1938

Dartmouth readers of newspaper sports sections must have learned with interest of the departure of Bob Blackman from the University of Illinois and his hiring in early December as football coach at Cornell. In the story I read (AP), Bob was quoted as saying, "It won't be an overnight thing, but I guarantee a winning football program." In like vein Cornell's athletic director, Dick Schultz, declared, "It takes a total commitment to excellence to turn a program around, and the hiring of Bob Blackman is a total commitment by Cornell. ... We're sending a warning to all the other Ivy League schools that the sleeping giant has awakened." As I noted on Christmas cards to Dartmouth friends, I'm glad to wish Bob success with the Big Red, except when they're playing Dartmouth.

Still on the subject of Ivy League football, it's always sort of interesting to review predictions after the event. For instance, I preserved the prognostications of Ivy League sports information directors for the 1976 season. The publicists had been accurate in four of the previous six seasons, but they slipped a bit last fall, giving the nod to Harvard, with Brown (which tied Yale for first, in case you've forgotten) relegated to fourth. Dartmouth was picked for third and actually tied with Harvard for runner-up. Cornell was correctly selected for the cellar. Bob Blackman hopes and expects to change that.

Red Boutilier, who reads more newspapers, or reads them more carefully, than I do, sent me news of the unusual activities of CharlieWyckoff. The lead paragraph of the UPI story, as it appeared in the Portland (Me.) PressHerald, reads, "Research this year in Scotland's Loch Ness revealed some startling underwater discoveries, but no substantial proof the legendary monster exists." The second paragraph continues, "Charles W. Wyckoff, chief of photography for the most ambitious and technologically sophisticated hunt for the monster, said earlier in a New York Times interview he was 'disappointed, yes, but not discouraged. I'm still convinced in my own mind that there's something there.' " For the full story, see last month's ALUMNI MAGAZINE article on Charlie and Nessie.

(Ed. note: A likeness of what the Loch Ness monster was then believed to look like was painted in 1936 on one of the walls of the bar of the Sigma Nu house by Art Funk '36 and Bob Richman '39. A later generation redecorated the room, and the evidence was forever lost.)

From Hanover comes the sad news of the death of Herb Loring, for whom there will be an obituary in this or a future issue.

I had a heart-warming telephone conversation with Lloyd Williams the other evening. Previous word from another Dartmouth alumnus, Jack Jenness '44, with whom Lloyd had been associated at Con Ed, had conveyed the distressing news that Lloyd had had to retire because of serious disability resulting from a blood clot in the brain. Lloyd himself, however, reported the happy news that subsequent hospitalization had produced much imporvement and an encouraging prognosis. The Williamses live in Jackson Heights, L.I., and Lloyd advises that he has a son and one grandchild, with another fairly imminent, living in Auburn, Maine, only some 60 miles from here.

Your secretary was interested — and I think many of you must have been too — in the story on the Alumni Council on page 14 of the November ALUMNI MAGAZINE It seemed to me that the College's administrative chain of command, and the Alumni Council's position and responsibility in that chain, are very well defined in that article. The Council is our council and our link with overall College policy and decision-making. Well-intentioned citizen action groups urge us to know the names of and communicate with our state and federal legislators. We could do worse than to do likewise with our Council representatives, if and when we have worthwhile thoughts to convey.

The '38 notes in that same November issue contain a typographical error that is strictly mea culpa, and I apologize to Bob Manegold. My typewriter keys were very dirty, and the last syllable of Oconomowoc looked, I guess, a lot like woe, and that's the way it appeared. Woe is me, for no one likes to have his hometown's name misspelled, be it Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, or Damariscotta, Maine.

Secretary, Box 187 Damariscotta, Maine 04543

Treasurer, Old Litchfield Road Washington, Conn. 06793