The Power of Coaching

Coach and Force

I was delighted to find that coaches were the focus of the September issue. Although Dartmouth is first and foremost a place that nurtures the intellect, there is much more to college than what happens in the classroom. Judging from the moving portraits of the coaches presented, it seems there are many graduates like me who recall not only memorable professors but inspirational coaches and exciting moments in athletic pursuits. I met most of my best friends at Dartmouth through crew. Time spent together in triumph and suffering during practice and competition bonds people together like nothing else.

I came to Hanover following a rather undistinguished stint as a field hockey player in high school. I was ready to try something new. The distinctive boat displayed on the Green early freshman year caught my eye, and I signed up for practice. I began to row while also competing with, and later becoming captain of, the equestrian team. Suddenly I was an athlete—for the first time in my life, people were calling me a jock. A whole new aspect of my personality emerged, one that continues to be vitally important to me. I found strength, stamina, and will I never knew I had, and developed self-confidence in my physical abilities. Perhaps most importantly, I met friends for life and have memories of fun and teamwork that I will always hold dear.

Dartmouth used to be a place for the scholar-athlete, but recently, piloted by President Freedman (a Harvard graduate), the College has drifted away from the athletic applicant. I hope that the latest issue of the Alumni Magazine will help to remind the administration how essential sporting pursuits are for many at Dartmouth, how important it is to encourage applicants who are interested in developing both mind and body. One never knows what they might discover.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

You did a disservice to the memory of one of the very finest of all coaches, Coach "Red" Hoehn, by not including him.

Those of us who played squash and tennis with, and for, him, learned from him daily and on long spring trips to the South, and marveled at his magic tricks remember him above all else for his understanding, compassion, warm smile, and athletic talent.

Of all the members of the Dartmouth Family, Coach Hoehn meant more to me than any other adult at that time and most significantly influenced my personal growth and development.

Santa Monica, California|

Notably missing in your galaxy of coaches is the late Elliot Noyes, who coached cross country and track at Dartmouth for many years. He personified all the personal qualities that Noel Perrin would like to see in a present-day coach.

Like most gifted coaches, Ellie Noyes was a sound educator. Under his tutelage each athlete found renewed opportunity to reach his own potential. As he motivated us for running, he also prepared us for life's serious purpose, building habits of hard work, perseverance, and self-reliance. He always stressed the importance of maintaining a proper balance between academics and sports.

I shall never forget Ellie's famous admonition that "the last hundred yards of a race are all uphill." It has served to motivate me throughout my career.

Marbleheaad, Massachusetts

Thanks, Coach. As sort of a "sports major," I thought of these men as my professors. They took an average high-school athlete and helped me win the Watson Cup four years later. More importandy, I learned about sportsmanship, team play, adversity and bouncing back, self confidence, and how to coach. Kudos to Tony, Jerry, and Ab. Let's not forget Whitey Burnham, one of the few who coached three varsity sports and won two tides in different sports the same year.

Santa Rosa, California|

Personally, I was quite pleased to see Eddie Jeremiah's picture on the front cover. Although I did not play any sport under his guidance, I still feel a very soft spot in my heart for his understanding.

It was in the spring of 1940, my freshman year, when the 1944 freshman baseball team went on the road to play at the University of Vermont. I had a couple of high-school classmates at UVM and asked Jerry if I could go along with the team. Jerry's answer was quite logical, in that if he took me he would not be able to take a ballplayer. However, if I were to be out on Route 4 and the caravan came by, I undoubtedly would be picked up. I was and they did, and it was a fan day.

Bob Marchant '57, one of our alumni club members, played hockey for Dartmouth under Jerry. His favorite anecdote is about hockey practice, early in the season. Bob was fresh from a good secondary school hockey team and was, as he put it, "just sort of lazing along without much zip." Jerry called him. over and said, "This isn't the $#%*& ice capades, you know." It took only a minisecond for Bob to get the message.

I'm sure there are many other hockey and baseball players who have similar great memories.

