FOOTBALL FATHER
Coach Folsom '95 Started Modern Big Green Era
A LTHOUGH THE COLLEGE is again in uniform, about-faced to back her fighting sons, we may still relax briefly to review the career and honor the memory of a prominent alumnus, the late Fred G. Folsom '95, who died November li, 1944. Most of Professor Folsom's useful life was spent as a member of the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Law. In 1941 for "continued service and loyalty to the University" he was awarded the Alumni Gold Medal, and recently the University stadium has been dedicated in his name. In four eventful seasons, however, from 1903 to 1906, the Dartmouth teams he coached won for their alma mater her rightful place in eastern college football, and for him a reputation as a colorful, masterful teacher.
In his undergraduate days, the storm battered "old pine," symbolizing the pioneer college, still stood watch at its lonely post on the rocky hill behind the campus. Athletic headquarters were still in Bissell Hall. Behind the closed doors of the Old Chapel in Dartmouth Hall, under the pleading exhortation and lashing oratory of its leaders, the undergraduate body pledged contributions, like bids at an auction, to equip and operate its teams. These rallies were really hot: it may even have been a smoldering spark from that oratory which years later set the building afire.
The system had obvious advantages over the present games for revenue policy, but the rivalry it engendered was at times sufficiently bitter even to test good sportsmanship; for, spurred by intense support, athletes made games approximate battles. Competitive athletics develop character, promote leadership, and activate potential loyalty, be it to college or country, but to realize these high educational values requires intelligent direction and vigilant control.
Folsom fitted into this rugged environment like a rock into a New Hampshire landscape. He acquired the nickname P. 1., Penobscot Indian, referring to his boyhood home and Indians domiciled in the vicinity. His mates who gave him this name must have had in mind the traditional Dartmouth Indian, the noble red man, and not the wily savage. He was an excellent student, a clear thinking, outspoken individual, without the semblance of dissimulation. Nor was there any harum-scarum irresponsibility in his nature which the term "wild Indian" sometimes connotes. And yet there was a certain positive, purposeful freedom from restraint. He was restive under pressure of supernormal energy, always under control of judgment and will power, but ever seeking legitimate outlet, particularly in defense of the rights of weaker men. If this picture seems overdrawn just translate P.I. into present campus parlance as "a grand guy" and let it go at that.
An intramural boxing bout in which Folsom was a contender against one of the writer's classmates shows certain of his characteristics. The boys were evenly matched, but their styles were very different. The classmate, alert for every opening, alternated a skilful, versatile defense with bursts of telling aggression. Folsom, body erect and head up, tore into his opponent with piston punches, every muscle from foot to fist directly behind them, determined not to permit punishment received to interfere with his plan of action. At the time, this was just an exciting episode in a midwinter meet but viewed later in the light of more intimate acquaintance it seemed to exemplify the dynamic, power-personified kind of man he was, and to be reflected in the type of football teams he moulded. That classmate, by the way, was the late Walter McCornack, an athlete, coach, and Alumni Council member to whom Dartmouth is greatly indebted.
Folsom believed that the backbone of good football is efficiency in skills which are independent of the style of play adopted. He was, therefore, an indefatigable drill master in fundamentals: tackling, charging, blocking, kicking, etc. He brought such innovations as bucking straps and bucking machines to Hanover. Professor Sidney Hazelton of our Physical Education Department, who was one of his players, pictures him standing in front of his linemen, thrusting toward them a hand with its fingers crooked from baseball injuries, and snapping out the familiar shout, "One more buck and I'll quit ya"; then repeating this performance until darkness halted it.
When rules and material permitted he chose a bulldozer type of play, yet his finished team was not only a powerhouse but a precision instrument. Guards back and through the line was his favorite ground gaining technique. He would tolerate end runs but scorned the forward pass. To him this meant throwing the ball down the field and hoping someone would be there to catch it, and chance had no place in his idea of the game. In fact misjudgment of the potentialities of the forward pass probably was a contributory reason why the 1906 team was weaker than the three preceding, although a drop in material was largely responsible.
In the period under discussion athletics were striving to keep pace with an expanding college, and material was plentiful and excellent. Let Witham, Main, R. Glaze, Hooper, Bullock, Gilman and Vaughn represent a long list of men just as worthy of mention by name. He would be the first to give major credit to his charges. It should be remembered, however, that it is their mentor who studies their characters, encourages or rebukes them with impartiality, who thus gains their confidence and affection until they head up in his personality the cause in which they believe, and fight for him, and win for him, or go down in honorable defeat only to rise and fight again.
The history of an activity is often divided into eras and when the lines of demarkation are indistinct a given era is dated by an outstanding event occurring near its beginning. Now there is justification for considering the four seasons, 1903-1906 inclusive, the beginning of an era in Dartmouth football, and for selecting the first victory over Harvard, that won in 1903, as the outstanding event. During these seasons the record against Harvard was one game won, two tied and one lost, against Princeton one game won and two lost, against Holy Cross four games won, and against Brown three games won, and one lost. These sixteen games, in four of which Dartmouth was beaten and in two tied, were the only games played with teams representing our present regularly scheduled rivals, out of a total of thirty-eight. Colgate won one of the remaining games and Dartmouth the rest.
This record made obvious the advisability of revamping our schedules to obtain stronger opponents. This has been gradually accomplished, and, with the expected ups and downs, our teams have maintained good standing against the stiffened opposition of the modern era which Folsom and his teams initiated.
OUT INTO SPACE soars one of the college jumpers ill the DOC's annual sk! meet, giving pin-pointed spectators below an unfailing thrill.
THE NAUTICAL NOTE predominated in the V-12 trainees' snow sculpture, examples of which are shown in front of two Tuck Mall dormitories, but Dartmouth's mythical 500 gallons managed to get a play too.
THE DARTMOUTH MARINES, who walked off with snow-sculpture honors last year, came through again with this top-ranking statue of the Corps mascot in front of Russell Sage Hall.
THE SKI JUMP CROWD on Saturday afternoon of Winter Sports Weekend was the most colorful of the DOC's 35th annual "Carnival" and was reminiscent of the huge pre-war throng which witnessed the event.
DARTMOUTH'S GAME BUT STARLESS SKIERS who finished second in the Carnival meet include, left to right, Howard Bronson, Bill Jones, Tom Chase, Capt. Howie Hewitt, Dave Miller, Pete Estin, Sonny Drury, Vern Lamb, Gil Warren, Coach Sel Hannah '35, Coach Ed Blood.
FIRST VICTORS OVER FAIR HARVARD, the Dartmouth football team of 1903 boasted such Big Green im- mortals as Witham, Hooper, Gilman, Vaughan, Turner, Glaze, Main, Bullock and Foster.
FRED G. FOLSOM '95, who died last November, shown at the time he was Dartmouth football coach, 1903-1906. The victories he directed then were the start of Dartmouth's modern football era.
