The College's First Fan Picks a Winner
It's about two minutes into the first period of the Dartmouth-Harvard game. Men's basketball, January 7, 1989. The score: Dartmouth 8, Harvard 4. President Freedman, who is seated about a third of the way up the stands in Leede Arena, turns toward his wife.
"Sheba, this is good basketball, " he says. "We are so much faster than they are." Then he makes a professional judgment. "This is going to be a high-scoring game," he says, "and we are going to win it. Dartmouth might go to a hundred points."
It is no particular surprise to see the president in the stands. Basketball and football are his two sporting passions. The last two falls he has been at every home game, and has managed to be at several of the away games as well.
Today one of his companions is a new faculty wife, who knows almost nothing about basketball. (And who is just sliding into a new loyalty. She's a Radcliffe alumna.)
"Is it always this noisy?" she asks, as the eight Dartmouth cheerleaders do a sort of drumroll with their feet. "Noisier," says the president.
Then he explains that at the University of lowa, when he was president there, they built a new basketball arena. The architect, acting on a request from the coaching staff, deliberately made it acoustically loud. The president also tells her about his own seating strategy there. He and Mrs. Freedman had just so-so seats, about two-thirds of the way up the stands. Thus when powerful alumni com- plained, as they frequently did about their less-than-first-five-row seats, he could smile and offer to trade with them.
At the half, Dartmouth leads 51-33. It looks promising for the hundred points. Professor Jere Daniell '55, Dartmouth graduate, New Hampshire native, and distinguished historian, leans over. "We're putting on a good show for you," he says. The president nods in total agreement. Meanwhile, a tall alum is standing in the aisle. Obviously conscious that the president is a Harvard graduate, he focuses on the silken strip bearing a Dartmouth crest that is visible over Freedman's blue shirt and under his tweed jacket. "You're wearing the right tie," he says with approval.
Next comes a good-looking darkhaired woman in a stunning lavender sweater. I can't hear what she tells the president. But I listen with interest as he tells me a minute later that she is CarlaManley. She and her husband John Manley '40 are, as Freedman puts it, "friends of Dartmouth across the board." They have given the College five seminar rooms in Baker Library. Having taught classes in two of those rooms myself, I know just how good they are. They have also given the football team its weight room. Now the basketball team is giving them a wonderful game.
Finally, just before play resumes, Freedman catches the eye of a man with a short, elegant beard. "George!" he calls. "Were you planning to see me last week?" The man is George Wolford, chairman of the Psychology Department. Even at basketball games, a little business gets done.
The second period is enough closer than the first to keep things exciting. At one point Harvard closes the gap to nine points. But James Blackwell '91, the incredibly fast and graceful point guard, and Jim Barton '89, the record scorer (by hundreds of points) in Dartmouth basketball history, make sure that Harvard never really has a chance. Walter Palmer '90 and many others help in this, too.
Less than two minutes before the game ends, James Blackwell shoots two fouls, which are points 100 and 101. The crowd roars. Freedman beams. "He's only a sophomore, too," the president says happily. He does not bother to mention his prediction, but at least one of his companions recalls it, and is impressed.
The game—an unusually quick one—ends at quarter to four on a cloudy afternoon. Dartmouth 103, Harvard 90. The Freedmans do not linger when it's over. There's a good reason. The president has just put in roughly an 80-hour week, but this Saturday afternoon is sacred to basketball. At 4 p.m. he plans to watch another game. His old school, lowa, will be playing North Carolina, and the game will be on TV This will be the last year when there are still players on the lowa team who were there during the Freedman regime, and the president wants to watch them play once more.
He doesn't know it yet, but he is going to watch his second victory of the afternoon. Not a strong one, like Dartmouth's, but still a victory. lowa 98, North Carolina 87.
If I were a coach, I think I'd want Freedman watching my games. M
When Dartmouth plays basketball, the the president is always there.
English Professor Noel Perrin's latest book is A Reader's Delight. His own sporting passion is horses.
