Letters

In Defense of Football

To THE EDITOR: In the April issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE there appeared an article on the subject of bequests and reference was made by "Hoppy" to a "spectacular" bequest which was in the offing in 1925, but which was lost because the prospective benefactor reached the conclusion that Dartmouth put too much emphasis on football to suit him.

Obviously the men who played on the '25 team as well as the Alumni generally are going to feel mighty bad about this, and will regard it as most unfortunate that the prospective donor was unable to foresee what those who played on this great football team would accomplish in after life, because had he been able to do so I feel certain that he would have adhered to' his original intention.

For example, he would have known that the great forward passer, Oberlander, was to become Chief Medical Officer of the National Life Insurance Company; that Myles Lane, who snared the major portion of Oberlander's passes, was destined to become Assistant U. S. District Attorney in New York City; that Captain Nate Parker would become a Rhodes Scholar, and later a successful lawyer; and that the great guy who coached this team, Jess Hawley '09, would in after life become as well and as favorably known because of his success as an industrialist as he was ever known as a football player or coach.

I am one of the many who think that football has done a great deal for Dartmouth. I was an undergraduate when Dr. Tucker took over and set the ball rolling, and I can attest to the fact that he took a very active interest in football and gave the coaches, as well as the players, every encouragement; and everyone knows that "Hoppy" was at all times in the closest possible touch with the football situation, as evidenced by his almost daily presence on the football field sometime during the football practice session, and he could diagram the deep reverse taught by Earl Blaik, as well as Blaik, and all this time the prestige of Dartmouth as an educational institution was growing by leaps and bounds.

Now let us recall the names of some of the men who have played on Dartmouth football teams in the distant as well as in the recent past, and decide for ourselves whether or not they have been a credit to Dartmouth. Bill Odlin, who as captain throughout his college course also served as coach, and later became one of Boston's leading lawyers. Alexander Quackenboss; fullback under Odlin, head of the Ophthalmology Department of Harvard Medical School, and recognized as Boston's leading eye specialist. Ed Hall, Vice President of American Tel. & Tel. Company, who, with his wife, gave Dick's House to Dartmouth. Dr. "Squash" Little, Superintendent of the New York State Institution for Mental Defectives; "Matt" Jones, President of the New England Bell Telephone Company; Wallie McCornack, attorney for the Interstate Commerce Commission, and later a successful attorney in Chicago; Charlie Proctor, Professor of Physics at Dartmouth College; Bill Knibbs, executive of the Otis Elevator Company; Joe Gilman, President, Jones, McDuffee & Stratton, Boston; F. G. Folsom, Dean of Colorado Law School; Clarke Tobin, Executive Vice President, Propper-McCallum Hosiery Cos.; Larry Bankhart, head of a large business which he has conducted with conspicuous success; "Jogger" Elcock, President of one of the largest cement manufacturing companies in the South; "Pudge" Neidlinger, Dean of Dartmouth College; "Red" Loudon, partner in one of the largest investment banking and brokerage firms in the Northwest; Bill Cunningham, one of the leading newspaper columnists in the United States; "Josh" Davis, partner of Reynolds & Company, brokers, New York City; Eddie Dooley, sports writer, radio broadcaster and business executive; Al Marsters, Assistant to the President of American Optical Company; Eddie Chamberlain, Assistant Director of Admissions, Dartmouth College; Bill Morton, senior partner, W. H. Morton & Company, investment bankers, New York City: Dave Camerer, sports editor, Pic Magazine; "Mutt" Ray, Assistant to the President of Elliott Fisher-Underwood Corp.; Jack Reeder, Vice-President Walter Disney Corp.; and last but not least, Meryll Frost—Dartmouth's gift to humanity.

In conclusion, may I say a word about William Pierce Johnson '80, whose name was mentioned in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE article. Mr. Johnson was one of the most forceful men I ever met, and incidentally one of the finest looking, and he possessed great personal magnetism. There had been times when the situation t Dartmouth was not at all to his liking. However, he became impressed with the work which Dr. Tucker was doing, and while in New York in the Fall of 1908 with a party of friends from California, he took his party to see the Dartmouth-Princeton football game at the Polo Grounds. Dartmouth won, and Mr. Johnson got the thrill of his life. Later, Mr. Johnson became deeply impressed with the accomplishments of "Hoppy," but I trace his bequest back to that Dartmouth-Princeton football game in 1908, and I think I am right.

Miami, Fla.

Tinkering the Tunes

To THE EDITOR: Those of us who were so fortunate as to attend the Dartmouth Night at the Boston "Pops" must have been favorably impressed by the excellence of Glee Club singing, especially those of us who could contrast the quality of today with that of 40 or 50 years ago. There is, however, one respect in which it seems to me there is room for a word of criticism; to wit, in the matter of tinkering the words and music with the apparent idea of getting away from the usages of older days. This consists in part in abrupt alterations of tempo, singing one stanza as an almost exaggerated adagio, to be followed by another sung as an even more exaggerated prestissimo. It is doubtful, as I see it, that this enhances the quality of the performance and the reasons for such changes of speed are rather hard to find. But more especially I think one may question the division of lines to the detriment of rhyme.

For example, does it increase the excellence of that admirable song concerning Eleazar Wheelock when the choir shifts a word from the next line to the line just before? This may be illustrated by citing,

"With a Gradus ad Parnassum, a Bible and a drum—and Five Hundred gallons of New England rum."

Or, as the Glee Club sings it in another place, "And the whole curriculum—was Five Hundred gallons of New England rum."

Such things are matters of taste, as to which it is notoriously profitless to dispute. But, for one, this writer feels that nothing is gained, while something is lost. The same may be said of some of the shifts in tempo in Homer Whitford's wholly admirable "Dartmouth Undying," seemingly intended to give color to the references to crowding into commons, or to the crunch of feet on snow. My feeling is that this is being overdone—that moderation would help. It's a small matter, but on my own ear it grates a little:

Lowell, Mass.

Amputated Games

To THE EDITOR: I wonder if through your columns Mr. McGarter could explain the reason for these synthetic 7-inning doubleheaders in the Eastern Intercollegiate League.

Of course I know there is the travel factor, but when one considers all the ball games which are won in eighth- and ninth-inning rallies, it seems a shame to amputate this very important part of the game merely to arrive at two decisions in an afternoon.

I for one don't think the distances involved are sufficient reason.

Hingham, Mass.

(An official reply follows)

The rules of the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League provide that doubleheaders shall consist of two seven inning games, on the theory, no doubt, that few college players can last more than fourteen innings, or that with the number of times at bat customary in colleges games, night must fall as the fourteenth inning ends.

Prior to the war Dartmouth played only an occasional doubleheader with impecunious League opponents whose schedules were so largely with nearby neighbors that they could not face the great adventure of a trek into the North Country oftener than once in two years. Wartime difficulties of travel and restrictions on absences dictated the telescoping of schedules, but the current League season calls for a very few doubleheaders, except as they may be arranged to compensate for rainouts.

Next year the Intercollegiate League is expanding to include Brown and the Military and Naval Academies and will play single games rather than home and home, so that only the weather will thwart afficionados of the eighth and ninth innings.