JESS B. HAWLEY '09
Former Football Coach Dies of Heart Attack
ON MARCH 20, 1946, Jess Barnum Hawley '09, at the age of 58, died of a heart attack in the Orange General Hospital at Orlando, Florida. He had had a severe heart attack about a year ago in Chicago, and a week before his death a recurrence necessitated taking him to the hospital in Florida.
Jess Hawley was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 25, 1887. After being graduated from the public schools, he entered the University of Minnesota in 1905, spending one year at that institution. During this year he won a Big Ten gymnastic title. The next year Jess transferred to Dartmouth College, and was graduated in 1909 with the B.S. degree. While in college he demonstrated his athletic ability by winning his letter as a halfback on the football teams of 1907 and 1908, and also by winning his letter in the dashes and the discus throw on the track teams of 1908 and 1909. In he held the College record of 118 feet 7 inches in the discus throw. In his senior year, he was New England champion in the 100- and 220-yard dashes and also in the discus throw. His natural ability in the dashes gives a clue to his persistent demand for speed, and more speed, from all the teams which he later coached.
While Jess was an undergraduate, he, together with other students from Dartmouth and sister colleges, used to play baseball in the summer at York Beach, Maine. Of this period at the beach, two memories of him stand out clearly in my mind. One was his utterly ruthless and unorthodox manner of sliding bases. All he knew about this phase of the game was to run as fast as he could and to "hit the dirt."
The other event which early demonstrated his business acumen and his sense of humor, was the cleaning and pressing establishment which he and a friend conducted in "The Guy White Way" at the beach. Their equipment consisted of a sponge, a tub, gasoline, an iron and a board, coupled with boundless courage and luck. In later years, Jess would entertain his listeners for hours, describing his difficulties in explaining to his customers the reason for burnt clothing, lost clothing, and generally wretched work. Only a man of his nerve, ready wit, and resourcefulness could have extricated himself from possible lawsuits, lost friendships, and lost business. In spite of the destructiveness of his techniques, he never lacked customers, and Jess' ability to make and to keep friends was so unusual that no matter what he did he still kept his customers' good will and patronage.
Immediately after finishing college, Jess began to combine business with coaching. He continued to do so until the pressure of business became so great in 1929 that he gave up coaching, but he did keep in touch with the game by scouting for Dartmouth and other colleges. Harry R. "Rip" Heneage told the writer that in recent years Jess wanted to return to active coaching.
In June 1915, Mr. Hawley married Miss Louise Clarke of Des Moines, lowa, who survives him. Their twin children, Jess B. Jr. and Carla, were born on August 14, 1926. Both Jess and his wife had new ideas in regard to the raising of children, as was evident to all who saw them playing around Hanover in their bathing suits in all kinds of weather. Back to nature seemed to be the keynote of their training and judging from the fine appearance of these children today, Mr. and Mrs. Hawley's ideas must have been sound. This willingness and readiness to try something different from the usual and accepted pattern was typical of Jess.
In the fall of 1909 he served on the football staff at Andover Academy. From 1911 to 1915 he was football coach at the University of lowa. It was while there that he earned the reputation of being a master of detail, of following rigidly a minute timeschedule for practice hours, and of being a coach who liked to spring the unexpected and to use daring and tricky maneuvers at the psychological time. The trick plays which Jess used were variations of the "shoe-string" play, the "bucket" play, a feigned-injury play, and the hidden ball. All were legal according to the rules of that time. He was almost forced to use this type of play because his teams were hopelessly outweighed by their opponents. One of his lowa teams averaged 155 pounds, and the quarterback, Sammy Gross, weighed only 123 pounds.
In 1919, following service in World War I, Jess served in an advisory capacity on the football staff at Dartmouth, and he was appointed head coach in 1923. He held this position through the season of 1928, and during that time his teams won 39 games, lost 10, and tied one. Dartmouth teams under Hawley turned in a winning record of 22 straight games, from late in 1923 until the Yale game of 1926. His 1924 team was the best in the East, while the 1925 team, with a perfect record, earned the mythical title of National Champions. Well do I recall the picture of Coach Hawley and President Hopkins coming into the dressing room in New York after winning the last game of that season. Both were proud, happy and elated, and Jess, taking a cigar out of his mouth, and still shivering from the excitement and the cold, shouted, "Men—you are real champions now."
Clark Shaughnessy, in a chapter entitled "Football's Greatest Backfields" in Esquire's First Sports Reader, wrote, "For the 1925-30 period I'll take the Dartmouth backfield of 1925. Dartmouth was National Champion that year. The team carried on the 'brains' game established by the 1924 Green eleven which was Eastern Cham- pion. In 1924 Dartmouth could put on the field a team, without one player under second-string rating, every man of which was, then or later, a Phi Beta Kappa. The 1925 team was as high in scholastic rating.
"Oberlander as a passer was an unforgettable star. He played tackle in the 1924 team but Jess Hawley took him out of the line and put him in the backfield for his great year. Myles Lane was high point scorer of 1925."
