William H. Morton '32: Football Gold Medal Honoree

Dartmouth's legendary triple threat quarterback William H. "Air Mail Bill" Morton is still winning football honors long after he threw his last college pass in 1931. He is the recipient of the 1986 National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame's Gold Medal, the highest individual honor the foundation bestows. He joins the ranks of the select few, including six American presidents (Hoover, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan), whose talents on and off the football field have been formally recognized by the foundation.

In announcing the award, foundation chairman Vincent dePaul Draddy said, "Bill Morton stands for everything that is good in football. He excelled as a player on both the high school and college levels, and won All-America acclaim at Dartmouth. He succeeded in business and became one of the nation's leading investment bankers. He is admired and respected by all who have known him, and he is most deserving of the Foundation's most coveted award."

An Ail-American selection in hockey as well as in football, Morton's talents were obvious to all. "Morton was one of the finest players I have ever seen," said the renowned Pop Warner. "This boy never knows when he is down, and his hard running, twisting and pivoting gave us many moments of anxiety."

Morton has left his mark on much more than Memorial Field. After spending 13 years with the Chase National Bank of New York and four years as founder and presi- dent of his own investment firm, W.H. Morton and Company, he joined the American Express Company, first as vice chairman and director and then as president of the company. He retired in 1974. Throughoat this period he served numerous business and civic organizations in various capacities, including as trustee for the Rye Country Day School, the Holderness School, the Greenwich Savings Bank, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Dartmouth, too, has received its share of Morton's time and talents. He is a past Trustee of the College, chaired the DCAC Football Advisory Committee, served on the Alumni Council, and served his class and local alumni clubs in many ways. He was given the Alumni Award in 1972. Morton's love of Dartmouth was underscored by a special gift he and his family made to the College in 1979: the Morton farm property in Etna, N.H., which has become a horse riding facility.

.Morton's achievements have been of particular interest to the National Football Federation and Hall of Fame because they are seen by the foundation as evidence that the "basic values taught in amateur sport" can be carried into professional life. "Air Mail Bill" would be the first to agree that football teaches some valuable things, as his Gold Medal acceptance speech made clear:

"Intercollegiate athletics in general and football in particular should be viewed in the same way as a basic academic depart- ment. It is a campus activity that should, and must, reinforce the educational pur- poses of the college or university. The learn- ing may take place in a classroom 100 yards long, 50 yards wide, and with no ceiling. Or it may be on a court or a rink. This kind of competitive activity teaches young men and women many significant values. There are, in truth, few academic experiences where a young person has such an oppor-tunity to learn than in the contest of wills, strategy and strength that takes place in athletic contests."

William H. Morton