1909

One of Football's Greats

With soaring footballs in the air, let's take a backward gander at the game in the fore part of this century, and at one Dartmouth "great" in particular - Clarke WalworthTobin '10. An impressive renewal of interest in his career and his service to the national college sport has led to his nomination for the Football Hall of Fame. Who could be a more logical candidate, even though it's a half-century since he played for the Big Green?

A massive man and ruggedly handsome, Clarke inherited the blithe spirit and fighting heart of his Celtic ancestors. Early in his college career, he showed himself to be a natural leader. He served a year as president of his class; was chosen to captain the football team his senior year; and was named class marshal in the senior elections. In scholastic attainments, he was awarded the Barge Medal for Original Orations his senior year.

It's readily recognized that Clarke qualifies for the Hall of Fame, not only as a superior football player. His high character and the ability that marked him for success in whatever undertaking he pursued, must be considered as additional normal reasons for so naming him.

In the fall of 1908, Dartmouth was honored by having two men chosen on Walter Camp's All-American first team: Clarke, at guard, and Dutch Schildmiller at end. Then, after his election as captain that fall, Clarke set about to bolster the team's strength. He persuaded Ben Lang, the husky tackle who had dropped out of College for a year, after entering with '09, to return the following fall. Huston Lillard '05, a member of the team that beat Harvard for the first time in the fall of 1903, was coach during Clarke's year as captain. Dartmouth won five games, lost one, and tied two.

Well do I remember when Tobin came to Hanover. He roomed with Jack (Greetings) Norton 'OB on the first floor of Reed Hall, right across from Dutch Schildmiller and me. Clarke's outgoing personality soon made him many friends, and, when fraternity rushing season came around, he received a number of bids. His choice was Delta Kappa Epsilon, commonly called Deke, but never did he draw a circle around himself by limiting his contacts to any one social group. His senior society was Casque & Gauntlet.

Clarke's Dartmouth activities, subsequent to his graduation, included a spot on the Dartmouth coaching staff in the fall of 1910 under coach W. J. (Bill) Randall; president of the Dartmouth Club of New York, 1913-14; member of the Alumni Council, 1913-18; vice president of the General Alumni Association, 1929-30; president of the Dartmouth Club of New Jersey, 1934-36.

I had heard through one of my correspondents that Tobin had been offered the job of head football coach at the University of Notre Dame. In order to complete the Tobin story, this led to some research. First, I wrote to Charles M. Callahan, director of Sports Publicity for the university. He had no record on Tobin but referred me to Joe Byrne Jr., Notre Dame '15, an authority on Notre Dame football since the early days of Knute Rockne.

Joe wrote me that Clarke was offered the job of football coach, starting in the fall of 1911, by Rev. William Maloney C. S. C., but regretfully turned it down because he had contracted to coach Tufts. Clarke persuaded Father Maloney that Jack Marks '11 was the man Notre Dame needed. By a curious set of circumstances, Jack set Notre Dame on the road to national leadership on the gridiron. He proved to be the only undefeated coach in Notre Dame history: thirteen wins and two ties during the two years- he served as coach. Joe Byrne hazards a guess that not one in a thousand could name the Notre Dame coach who never lost a game. It is reported that Rockne, playing end for Notre Dame, turned in his suit after the 1910 season, quite fed up with football, but Marks got him to resume the game the next fall. Marks is credited with introducing the strategy which later, under Rockne, became famous as the Notre Dame shift. Jack was succeeded by Jesse Harper, and then came the immortal Rockne, whose remarkable record in twelve years was 105 wins, 12 losses, and 5 ties.

After coaching at Hanover, Tobin joined Ginn & Company (which well might be called a Dartmouth institution) selling text books out of the Chicago office. Among his accounts was Notre Dame, and that's how he made contact with Father Maloney.

From 1912 on, Tobin's bread-winning career was centered in the hosiery business. Working as a salesman out o£ the New York office of the Brown-Durrell Company, he laid the groundwork for his intimate knowledge in merchandising and designing hosiery. In 1919, after service as an infantry major in World War I, he formed the Kreuger-Tobin Company, a specialty wholesale house in New York which sponsored a broad line of high fashion hosiery. In 1930, he joined the Gotham Silk Hosiery Company in New York, and in 1936, he became executive vice president of Propper-McCallum Hosiery Com- pany, a position he held until his death.

A Vogue editor named Tobin as the leading hosiery stylist in the U. S., and credited him with a number of famous "firsts" - introduction in this country of the short sock, both straight and turn-down cuff; mesh stockinsrs; iridescent shades in silk stockings.

This tribute was paid to Clarke: "Throughout his career, he was quality and fashion minded. He loved to work with colors, using as his chief tool the shades that nature develops in her flowers which, he believed, were far and away the best source of inspiration in this interesting field of endeavor."

Clarke was married on December 4, 1918, to Gretchen Kreuger, daughter of the founder of the Kreuger Brewing Company. Their two sons, Jack and Dick, both attended Dartmouth, but neither followed in his father's steps as a football player. Their sports interest was skiing.

The last time I saw Clarke was in the spring of 1951. I was visiting my son in New Jersey and took a run over to Clarke s place in South Orange for a Sunday dinner. He was a widower then, for his wife had died of cancer not long after his 40th class reunion. Up on the third floor of his commodious residence was his prize electric train layout, estimated to be worth around $25,000. It had been featured in a story on electric trains that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. In a room on the second floor was a machine tool set-up where he fashioned things as the spirit moved him.

The fall of '51, Clarke had a major abdominal operation. From this, apparently, he recovered, but the following; January, on the 25th day, he received his final summons. As Joe Byrne aptly expressed it, "Clarke Tobin was one of. the grandest men who ever lived." Who could say it better?

(Note: For help in preparing this profile, thanks go to Guy Carpenter and Andy Scarlett '10; to Joe Byrne, chairman of the board, Joseph M. Byrne Company, Newark, N. J.; to Miss Lillian Rose who, for many years, was Clarke's personal secretary; to Dutch Irwin'11 who supplied the Tobin photo.)

Clarke Tobin '10

Class Notes Editor, 141 Pioneer Trail, Aurora, Ohio

Secretary and Treasurer, Sandwich, Mass.