Old Saybrook, Connecticut

Frost Writers Diverge

I've just read the bit about the statue of Frost ("Robert Frost's Homecoming," September). Its writer urges readers to offer "suggestive lines from Frost's poetry" relevant to the locating of the statue. To set a level of quality the writer adds eight exemplary quotations. Two are misquoted.

The first suggestive lines that come to one's mind apply to the locating of that writer: "Her mother wiped the foam/From her chin, picked up her comb/And drew her backwards home" ("The Subverted Flower").

Frost never liked Dartmouth much, even before his spirit read that piece. Surely he would locate the statue with the last line of "New Hampshire": "At present I am living in Vermont."

Storrs, Connecticut

Frost also said (in "Dust in the Eyes'): "I'mnot the one for putting off the proof./ Let ithe overwhelming."

You're right, Mr. O'Hara.

One could do worse than place the Robert Frost statue at the entrance to the Bema. Dartmouth's nearby window on the Northcountry beckons from the edge of the campus as the wilderness beckoned Frost from his lover's quarrel with the world: "I'd like to get away from earth awhile/ And then come back to it and begin over" ("Birches").

North Wolcott, Vermont

A propos of both the symbol and the statue, I suggest the following: Place an extant Indian symbol before our staring contemplative poet and inscribe the following verses: "The question that he frames in all but words/ Is what to make of a diminished thing."

Another thought: Keep the statue in storage and engrave on the door: "They cannot scare me with their empty spaces."

Flushing, New Year

Go veggies!

In your list of candidates for College mascot ["On the Hill," September], you forgot one obvious winner in the "corporate sponsorship" category: the Jolly Green Giants. Of course, all freshman athletes would be called Sprouts.

New York,New York

Recendy I traveled to Wales, and it struck me that the Dragon, the Welsh emblem, could do very well for dear old Dartmouth. Pros: Two eyes, unisex symbol of wisdom and bravery (for inspiration). Flies, breathes fire, and enjoys stomping on adversaries (for intimidation). Dwells in an inaccessible mountainous area (for identification). Plus, Memorial Field becomes The Dragon's Lair!!

Cons: Other teams would become "Dragon Slayers." Slim connection to College (myth needed). Same number of letters as "Indian" (chants not needed, but could promote rivalry).

Place this suggestion on the top of your horde.

New York, New York

There is, I believe, but one choice that is (1) big, (2) green, (3) ferocious, (4) alliterative, and (5) not already appropriated by another school. Please record one vote for the Dartmouth Dragons.

Hanover,New Hamshire

The Alumni Council's Committee on Athletics indicated that we should "feel free to send our ideas" for a Dartmouth symbol. My suggestion is a heck of a lot more impressive than those already submitted, which are about as inspiring as last week's pancakes: The Dartmouth Indian symbol has been, and will continue to be, one for which we can be proud.

Other colleges and sports teams are still using an Indian symbol with much pride.

Wayland, Massachusetts

My vote is for THE HIGHLANDERS with a tartan kilt-wearing bagpiper as the symbol.

This name and symbol harkens to the hills of New Hampshire, the bagpiper who appears at graduation ceremonies, and the most northerly position of the College among Ivy League schools. It also gives rise to the cheer, "There can be only one," made popular in the film The Highlander.

While I like the Timberwolves (with their misunderstood image—comparable to that of Dartmouth students) and the Falcons, THE HIGHLANDERS gives a noble, human dimension which echoes the nobility of the Dartmouth Indian, yet, hopefully, without offense to anyone—except, perhaps, the lowlanders.

New York,New York

I have to wonder whether the current quest for a new Dartmouth symbol/mascot will be any more successful than previous ones. The initial burst of enthusiasm tends to dissipate among the various candidates proposed, and I expect there are still alumni "Indian" diehards who can be counted on to resist any new proposal. Someday a majority of the College may rally around a single choice; when that happens official recognition will be a relatively trivial afterthought.

I do have my own addition to the current clamor, however, coming from a part of Dartmouth tradition regrettably easy to overlook. If you search out the complete, original version of Richard Hovey's immortal "Men of Dartmouth" you will find the following lines in the second verse: "Till like Vikings they went forth/ From the lone and silent North."

