1948

The July issue, of Forum, the monthly publication of the Independent Insurance Agents Association of New York, features our own Paul Branch. Paul and his son "Twig" Branch represent the third and fourth generation of their agency, Both, Branch and Hendrix Inc. of Olean, N.Y. Beginning in the seventies, Paul began to see the value of strength in numbers, and in 1977 finally founded an association of independent New York state agents called the Iroquois Insurance Group. The group this year welcomed its 50th member. As foreseen by Paul and Twig, the association has brought strength to the group in its negotiations with insurance companies, has enabled the members of the group to give better and lower-cost service to their customers, and yet has preserved the independent status of each member agent. Congratulations, Paul and Twig, on your imaginative and progressive approach to the production of better insurance service for your clients and better business for yourselves.

Congratulations, too, to our well-traveled Ambassador Ron Spiers, who this summer was appointed by President Reagan to the position of undersecretary for management in the U.S. State Department. Ron has had a fascinating career to date with Uncle Sam. One assumes that by now he and Patience and family have left Pakistan on their return to Washington, where life may be a little quiet after Karachi and Rawalpindi and the border with Afghanistan.

Another recognition of '48 service to this planet was Alumni Fund Chairman Bob Brace's recent award of the "Chairman's Citation for Outstanding Performance" to KenYoung for the great work he performed for the College and the class in the most recent Alumni Fund campaign. Ken worked constantly and selflessly for many months and enabled '48 to exceed our highest previous annual total by almost $50,000. Thanks from all of us, Ken, for a great job in a tough job.

In closing it is worth noting that the traditional gridiron struggle with Yale will once again be played this coming Saturday (as I write) in the Bowl in New Haven. Since I'm not overwhelmed with personal information on '48s for the column, something more on the Yale game may be acceptable in taking our memories back to our days on campus in Hanover, and even beyond.

Many of you read the ALUMNI MAGAZINE article of a few years ago in which the nowdeparted New Hampshire Supreme Court Judge Amos Blandin '18 described the hated Yale Jinx, which for so long prevented Dartmouth from overcoming Old Eli on the football field.

The series began 99 years ago in 1884, when the Blue from the city edged the Green from the hills, 113-0. The next game was nine years later in 1893 when we lost by a more respectable 28-0. In fact, in the initial seven games ending in 1900, not a single point was scored by Dartmouth, and Judge Blandin's jinx was riding high. It was not until a further 24 years had passed that the teams faced off again in 1924, and this time the Green scored its first points and earned a 14-14 tie in the second of coach Jess Hawley's six great years. In the nine subsequent games from 1924 through 1934 the Green still couldn't win, notwithstanding some tremendous battles and the hard-fought 0-0 and 33-33 successive ties of 1930 and 1931. (Dartmouth's undefeated national champions in 1925 a team which included greats such as Oberlander, Tully, and Parker didn't play Yale, a cruel scheduling miscalculation, again the fault of the jinx.)

As the judge pointed out, the jinx was finally buried in the Bowl in the 18th encounter between the two teams in 1935 when coach Earl Blaik's men conquered the Blue for the first time, 14-6. (Eddie Chamberlain '36, former director of admissions at the College and still active in the administration today as he was when '48 trod the campus, was in Blaik's starting backfield that day and played both ways most of the game. Many of you knew him.) Anyone at that game will tell you it was one of the great ones in the series and there have been an uncountable number of great struggles when both sides played way over their heads.

Since 1935 these two teams have played an unbelievable further 49 games in a series that has always been known for excitement and upsets of the type which make Ivy League football such a magnificent sport. (Witness the Green's excruciating 22-21 loss last year. Also the unexpected 32-0 victory back in 1953 when Tuss McLaughry's charges won only one other game during a season in which end Dave McLaughlin was all-Ivy everything.) This year's game will be in the 100 th year since the rivalry began, and one can be sure that it will be an epitome of this old, deeplyfelt competition. Let's hope another 100 won't see the end of the tradition which is today a part of the heritage of the sons of Eleazar and Old Eli.

Hope this bit of history may exercise the nostalgia of those of you in our day who made the trek down old and beautiful Route 5 along the gorgeous autumn-bordered Connecticut Valley to the Yale Bowl: To the pregame tailgate parties. To "the place where Louie dwelled." To the long drive back to Hanover in the lonely, wee hours when the only light and coffee between Northampton and White River were in the Brattleboro Diner. How many Dartmouth men knew that spot of old? Is it long since gone with the demise of Route 5 and its replacement by 1-91? Maybe not. And maybe the trip to Yale and back remains a tradition today as in our day. And maybe Route 5, now a back road, is still used by those who appreciate the Connecticut's still-magnificent beauty in the fall.

10214 del Monte Drive Houston, TX 77042