A partial but arbitrary list of some of the Hawley-coached men who might be considered of Ail-American stature, without any intention of detracting in the least from the valuable contribution of the other members of his teams, includes: 1925 Henry B. Bjorkman; 1926—C. H. Diehl, A. J. Oberlander, N. K. Parker, G. C. Tully; 1927-J. A. Davis, E. B. Dooley, H. A. Sage; 1928-M. J. Lane, R. B. MacPhail; 1929-R. W. Black; 1930—E. Armstrong, H. E. Booma, and A. K. Marsters.
While coaching at Dartmouth, Jess showed that he had "flair and judgment." One of the distinctive characteristics of his teaching was his dogged insistence on speed for the individual and for the team. He used competitive games between the groups of backs, ends, and linemen not only for conditioning, but also for the purpose of building team spirit and the teaching of game techniques—Oberlander's ability as a halfback was discovered in this manner. Numerous and intricate charts were kept of this competition, as well as a highly developed skill sheet.
Following the pattern he set for himself at lowa, he carefully budgeted his time for the day, and had a very detailed and painstaking time-schedule for the coaching hours. Another idea which he brought with him from lowa was the use of the defensive end on the weak side of the line, in protecting against forward passes. He was forever demanding of his men that they use their heads, as well as their hands and feet, in an intelligent and cooperative manner. All his coaching was permeated with his personality as a leader, and his gift of arousing and developing confidence in all those with whom he came in contact was unusual.
Another procedure was typical of Jess as a coach. He was clever in estimating the state of mind and the physical condition of his opponents before the game. This information was obtained in devious ways, and sometimes it was used by his own men in a psychological attack on their opponents. This may account, in part, for the fact that Hawley's teams were noted for being great "kidders" and actors, as well as being very quick with repartee.
Jess was one o£ the football coaches who believed in entrusting the training and conditioning of his men to the trainer of the team. It was the trainer who regulated the amount of work of the individual and of the team, who supervised their diet and the amount of their sleep.
Jess was one of the first to grasp and to realize the real possibilities of the forward pass, as well as to advocate and foster the open scouting of opponents. This was a very delicate problem at that time. Often he would invite the coaches of the teams on Dartmouth's schedule to come to Hanover for a visit, a game of golf, and to watch Dartmouth play.
Jess was never too important or too proud to take a new idea from any source whatsoever, and use it if he could, giving full credit where it was due.
Those who worked with Jess on his staff will long remember the few minutes of relaxation which could be stolen from a closely budgeted day during the football season. The play instinct came to the front at once, and Jess would drop the cares and worries of a head coach and become as carefree as a boy. He thoroughly enjoyed a game which consisted of tossing a football the length of the room into a tall cylindrical waste-basket. He also had a lot of pleasure in matching his ability against all comers in scaling wooden discs along the concrete floor to see who could come the closest to the wall. His close friend and frequent visitor, "Bob" Burnap, was often the victim of his wiles, sometimes with regular discs, and sometimes with special ones. After a few minutes of this Jess would seat himself at the long table in the middle of the room, which was a silent signal for all the others to do likewise, and all would be back at work once again on the problems which confronted them. Even then, he was a master of human engineering.
Jess was always popular with and well liked by his friends in the coaching profession. Wherever they were gathered together, he would be the focal point of the group, and his subtle, dry humor would be at its best. Whenever the writer attended coaching schools in various parts of the country, the teaching staffs would always inquire for him, extolling his qualities as a leader and friend, and expressing admiration for his abilities as a coach.
Jess' ability in the business world was on a par with his coaching of football teams. The breadth and variety of his business interests may be judged from the following list of his connections: A. B. Leach & Cos., 1909-1911; Chicago Trust Cos., 1911-1916; Western Seamless Pail Cos., 1910-1918; Seaman Container Corporation, 1918-1932; Newcombe-Hawley, 1923-1927; United Re producers Corporation, 1927-1929; and the Hawley Products Company, 1929-1940
Jess was President of the Hawley pro(j ucts Company, which was located in St Charles, Illinois. A branch, known as Canada and Hawley Products, Ltd., was located in London, England. His company manufactured molded fiber products, in eluding radio accessories and tropical helmets, and was a very successful enterprise
He maintained two residences, one at Geneva, Illinois, and the other at Babson Park, Florida. He enjoyed his family life and was a devoted, sympathetic and generous husband and father.
His love of the strenuous and active life, as well as his desire to be with people is evidenced by his membership in the various clubs of his choice: Illinois Athletic Club of Chicago, Racquet and Tennis Club, Chicago Commonwealth Club, Chicago Golf Club, St. Charles Golf Clubi Dunham Woods Riding Club, and the Dartmouth Club of New York.
Jess was an active, loyal, and generous alumnus of Dartmouth College, as well as a staunch and true friend to his classmates. The College has lost one of its outstanding sons, one who earned a high place for himself in the business world, who gained fame as a Dartmouth athlete and as a coach of football, and who will live long in the memories of all those who knew him.
JESS B. HAWLEY '09, photographed on Memorial Field during his coaching regime at Dartmouth.