Dartmouth Vikings? The original Vikings were northerners with a reputation for wildness, explorers and conquerors who helped shape the modern world. Viking was a profession rather than an ethnicity, so the Indian problem does not arise. As a potential symbol it passes the Tom Lords '74 test, and to top it all off it even scans to the old cheers (in some cases better than "Indians" did!). I see two potential drawbacks: A certain group in Minnesota, and the fact that Vikings were noted particularly as seafarers (in contrast to Dartmouth's inland location.) With regard to the former, I note that the "Indians" name was shared for many years with a professional team without apparent concern.

in any event, I would like to encourage a revival of the original second verse of "Men of Dartmouth." My recollection is that there was a practice of singing it only during wartime, but I never heard any compelling reason why that should be the case, particularly since the probable nature of modern war involving the United States as a combatant leaves little if any time for dusting off songs. The imagery of the verse applies far more generally than to martial activity, and gives a certain completion to the song as a whole in suggesting how Dartmouth is shaped by its students as well as shaping them. The words are easily available to anyone who looks; all that is needed is to learn and sing them.

WPEHRSJ@AOL.COM

Eisenhower Was '53

I'm sure that I will not be the first to call your attention to the fact that Dwight Eisenhower was at the Commencement for the Great Class of 1953, and not in 1956 as your article on this year's Commencement states. It was at that Commencement, June 14, 1953, that President Eisenhower gave his famous "Don't join the book burners" speech, in which he encouraged those of us in attendance, and all Americans, to have the courage to have open minds. He said that we can live happily if we have the courage to look about with honest eyes—the courage to uproot those things which we know are wrong. Basically, the courage to look at the truth and to fight evil with knowledge.

He finished by saying, "Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book as long as any document does not offend your own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship."

The President was referring to reports that certain individuals had gone into the libraries of United States overseas missions and removed and burned books which allegedly supported some of the concepts of communism. There are many who felt that President Eisenhower's informal remarks at our Commencement were the beginning of the end for Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Thirty-one years later, in June 1984, I did a reprise of President Eisenhower's talk when I retired from the army. I felt that there were certain things occurring in the military which people were purposefully not seeing, and that it was once again time to recall Dwight Eisenhower's remarks. Unfortunately, the various "problems" the military has had in recent years—Ollie North, the Tailhook episode, the various sexual, honor-code, and drug incidents at the military academies, the continuing sexual and racial problems which seem to occur with some frequency in all the military services—indicate that we Americans, while not necessarily burning books, may still not have the courage to look at the truth and fight evil with knowledge.

DSIEGAL@AOL.COM

Deep Waiter

It's a good thing that you folks at the DAM can fall back on Ledyard Canoe Club types to help fill up your pages. Note the September issue: Danube trip veteran Dick Durrance's tribute to longtime Ledyard supporter A1 Merrill, and Jim Hardigg's essay on Ledyard's old canoe instructor Ross McKenney. Longtime Ledyard overseer Vail Haak (two references, including a picture accompanying his winning the prestigious Dartmouth Alumni Award). A picture of Lara Burgel at graduation, and a write-up on club president lan Stewart representing the United States at the World Whitewater Championships in Austria. Other Ledyardite names as well—Trip to the Sea veterans Fritz Hier and Dick Birnie. Sara Billmeier, Angus King, Jerry Low, Ev Koop, Beanie Nutt, and probably others too.

Former club president Dana Chladek was mentioned twice, including a large picture of her winning a silver medal in the "women's kayak sprint." No, it was in whitewater kayak slalom. True, one must sprint through a slalom course in the rapids, but sprint racing takes place on flat water. By having won medals in two successive Olympic games Dana has earned her recognition as Dartmouth's most accomplished woman athlete in regular Olympic competition. A special "Rouse" for her!

Hanover, New Hampshire

Jay Evans was the U.S. Olympic Whitewaterslalom coach at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Artful Teaching

Thank you for the superb issue on art [May]. Because of Jerry Lathrop I took my major in art history, and because of him my own life has been greatly enriched with an appreciation of art. I took every course Jerry gave and don't know what I would have done without his influence on my Dartmouth years. He made them memorable.

