at Jacksonville, Florida, and New York.
Even though Harry has run his last laps in the race of life, his baton has been taken by a former pupil, a man who has coached under Harry, and one whom he knew would carry it worthily Elliott B. Noyes '32. We all miss Harry, and Hanover seems different without him, but it is a finer place because of him.
THREE TRIBUTES TO Harry Hillman arepublished herewith by the MAGAZINE to represent the many expressions of sympathy and regard received by the Hillmanfamily and the College from Mr. Hillman'sfriends among athletic coaches, formertrack proteges, and co-workers at the College.
Harry Hillman was my oldest friend and his passing leaves a void that will never be filled. He was a great athlete, a great sportsman, a great coach, and a fine fellow. For forty years or more we were associated as friends, athletes, and as friendly rivals in track and field. My association with Harry Hillman dates back to 190 a when he induced me to join Battery "E" of the 13th Regiment, Coast Artillery, in Brooklyn. It was then and in that outfit that I started my athletic career.
Harry and I became close chums as well as three-legged partners. I attribute my career as an athlete and a coach to my association with him. Hillman and I hold practically all of the worthwhile three legged world's record.
Hillman's distance during his athletic days was from 100 to 600 yards, but he preferred the quarter mile. A member of three Olympic teams on which we both represented the United States Hillman won the 400-meter run in 1904 in St. Louis. In 1906 he was our best 400-meter man for the Olympics at Athens, but an unfortunate accident at sea that injured his leg prevented him from competing. In 1908 Harry finished second in the 400 meter run in the Olympic games in London.
Harry also was an outstanding low hurdler. During all the years I knew him I never heard or knew of his having taken unfair advantage of a competitor. During his coaching career he never used unfair tactics in any competition in which his team was entered. America lost one of her greatest exponents of track and field athletics and I lost a real friend when Harry Hillman passed on.
LAWSON ROBERTSON, Track Coach,
University of Pennsylvania
From the day Harry met me at the "June" back in the fall of 1916 until the day of his death he was one of the best friends I have ever had. There is no need for me to state how I feel about his sudden passing.
There was probably no one coach in the country better liked than Harry. He put all he had into the game and he got a lot out of it, but he deserved more.
Harry might be classed as one of the oldtime coaches in track, but unlike most of them, he was always ready to pass along to a fellow coach what he knew and was always ready to learn something new. Most of the old-timers were just the opposite. He has been of great help to me in my coaching. We have kept in touch with each other ever since I left Hanover and his letters have always had some help in them for me.
Harry had that something about him that made his men want to win for him. And that is the true test of a coach's ability.
Dartmouth, the track world and I have lost a great friend.
EARL J. THOMSON '20,
Coach, U. S. Naval Academy
No one could be with Harry Hillman for long and remain unaffected by his contagious enthusiasm and buoyant spirit which attracted friendship and loyalty at once and made these bonds stronger with each passing day. To those who were privileged to compete on his teams, Harry's memory will be forever living and inspirational. There are countless men, too, who competed against his teams and will remember him for his code of sportsmanship and his readiness to be of service to them. To be able to teach young men and inspire them to be satisfied only with their best efforts and to do all this with that rare mixture of dignity and humor was Harry's gift to all of us.
LT. ELLIOTT B. NOYES '32, USNR,
Dartmouth Track Coach
COACH HARRY L. HILLMAN
