1937

Recently I attended the funeral of a friend, John 'Moose' Bliss, whom I first met on hands and knees in a blizzard. The date, November 20, 1935, marked the meeting of Princeton and Dartmouth, both undefeated, untied, in a showdown at Palmer Stadium.

Saturday, as we rolled out of our beds at nearby Peddie School, we were greeted by a light snow. By noon, as we checked in the Palmer Stadium field house, the Big Green was facing a blizzard. Left-end and left-tackle and every other left right, and in-between, realizing that our foul weather mud cleats were, apparently, missing, hollered for the precious shoes, what happened? Keep this quiet, but our equipment manager, also "dean's list," had forgotten to load them. Our coach, Earl Blaik was so ashamed that when Princeton's Fritz Crisler dropped by to extend sympathy, Blaik nearly pushed Fritz out the door. In the third quarter, with the score 20-7, our backs were deep in our own back yards again! JohnnyMerrill our left-end, came out of a pile-up, clasping a bleeding chin. "My teeth!" he yelled, and fell to hands and knees in search thereof. Friend or foe, seconds later, both sides were sifting mush in the target area. The large face came alongside mine. "Are they his, or store-bought?" It was Princeton linebacker, "Moose" Bliss. The officials cleared the field, leaving John's teeth to posterity. Late in the fourth quarter, score 28-7, Princeton again had us struggling in our own end zone. Suddenly, from the end zone, a red-faced figure burst from the crowd and broke into our backfield, bawled, "Kill them Princeton bastards!" then sprawled, facedown. Moments later, two campus cops carried him off, heels dragging.

November 1937, two years after the blizzard, en route to my train, I stopped at the men's bar at the Biltmore. As I waited for my martini, I sensed a strong stare. Straight across the bar, I knew that Larger-than life face!

Neither "Moose" nor I made our separate trains. Dave Camerer

1415 Parkside Drive N, Wyomissing PA 19610;

Officials cleared the field, leaving JohnMerrill's teeth toposterity.CARL ERDMAN '37