Concord, New Hampshire

I have often been asked by students and others what was the most valuable course I ever took in college. They are usually astonished when, as an Asian specialist interested in issues of political economy, I reply that it was a course at Dartmouth in modern art (taught by Professor Lathrop), because every day as I went about the normal duties associated with living what I learned in that course was before my eyes, and let me see things more perceptibly.

Seoul, Korea

I read with pleasure the article "The Art of Collecting" [May]. I was reminded of my senior spring at Dartmouth, when I had the good fortune to be introduced to the joys, of collage in Varujan Boghosian's Studio Art 10 class. One of my favorite moments in my Dartmouth career was when Professor Boghosian allowed us the privilege of visiting his studio, which contained a thousand works-in-progress and was magical and inspirational.

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Sing It Iight

In the June issue you printed a wonderful and long-overdue article on the Dartmouth Gospel Choir.

As a former director of the choir (1980-1984), I would like to note a couple of corrections. First, from its inception, the choir has always been headed by student leadership, with Bishop J.C. White providing guidance, inspiration, and variety.

Second, in 1984, my senior year, the choir celebrated its tenth anniversary-making the choir a grand 22 years old now, instead of the 15 years stated in the article.

Brooklyn, New York

Kafka Knew Insurance

Kathleen Burge ("Underground Reading," June) attributes to Professor Roxana Verona a range of statements about Franz Kafka which are shockingly inaccurate:

He is said to have been "a Prague insurance clerk." He was, in fact, a professional-level employee of a state insurance institute who wrote sizable parts of the institute's annual reports and was put in charge of the institute's first venture into accident prevention.

His "writing was not published until after his death." Although a number of his works, including The Trial and TheCastle, were published after his death in 1924, Kafka's first story appeared in a literary magazine in 1908 and his first book was published in 1913.

Burge quotes Verona as saying of the man-turned-insect in Kafka's "Metamorphosis" (which was published in 1915) that "it's someone who wants to distance himself from everyday life. This is a way of protest." This is such nonsense that one wonders if the professor has read the story. It reflects not a desire to protest but, as Ernest Pawel wrote, "Kafka's claustrophobic horror of life with father."

Burge reports, apparently on the basis of what Verona told her, that "...as an intellectual and writer [Kafka] felt alienated from other Jews in Czechoslovakia." Again, this is nonsense. Kafka was alienated from, or rather dominated by, his father, but was not alienated from Prague's Jewish community and was close to other Prague Jewish intellectuals, e.g., his biographer Max Brod and the writer Franz Werfel. Brod, incidentally, notes that Kafka turned to Judaism as a way to escape his father's domination.

Arington, Virginia

Professor Verona Rreplies: I gladly accept the explanatory remarks about Kafka's public fame and administrative rank in the insurance business. The essay in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, which was the result of an interview followed by few e-mail messages, has lost, in the process, some of its accents. For example, I did not mean that Kafka was "unpublished" during his lifetime, although his unfinished novels (TheTrial, The Castle, Amerika) were published posthumously, but rather that he was not discovered and appreciated as a writer until after his death. As Ernst Pawel, one of Mr. Bridges's main sources of information, says: "Franz Kafka died in 1924, a writer all but unknown in his native Prague, and his posthumous rise to fame is a fittingly ironic postscript to a life marked by paradox."

It is also true, as Mr. Bridges indicates, that Kafka worked in a responsible position for an accident insurance company, but we know that he did not care for rank or title, and took little pleasure in his profession, which he considered an obstacle to his writing.

As to Kafka's alienation: it is a testimony to Kafka's genius that his work lends itself to multiple approaches. Only one of these, Mr. Bridge's choice, is psychoanalytical, emphasizing the Oedipal conflict. One can interpret the tensions and dislocations in Kafka's work from other perspectives: existentialist, religious, or socio-political. Kafka's spiritual and social "homelessness" has, I believe, not a single locus, but is a feature of his complex character, rooted both in individual circumstances and his time and place.

Skeptics

About President Freedman's column in the September issue: Thank heavens that the views of Emerson and Thoreau are still with us.

Rockport, Massachusetts

Readers loved the issue, except for its missing coaches.