1916

THE BALMACAAN ATHLETIC CLUB

An Account of its Origin by the well-knownBanker and Historian, Leighton Rogers

Mr. Rogers, an ex-State Department expert, went to Russia at the close of World War I as a representative of The National City Bank. He is a keen student of Russian affairs and in 1924 wrote the authoritative novel, "Wine of Fury," based on his observations and experiences in Russia. The novel has been put on the required reading list in courses in history at one university or another. Your editors feel that Mr. Rogers is eminently qualified to write upon the present important subject - a vignette of Dartmouth history.

At the suggestion of yourself and our classmates attending a dinner in the Dartmouth Club of New York I am giving, somewhat reluctantly, an account of the origin of The Balmacaan A. C. as I recall it - reluctantly because as a rule one hesitates to intrude upon a legend.

For two of my college years I held an exclusive agency for Balmacaan overcoats in the Hanover area, an agency obtained by one of my father's connections in the advertising business. I peddled the coats around the campus for nineteen dollars each and with an occasional sale was able to use the profits to finance a meal or two in that gourmet's paradise, the Commons Grill. On the whole, though, sales were poor. Nobody in our class seemed to have $19, and the plutocrats in the other classes were wary of the coats' English cut, so that "I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those. Scram!" was a frequent reply to my carefully worked out sales talk. This market resistance was baffling because I believed then, and still do, that the coats were well made, good-looking, useful in any but hot weather, durable and a bargain.

How-some-ever, you will remembftr that with the arrival of spring word got around that our class should have an outing, a field-day, wherein, with the aid of a few kegs of beer, we could let off steam and have fun heretofore denied by the cloistered life forced upon us by the college authorities and our devotion to our studies. Ahem!

Hence a meeting was called at the Senior Fence, and the proposal was discussed, with agreement being reached on two points: (1) The affair should be held away from Hanover where the college ban of beer would not apply, thereby saving our old friend, Jake Bond, a heart attack: and (2) in order to avoid responsibility being fixed on our class officers, it should be organized by a special group, which would invite the class to attend at a cost of one dollar per. This done, a committee was appointed and told to get busy.

I kick myself for not being able to remember the full composition of the committee, but I do recall Pete Soutar, Max Spelke and Johnny Pelletier; Hap Ward, too, I think. To the others I submit my apologies. Anyway, it went into executive session and decided to form itself into an athletic club and invite the class to a field-day at Lake Morey, where the members could indulge in such wholesome activities as setting-up exercises, archery and folk-dancing on the green. Subcommittees were designated, usually of one man each, to handle the tasks of arranging for transportation, a program of events, and the most important item of refreshments. To me fell the assignment of advertising, publicity, and drumming up attendance; this last because somewhat quaintly we believed it would be necessary. (Little did we imagine that the big problem would be to keep away uninvited non-Sixteeners and town-ies.) So I was instructed to prepare posters and handbills in order to get the word to our classmates.

At once the question arose: What's the name of this athletic club? This had to be settled before printing costs of handbills could be underwritten. Numerous titles were submitted and rejected, until at last The Balmacaan Athletic Club was proposed. By whom deponent knoweth not, but he is inclined to think it was a member of the committee to whom he had vainly tried to sell a Balmacaan overcoat. Anyway, let it not be said that at that early and unsophisticated age he would have even considered injecting a note of such crass commercialism and opportunist advertising into so idealistic a project!

But The Balmacaan A. C. the committee, the club and the class became, and the rest — is history.

Incidentally the history failed - I repeat - failed to record any increased sales of Balmacaan coats,. thereby marking one of the greatest advertising flops of the era.

While the matter is fresh in our minds will any (including the gate-crashers from other classes) who don't agree with Leigh's analysis and interpretation of history, or who wish to add to the story, please speak their mind.

I'm told that Stirling Wilson and Betty made the slow boat to England after a hectic dash up from the South (at the break of day). But probably by the time you are reading this the folks will have returned and you will have read all about it in Stirling's Newsletter - and travelogue.

News from vacationers: Dick Parkhurst wrote that he was just back from two weeks in the Rangeley region, "a lovely spot at any time and especially at this season." Rogerand Edna Evans were at Sea Girt. Rog says that the way the town has developed and is managed is truly a tribute to Hizzoner the Mayor, our own Larry Doyle. Rog had high hopes of getting John Butler and Leigh Rogers down for a weekend and a round of golf, but remarked that it was perhaps just as well for the course and their sacroiliacs that the plan didn't come off.

It seems a bit strange when writing these notes in October, with the football season not half over (shades of Holy Cross, Penn and Brown!), to wish the Class the joys of the Holiday Season, but here goes - to one and all - the best ever.

Class Notes Editor,7 Swarthmore PL, Swarthmore, Pa,

Secretary,4808 Broad Brook Drive, Bethesda 14, Md.

Treasurer,15 Ravenna Rd., Boston 31, Mass.